Taliban, US Special Forces and Loud Music: The Noise Files 2

The story seems tailor-made for opponents to noise: The Telegraph earlier this month wrote that US forces are using extremely loud Heavy Metal-style music to chase away the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. An Agence France Presse writer Karim Talbi launched the story April 5, which has been picked up by several media, mainstream as well as fringe.

"The playlist has been hand-selected to annoy the Taliban, according to one US special forces officer," Talbi writes.

"Taliban hate that music," said the sergeant involved in covert psychological operations, or "psy ops", in the area in Helmand province.

"Some locals complain but it's a way to push them to choose. It's motivating Marines as well," he added after one deafening round of several hours including tracks from The Offspring, Metallica and Thin Lizzy."

Talbi continues: "Lieutenant Colonel Brian Christmas -- the commander of US Marines in northern Marjah -- said he was unaware of the musical psy ops.

"It's inappropriate," he told AFP, mindful that a major part of the counter-insurgency plan is focused on winning over Afghans from the insurgents."

The name of the colonel is enough to make anyone suspicious, but it seems he really exists: here's the link to a CBC news story filed by an embedded journalist that refers to him. Yet I've been unable to track down verification or denial of the Heavy Metal story, even though Talbi's reporting appears regularly in newspapers around the world.

If it's true, it's just more fuel in the fight against amplified music, it seems to me. If the US Special Forces think loudly amplified Heavy Metal enough to make the Taliban take flight, two things follow. One, that some sectors of the US military don't understand this "battling for hearts and minds" business, and two, that loud music is pretty awful for a lot of people, and even those who like it recognize that.