I believe it lead to the infamous `Black Hole of Calcutta' debacle, didn't it, with the irony--I think the `bullets lubricated w/pork-fat' was just a unfounded rumor.
My father told a story of having to pay the French company Michelin for rubber trees we damaged going after VC.
I'd say that was ridiculous, but here, as silly as `Zionist bullets' seems to us, discretion may be the better part of valor.
It was a rumor put about, by those opposed to British rule in India. And it did the trick
As much as local sensibilities might seem stupid to us, it sometimes pays to be aware of them, as many a army has found to its cost.
I feel that maybe our politicians need to emphasis more what our mission is in Iraq, because from the replies I get on subjects such as this , it seems that even those who most ardently support the war have no idea about the Mission apart from its part of the war on Terror.
If the right don't understand the left will definitely not.