Soft power more effective than force

My love-hate relationship with the United States continues as I was struck last week by two different stories both testifying to the great power of this country.

On Tuesday, PBS' Frontline aired the documentary Kill/Capture. It details the campaign by elite US soldiers to take thousands of insurgents off the battlegrounds in Afghanistan.

The US military in Afghanistan, led by General David Petraeus, who is to become the new CIA chief, claims the escalated operation has led to the killing or detention of some 12,000 Taliban insurgents over the past year, but scenes from the documentary are, to say the least, disturbing.