winning hearts and minds...

...through automated cold calling.

just when current strategy in iraq seemed the most ridiculous collection of tactics for winning the aforementioned, along comes another string to the coallition of the shilling's already overstrung bow of incompetent ideas.

Not long after Republicans harrassed tens of thousands of Americans with automated phone messages in November's election, news comes that the robo call, that staple of American democracy, is being deployed in Iraq. And it's literally terrorizing city residents.Nir Rosen of the new blog Iraqslogger reports, calling it a "mysterious psychological operations campaign," that Baghdad residents have reported "receiving phone calls that the caller ID shows to be originating from outside Iraq." What follows is a "recorded message from an anonymous man speaking formal Arabic" who goes on to condemn the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia headed by the powerful cleric Muqtada al Sadr that's been a continual thorn in the U.S.'s side.

apprently some fear that recieving the calls will mark them out as anti-mahdi, having little or no experience of automated services like this and fearing their calls are being monitored.
the calls come from an untraceable number, and are, to my mind, as likely to spread distrust of al Sadr as cold calling is to sell me a timsehare.

either these are some really stupid people, or they arent trying to discredit al Sadr at all. it seems horrible to wish for it, but i hope to heck they are just idiots.
the alternative is too hideous to contemplate.