P.R.

Well, well, well, looks like the Taliban has fallen into our complex little trap. Oh sure, they might have been glad to lure us into a guerrilla insurgency battle in the mountainous Graveyard of Empires; a battlefield and tactic they are much more familiar and better at than we are. But now they've made the mistake of letting themselves be led into a battlefield of our own choosing; a battlefield where our prowess is unparalleled; the public relations battlefield.

Oh foolish Taliban. Now you're letting us fight a battle we can win. We can probably win. Probably definitely maybe win. Possibly. We at least have better odds than with the counterinsurgency thing.

The Taliban have embarked on a sophisticated information war, using modern media tools as well as some old-fashioned ones, to soften their image and win favor with local Afghans as they try to counter the Americans’ new campaign to win Afghan hearts and minds.

The Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, issued a lengthy directive late last spring outlining a new code of conduct for the Taliban. The dictates include bans on suicide bombings against civilians, burning down schools, or cutting off ears, lips and tongues.

Cutting off of limbs, hands, feet and heads? Still on! ...until... they're cut off. See.. when they cut them off... no longer... on... *sighs* This is the problem with mutilation humor.

The Taliban is eager to win over hearts and minds seeing as they're responsible for 3/4th's of civilian deaths. You hear that, Robert Greenwald? We're only responsible for 1/4th! That practically makes this whole thing justified!

So sorry for you, Taliban. After almost a decade of fighting we finally lured you into a fight we could win. Sure, it was an overly complex, ill-defined, and labyrinthine plot that involved an actual war, but we finally did it. We were personally hoping we'd be able to lure you into a pop singing competition or perhaps a baseball game, but we'll take P.R. Hell, we can kiss babies, stage photo-ops, press the flesh, and schmooze better than any nation on earth. Our army of public relations reps and spokesmen will blot out the sun. I can't believe you fell for it.