Speaking of things that won't help

This comes from the Army News Service for April 21, via Antiwar.com.

Apparently, while on patrol in the Washash district of Baghdad, some US troops found something that concerned them: posters of Moqtada al-Sadr.

After the initial dismounted patrol discovered the propaganda, [platoon leader Brian] Schonfeld received orders to re-enter Washash and remove the posters. These posters are considered illegal because of al-Sadr's extremist anti-coalition stance.

Things went well at first as the troops tore down posters but things got sticky when they got to a shop selling framed prints of Sadr. The shop owner initially refused to remove them even as Schonfeld "tried to explain ... that anti-coalition propaganda is illegal."

Ultimately, with the help of a few English-speaking locals, they persuaded the shopkeeper to remove the pictures from display - but after the troops tore down one more poster, a crowd formed and started throwing rocks. The troops pulled back "to avoid an escalation of force."

"I think it was important [to remove the posters] because al-Sadr currently stands for all things that are anti-coalition," [Capt. Ronald Hayward, who gave the order to remove the posters] said. "It's important to show [the people of Washash] that we can deal with the propaganda in a non-threatening way, rather than coming in hard and forcefully."

Okay, leaving aside the fact that this confirms that "anti-coalition propaganda is illegal," and thereby affirms that, as is becoming true here, dissent can only be voiced if and when it doesn't change anything - just how in hell is a group of armed US soldiers tromping through your neighborhood tearing down posters, telling you your pictures are illegal, supposed to be seen as "non-threatening?"