Thursday, April 16, 2015

Winning Friends Through Chemistry


I ran across an interesting sidelight on our unfortunate experience in Afghanistan the other day. It seems that the CIA was having some difficulty in recruiting some of the wilier Afghan warlords, either as fighting allies or as sources of information. Paying them off with the traditional banded stacks of $100 bills didn't work, because it made it obvious that they were working with the Americans ... which didn't endear them to many of their countrymen. Giving them gifts of cars, household appliances, electronics, and other such items wasn't advisable for the same reason ... not to mention the difficulty of using that new Sears washer/dryer combination or 65-inch plasma TV in a remote mountain village, especially when the recipients likely can't read the instruction manuals.

What to do?

Well, according to this 2008 article from the Washington Post, the answer was ... Viagra.


Yes, Dear Readers, those grizzled 60+ year old warlords really enjoyed gifts of little blue pills that allowed them to satisfy their young wives and demonstrate their continued virility to the younger men. And as an added bonus, they turned into real tigers in a stand-up fight*.

Viagra: America's secret weapon in the war against whatever it is we're fighting. Helping warriors rise to the occasion since 2008.

Your tax dollars at work.

Have a good day. See you tomorrow for the latest batch of Great Moments in Editing.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo

* So to speak.

6 comments:

  1. I love how you played with the concept of the results of Viaara! Nothing limp about that!

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  2. The key is knowing what the customer wants.

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  3. Definitely better living through chemistry.

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  4. I think that stuff costs butt loads of money per pill. That picture might as well be a stack of $100.

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  5. Such a funny story, Bilbo. More than one way to "skin a cat" as my grandmother used to say.

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  6. allenwoodhaven6:17 PM

    I'd heard about this. The CIA, or whoever, got some good intelligence to know what was desirable. However, it makes me wonder how grateful all those wives were. They may have preferred to be left alone!

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