New Iraq weapon is the printed word

Washington Times ^ | 6/08/04 | Kris Osborn

[kattracks]

BAQUBAH, Iraq -- U.S. forces battling insurgents in northern Iraq have a new weapon in their arsenal -- illustrated Arabic-language booklets explaining politely to residents why American troops want to come into their homes to search for weapons.

"Iraqis did not like having their houses searched when we did not hand out the books," said Capt. Jeff Peterman, an expert on psychological or "information" operations with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division.

[weegee]

Now soldiers routinely distribute the books -- which emphasize that the troops do not want to harm Iraqi families -- before carrying out searches, eliminating much of the previous friction.

I think that last word could be replaced with "fiction".

With much of the world press saying that the US soldiers are worse than Nazis (see Hunter S. Thompson's comments on ESPN for such a quote) and many making comparisons of President Bush to Hitler, is there any doubt why the troops are having a tough time over there getting cooperation?

[537cant be wrong]

if G.W. can get the "leaders" at the G8 summit to realize the good we have done in iraq with the aid of a small % of our allies, just maybe their eyes would open to the extent of success we could achive in that entire region with their cooperation. we can only hope and pray.

[bad company]

The kid I send care packages to goes on patrol during the day and fixes a school at night. The media won't tell you this. It's sad that these young men aren't getting credit for all their hard work.

[weegee]

I put a keyword (maybe others do to) in threads like this "Your Job In Iraq". It tells the military perspective on what is happening that the media refuses to cover.

A different keyword, "Why We Fight" shows some of the struggles that let us know this "war" (not just in Iraq) is far from over (attrocities committed against us, what happened under Saddam...).

They help put the biased media reports (from around the world) into perspective.

[weegee]

...just maybe their eyes would open to the extent of success we could achive in that entire region with their cooperation.

This was the context in which I read Paul McCartney's often excerpted but never fully quoted comments prior to Spain's "Rock In Rio" interview.

He said that things would have gone smoother if the US and UK had more support. Not that the "war" was wrong.