[Rockingham]

My initial reaction to the new training was also hostile and dismissive, but, on reflection, I believe that it makes sense if done well.

There is a "heart and minds" aspect to the terror war that leads to some incongruous things: special forces in Afghanistan going to great effort providing for education and medical and veterinary care in remote villages; our helicopter pilots in Iraq dropping soccer balls, candies, and clothes on cheering and expectant flocks of kids; and Marines shooting at insurgents in a town in the "Sunni triangle," but then quickly paying cash compensation for property damage and repairing mosques to better condition than they were originally.

Doing those sorts of things makes sense to the military as ways to buy good will and make friends. Fostering a polite and respectful manner by borders and customs generally makes PR sense and is meant to help prompt cooperation and valuable information from travelers. We expect traffic cops to act that way for similar reasons, so why not our borders and customs cops?

[Chemist_Geek]

Doing those sorts of things makes sense to the military as ways to buy good will and make friends. Fostering a polite and respectful manner by borders and customs generally makes PR sense and is meant to help prompt cooperation and valuable information from travelers. We expect traffic cops to act that way for similar reasons, so why not our borders and customs cops?

Hear, hear. Some of our enemies we will never turn, but their neighbors and other people, might be convinced to drop a dime on the real baddies if America is seen as polite and kind.