"Winning hearts and minds" is not as difficult for a military as the experience in Iraq would suggest. That is providing the actions are based on true altruism rather than some Pentagon directed campaign.
Just such a case is the US military's action in the very under-reported floods crisis in Ethiopia. Unusually heavy rains have meant flash floods which are far more serious than is usual in the prone areas.
More on their support, the floods and why the deduction of a cheer below the fold.
In the past two weeks while the world's attention was concentrated a few hundred miles north, Ethiopia has been experiencing a possible natural disaster. In a land we usually associate with famine caused by drought, it is perhaps surprising to learn that many lives are in danger because of flooding. This year the livelihood and lives of those already suffering the effects of prolonged droughts have been
finished off when the rains came.
Tari Bonja, in the village of Bokala, saw his entire 27 herd of cattle die within hours, and with it his livelihood. The cattle could not handle the cold that comes with the rain.
Weak from hunger, their stomachs were also unable to digest the new grass which sprouted shortly after the rains fell.
The BBC correespondent in a village close to the Kenya and Somalia borders goes on to explain the problems the herdsmen face in normal times.
Problems get worse when the rain comes and the drought is far from over. A few hours of sun and raging torrents of water are transformed into a dry, sandy landscape again.
Some three months of rain are needed before the water stops sinking through the sand, I am told. This is why the area cannot support much agriculture and is populated mainly by cattle herders.
And when drought hits and cattle start dying, the chances of raids talking place increase as stealing another group's herd is a tempting option. Traditionally the casualties were pretty limited, but now gun traders sell AK-47s across the porous borders and peace does not help them make a living.
But those heavy rains are take their toll.
Over the past two years flooding has afflicted several areas of eastern and southern Ethiopia, killing hundreds and displacing hundreds of thousands.
Thousands of Dire Dawa's estimated 250,000 residents have been displaced by the flooding.
Flooding often hits low-lying parts of Ethiopia between June and September, when heavy showers fall on regions that are dry for most of the year.
Last year at least 200 people were killed - some by crocodiles in the floodwaters - when heavy rains pounded the same region.
This year the death toll is even worse with an estimated 900 killed in two weeks by floods.
In the south-west, herders marooned by the floods refused to be rescued by helicopter, Ethiopian forces say. The herders said they did not want to abandon their cattle. One herder in the town of Omerate was quoted as saying "survival without cattle would be meaningless".
Thousands of flood victims remain stranded in drastic circumstances in the south-west Ethiopia, where the River Omo burst its banks.
About 900 have died in the floods in several regions of Ethiopia in the past two weeks.
Flooding often hits low-lying parts of Ethiopia between June and September, when heavy showers fall on dry regions. But correspondents say the situation is much worse this year.
In the far north, thousands of people in Tigray province are battling floods along the Tekezie river. The eastern city of Dire Dawa has been declared a disaster zone.
35 "Seabees" have arrived in Dira Dawa from from a US base in neighbouring Dijoubti bringing 52 big tents to house the homeless and santitation equipment. This sort of practical aid is invaluable and in many ways if preferable to food aid. That can lead to an "aid dependency culture" and the distortion that the food makes on the local market can put farmers out of business. Nevertheless, in the dire circumstances this is inevitable and the UN is already feeding some 155,000 people in the Borena region but local officials say 368,000 people need food aid - one third of the population.
Part of the reason for the severity of the need is the loss of the traditional coping mechanisms:
Sora Adi works for a local pastoral group trying to pass on traditional survival techniques that have been forgotten: accessing water, tubers, wild berries and honey. "I worry about the creating of a dependency culture because of food aid," he says.
But there is clearly a sense among many that a traditional way of life is increasingly unsustainable.
Long term though the future is with a combination of practical aid like that offered by Oxfam so that crops can be more secure and with the education of the young. Any aid will be too late for 8 month old Salade.
She was buried a day before aid agencies launched a $426m appeal for the 15 million people they say need food aid in the region.
Salade's family had little to start with and they lost their cattle in the drought. Then her mother became ill as the rains began and could not breast-feed her.
The contribution of the Seabeas in this situation is small but as the Talmudic saying goes, "He who saves one man it is as though he has saved the world". Unfortunately one man who could make a difference is also denying what many see as the
root cause of the extreme weather. I look forward to the day when global warmng denial is treated as as great a crime as Holocaust denial. Sadly when George Bush has supporters of his scepticism like George Will who describes "fear that global warming will cause catastrophic climate change" as "a belief now so conventional that it seems to require no supporting data". we have to knock that cheer off for the ignorance of the Commander in Chief. That data is now flooding in, in grave-fuls.
Let's leave the last and biggest cheer for those agencies and charities working with the people in the area. Add perhaps a little ripple of applause for the BBC whose reports I have heavily relied on for this diary and who again seem to be taking the "Captain Kirk" role among the major reporting organisations - boldly going where none have gone before.