w1ld wrote:
] ] "Late last week, two soldiers of the U.S. Army's 9th
] ] Psychological Operations Battalion began doing just that
] ] in Salang, a tiny northern village surrounded by towering
] ] mountain crags.
] ]
] ] The Americans lifted a 21-inch TV from the back of a
] ] green camouflage Army Humvee and showed a five-minute
] ] propaganda video in the Dari language to 100 villagers.
] ] Nearby sat two destroyed Soviet-era tanks - rusted relics
] ] from the decades of war that have wasted the country."

Hrm...

The survey - produced by the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based battalion specializing in psychological operations, or "PsyOps," was a bit of a departure for a unit better known for dropping leaflets on enemies or blasting their hideouts with blaring heavy-metal music.

Salang, though, was an easy place to start asking such questions. The area is a major stronghold of the Afghan Northern Alliance, a U.S.-backed group whose forces took over Kabul last year after the withering U.S. and British air campaign collapsed the Taliban.

Most people in Salang aren't opposed to the American presence, and as a result, most of the answers were predictable.

Good ol' PsyOps.