Unleashing Hell Ironically

The other day, while thinking about the National Guard's Katrina deployment, I started fantasizing about what other socially worthwhile military applications might possibly be achieved with my tax dollar.  And then I woke up.

One thing I learned from Abu Ghraib is that, if we didn't occasionally receive direct visual evidence of the mindset inside America's war machine, that consciousness would just be too inconceivable to be believed.

Yeah, Boeing and Bell (which jointly make that crash-happy death machine known as the Osprey) apologized for this ad they ran a month ago in the Armed Forces Journal showing the aircraft "unleashing hell" on a mosque.  The only thing is, they ran the same damn thing again this week in a Beltway publication called The National Journal.

Of course, of course, all the appropriate explanations were issued in all the contrite press releases kicking out of all the appropriate fax machines.  (Particularly, what assured me was the comment by the Bell Vice President who was quick to explain: "We didn't actually hover an Osprey over a mosque." )

But, far worse than the ad itself -- if you look into the story -- is the defense industry mentality that sees the problem simply and solely as a bad PR move.

(referral and thanks: gleex)

(image via The Council on American-Islamic Relations - link)