US Soldier captured in Afghanistan

[Brandon Friedman]

Some of you might have seen this story from CBS yesterday about how the U.S. is delivering threatening leaflets in Afghanistan to coerce the release of the captured American soldier:

At least two Afghan villages have been blanketed with leaflets warning that if an American soldier kidnapped by the Taliban two weeks ago isn't freed, "you will be targeted."

Villagers near the border of two volatile provinces, Ghazni and Paktika, tell CBS News' Sami Yousafzai that aircraft dropped the leaflets during the past several days.

Military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias confirmed that the leaflets were produced at Bagram Air Base, the primary U.S. installation in Afghanistan, and distributed in the region. She told CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark, however, that they were distributed by hand, not aircraft.

The papers show on one side an image of a soldier with his head bowed so that his face is not visible (above). A message in the local Pashtun language over the image says, "If you do not free the American soldier, then..."

On the other side, an image shows Western troops breaking into a house. The rest of the message is printed across the photo: "...you will be targeted".

The leaflets literally show a soldier kicking in a door, and the significance isn't lost on CBS:

While American military and intelligence services have dropped leaflets on Afghanistan for years, most of them have clearly targeted militants -- frequently carrying photos or caricatures of Taliban leaders.

The new leaflet represents a broader, direct warning to local people in the region where the U.S. soldier was seized.

I think this is a clumsy and ham-handed way to go about doing things that ultimately won't work (and will likely do more harm than good). Earlier today, I offered the reasons why I think that. Instead of taking up space re-printing the entire thing here, however, I'm interested to see what everyone else thinks of this technique.