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| Iraq |
| Army Backlash Against Recalcitrant Sunnis? |
| 2003-10-13 |
| This article appeared on Sunday, and is starting to make the rounds. EFL US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops. Since when did the US Army turn into the IDF? Other farmers said that US troops had told them, over a loudspeaker in Arabic, that the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not informing on the resistance which is very active in this Sunni Muslim district. This is where I start to not believe a word of it. "They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees," said one man. I doubt jazz was allowed under Saddam. How does a simple farmer even know what it sounds like? "Hey, Mahmoud, I couldn’t hear well over the sound of bulldozers. Was that from Miles’ ’Kind of Blue’?" "You know-nothing! It was the driving hard bop of Lee Morgan’s ’The Sidewinder.’" Ambushes of US troops have taken place around Dhuluaya. But Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri, a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees, said American officers described what had happened as "a punishment of local people because ’you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us’." Right. We’re supposed to take the word of a Sunni farmer, from a town where a father executed his own son because he was a suspected informant. The children of one woman who owned some fruit trees lay down in front of a bulldozer but were dragged away, according to eyewitnesses who did not want to give their names. Shades of St. Rachel Corrie, Blessed Pancake? They said that one American soldier broke down and cried during the operation. When a reporter from the newspaper Iraq Today attempted to take a photograph of the bulldozers at work a soldier grabbed his camera and tried to smash it. The same paper quotes Lt Col Springman, a US commander in the region, as saying: "We asked the farmers several times to stop the attacks, or to tell us who was responsible, but the farmers didn’t tell us." And that paragraph contains the only quote supposedly given by an American soldier. One whose first name and his division are not given. The "reporter" never bothers to get official word from CENTCOM about what, if anything, happened there. But why bother? Just take the locals’ word for it. I don’t believe this story for a minute. I wish it could be debunked, because it’s going to spread. |
| Posted by:growler |
| #12 And provides evidence - which should be easy as a leveled date orchard will be obvious even weeks later. So far, the convenience of not offering evidence is a bit disingenuous, IMHO. |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-13 11:33:53 PM |
| #11 Actually, I sent an email to the editor of Iraq Times asking for confirmation, because I didn't believe it either. He promptly wrote back and said his reporter did indeed cover this event and it appeared in their Oct 6th edition. I've asked a few more questions that he hasn't answered yet (I sent my email at 5pm US time..which is late at night in Iraq) to get an idea if the tone of the story is correct. I don't doubt that the core event happened, but why and how, as presented by this story, is a bit dubious in my mind. We'll see if the editor answers my questions. |
| Posted by: RussSchultz 2003-10-13 11:01:27 PM |
| #10 Shouldn't we have at least fondled someone and burned a building or two? We have lost our ability to pillage. Let's get the hell out of Iraq we're losing our edge. Before long we'll be handing out school supplies and toys. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-10-13 8:05:40 PM |
| #9 I like the one-hit-wonders, and for this thread I'd offer: Jonathan King - Everyone's Gone To The Moon Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire! Desmond Dekker & The Aces - The Israelites |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-13 7:55:12 PM |
| #8 Like Robert DuVal In Apocalypse Now, I prefer the classics - a little "Ride of the Valkyries" when I'm winning hearts and minds..... |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2003-10-13 7:43:45 PM |
| #7 Jazz would not be my first choice - a little AC/DC, perhaps "Thunderstruck" or "Hells Bells" would be appropriate, especially when going after Moqtada Sadr. Get our Aussie friends to join in |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-10-13 7:20:03 PM |
| #6 LOL! What a scream... FDA CeeBees goin' off the reservation in stealth 'pillers. Blood for Fruit marches. Iwate Iwaqi Juan Valdez's pulling camels. I'm going back to bed with images of Miles Davis in a big yellow gimme cap. Too much... This whole thread, from the headline down, is a coffee alert! |
| Posted by: .com 2003-10-13 7:08:19 PM |
| #5 Miss Otis regrets She's unable to pick fruit today, Mister... Ah, Miss Ella! |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-10-13 7:02:23 PM |
| #4 A-ha! I knew Florida Dept. of Agriculture was behind this! This was nothing but a war for Dole and Sunkist. No Blood for Fruit! |
| Posted by: Tokyo Taro 2003-10-13 6:47:11 PM |
| #3 newspaper Iraq Today attempted to take a photograph of the bulldozers at work a soldier grabbed his camera and tried to smash it Thank you Upright America Soldier These were the Dozers from Area 61 the so called D-11 (aka BINGO) stealth catepillar. They were first used to pull the Aurora to the flight line. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-10-13 6:45:56 PM |
| #2 Jazz? C'mon, that's simply unbelievable. Metal, rap, yeah -- I can see the soldiers picking that. Or maybe some sugary pop music ("Oops I Did It Again"?) as a real insult. Or get REALLY mean and play something religious -- "No Hiding Place" would be my choice. But jazz? Why use insults that go over the target's heads? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-10-13 6:42:24 PM |
| #1 Damn Yankees... don't you guys know anything about citrus cultivation? What we got here is the dreaded Citrus Canker.... and the only way to save the groves is to.... uh... um fire 'em up. Don't get me started on the Med Flies. This message brought to you by the Florida Dept. of Agriculture |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-10-13 6:30:09 PM |