WINNING THE PEACE WITH KINDNESS

Rahul Mahajan writes in a recent post at his site, Empire Notes, about how Dutch soldiers helping with the occupation of Iraq have taken the time to not only learn the local language, but are friendly to the locals, don't point their guns anywhere but at the ground when on patrol and don't even go out with helmets on. You might think that the results would be a lot of dead Dutch soldiers.

Not the case.

The results are a lot of Iraqis thinking that Dutch soldiers are cool.

Seriously, here's a clip from an article Mahajan quotes from in his post:

Instead of armored vehicles, the Dutch drive vehicles that leave them exposed to the people around them. To encourage interaction with local residents, they go bare-headed and are forbidden to wear mirror sunglasses. Making soldiers accessible and vulnerable to their surroundings increases their security, they contend. Making them inaccessible decreases it.

Here's a little more:

According to the Dutch colonel, even in peaceful Samawah, dislike for the Americans is growing. His attempt at understanding the difference in attitudes:

"Of course, an American is a different type of human than a Dutchman," the colonel said. "We have our own culture. But I think the Americans could have a way of operating with more respect and more understanding toward the population."

Read more about this amazing tactic that has literally won a handful of Iraqi hearts over at Empire Notes.