WINNING THE HEARTS AND MINDS

"It is the policy of the United States, as well as the Defence Department, to treat all remains consistent with the Geneva Convention and with the utmost respect". Dateline said the two Taliban fighters burnt on hills above the village of Gondaz north of Kandahar were killed by the US soldiers the night before. The footage showed flames licking two charred corpses, their legs and arms outstretched, and a group of five US soldiers standing watching from a rocky ledge. Footage showed two US soldiers reading two messages from a notebook that they said had earlier been broadcast. "Attention Taliban you are cowardly dogs," read the first soldier, identified as psychological operations specialist Sergeant Jim Baker. "You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be." The other unidentified soldier read a second message, part of which said: "You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Talibs but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are." THRUTHOUT