Hearts and Minds

Phil Armstrong returned from the bar with fresh drinks, putting the Major's gin & tonic down hard enough to rattle the ice cubes in it.

"Ah, thank you, brother Armstrong," said the Major, pretending not to have noticed. "Now, you were asking how effective the equipment is; well, in a word, very. All the subjects it was used on were extremely responsive.

"As I'm sure you're aware, the underlying issue with the people we're fighting in Afghanistan is what you might call a difference of opinion. A fairly fundamental difference of opinion. In short, those chaps over there believe that we're Satan's little brother."

He looked at his two companions, who nodded.

"Well, using the Keene device - sorry, I should say that's what it was known as in the army - we were able to effectively re-programme the way these fellows thought about us. Make them more amenable, if you see what I mean.

"Now I don't pretend to know how the thing works; some boffin once tried to explain, and frankly it bored the arse off me. But my unit were responsible for trying it out in the field, and you didn't need to understand it to know that it worked."

He took a sip of his drink, knowing he had their full attention.

"So, as I was saying, we were tasked with rounding up insurgents and sympathisers, and basically seeing if we could change the way they thought. And I never once saw it fail. The remarkable thing was, the individuals who underwent treatment were never aware of having thought differently in the first place.

"Must've led to some pretty strange encounters with friends and family once they were released, eh? Chap goes back to his village, looks and seems the same in every way, except now he won't hear a word said against the British or Americans."



Story starts here.