US soldiers in Afghanistan have taken the tactics of psychological warfare to a grotesque extreme. After soldiers of a US 173rd Airborne company burn the bodies of two Taliban killed near the Pakistan border in a desecration of Muslim burial rituals, members of the army's psychological warfare unit then broadcast an inflammatory message designed to taunt and bait the enemy. A translation offered on camera by Sergeant Jim Baker of "PsyOps" reads: "Attention Taliban. You are all cowardly dogs. You allowed your fighters to be burned. This just proves you are the ladyboys we always believed you to be." In recent months, the Taliban have launched more attacks that at any time since the invasion. Faced with such a resurgence, the Americans are resorting to psychological warfare to demoralise the enemy. Armored vehicles loaded with loudspeakers blast loud, offensive music into the valleys. But such tactics may also heighten the perception of local people that the Americans are as barbarous as the Taliban.