Not Quite The Best Chance For Peace

Thai Air Force Drops Paper Cranes In Hope Of Peace

News resources everywhere had this story, on how the Prime Minister of Thailand had asked for everyone in the country to make paper cranes. The recent bad blood from the pre-dominantly Muslim southern districts had boiled over resulting in terrorist acts and deaths of civilians.

When I first heard of the Prime Minister Thaksin's call for paper cranes, I was cynical. What does he expect it to do, conjure peace by dropping them from military planes?

Then again, I would have liked to see the sight of millions of white paper cranes drifting down from the heavens. It would have been a cinematic sight, a dramatic scene fit for any epic movie.

Turns out my cynical side was right. Even though news reports say that the Thai people are "taken with the idea" and went along with it, it didn't really work. In fact, there were bomb threats along the areas of the paper crane drops, seeking to target the curious bystanders waiting for them.

As if that wasn't sad enough, later reports said that many villagers (the targets of the paper cranes) felt disappointed, because most of the cranes were simply blown away from the designated areas due to wind conditions.

Doesn't really bode well for peace in the region if the government and the military can't get their act together. If they can't even get their paper crane "bombing" right, what are the chances of achieving something as great as peace?

Ironically, the news photos of the planes and dropping cranes reminded me of the game, Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour. The game had three playable sides: USA, China and the GLA, which is an insidious terrorist organization with all the trademarks of generic Muslim extremists. Why no Muslim rights group is threatening to sue Electronic Arts for this is beyond me, but I digress.

Now, one of the special powers for the USA factions is known as a "Leaflet Drop". It is based on the propaganda warfare the Americans have waged ever since World War II, right up to current times. In the game, the Leaflet Drop would have a bomber flying over the map and dropping leaflets on enemy units, stopping them in their tracks for some time. The idea is that the enemy's morale would be sapped by the propaganda leaflets and lose their will to fight.

USA Leaflet Drop from C&C Generals: Zero Hour

However, most RTS players would keep their units moving rather than sitting in one spot, thus making it difficult to time the leaflet bomber's arrival. In addition, the Leaflet Drop have a small radius of usage. Those reasons and the fact that players have far more better (and destructive) special powers to choose from combine to make the Leaflet Drop one of the most useless inclusions in the Zero Hour expansion. The failure of the Thai paper cranes seem to reflect that. For once, at least from my point of view, life immitated game.

Quote of the Moment:

"Military Intelligence is a contradiction." - Murphy's Law on Combat

A more apt quote I can't think of at the moment.