Here the less said, the better. US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was a little clumsy in her managing of this particular PR tactic. I'm sure Ms. Albright is a fine person, but intellectually she makes Jean Chretien look like a rocket scientist. Normally, we'd call for plenty of puff pieces, full of laconic, grim-faced guerrillas, making up in guts what they lack in material resources, defending their homeland against a ruthless foe. It's been a standard journalistic set-piece since Hemingway worked at the Toronto Star, and it's a good one.
Trouble is, it invites follow-ups.
That goes double for anything about history, economics and so forth. That stuff is indispensable for understanding the origins and development of the current situation, which is the last thing we want. But even here, the watchword is discretion. Nor should any mention be made of the bomblets' tendency to hang around a while before going off, basically becoming saturation landmines. For God's sake, never even mention the Mennonite Central Committee.