Isn't that just about standard practise in any conflict in he Arab world in which the outside world takes an interest? The life of an Arab is worth more to the West than to Arab leaders. So when there are foreign eyes looking, theres an opportunity to be exploited. Put a tank next to a kindergarten and the Western commander has got a moral problem, not the Arab tank leader, to whom the lives of Arabian children are without worth.
The second mechanism is the insatiable Arab appetite for outrage and hysteria. Followers need to be regularly whipped into a frenzy with martyrs and blood and accompanying colourful language.
And it leaves room for the Western politician who let's his pr be conducted by a professional pr agency. The first thing these teach is that the truth is but a commodity. Never admit to the possibility that you may have made a mistake. Bombs are nowadays smart bombs, they understand the difference between good guys and bad guys and will explode only in the direction of the latter. Civilian casualties must mean the oppostion was so evil as to hide his equipment amongst civilians instead of neatly displaying them in open desert, far removed from any actual war zone.
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