WNC soldier: Iraqis haven't grasped meaning of freedom

[JPace]

(This article really points out how impossible the
bush regime's plan to democratize Iraq is from a
soldier on the ground)
http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/48440

WNC soldier: Iraqis haven't grasped meaning of freedom
By Tammy Jones, staff writer Jan. 16, 2004 11:10 p.m.
FRANKLIN - It's time for Sgt. Brian Bishop to return to Baghdad.

For 15 days, the 210th North Carolina National Guard Company soldier has slept soundly in a soft bed by his wife's side. He has enjoyed home-cooked meals, played with his 2-year-old daughter and spent time with friends and co- workers.

Today he rejoins his mountain unit stationed in Baghdad.

Against a backdrop of bombed-out buildings and sewage- filled roads, the Western North Carolina soldiers try to maintain order in a city where the sounds of explosions and gunfire are routine.

Seven months on Baghdad soil is beginning to wear on the soldiers. Taxicabs haul the dead in makeshift caskets atop roofs, animals are slaughtered and cooked in the marketplace, and poverty is so rampant power lines have been stolen in hopes of cashing them in for money.
Of the Iraqi people Bishop said, "I don't think they grasp being free and being able to influence the government. They're focused on every day issues of living. They expect Americans to fix whatever problems they have."
MORE.......http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/48440

[Malva Zebrina]

1. the soldier is doing his job

but I think he is absolutely wrong in his analysis. That George Bush killed thousands of civilians all on trumped up charges, selling hysteria and ignoring sane people who advised against this invasion and occupation, seems to have escaped his notice.

Now he blames the victims.

[mike1963]

4. "just following orders" didn't fare so well in Nuremburg.

That soldier may very well be a fairly nice guy, but he's an idiot.

[wtmusic]

2. More ethnocentric whining

Why can't the rest of the world be like us? Why? Why? Why? :nopity:

[IndianaGreen]

5. Americans equate freedom with McDonald's and Wal-Marts

I remember reading a Robert Fisk article in The Independent when the war first started of this West Virginia sergeant complaining about Iraq. The sergeant said that the small town he was from had four McDonald's, while there were none in Iraq. Robert Fisk finished his rather poignant article by pointing out that a few miles from where the sergeant stood, there was the ancient city of Ur, the homeland of Abraham. Fisk drew the distinction between what Americans consider civilization, with what real civilization was all about.

[J B]

3. They can influence the government? Really?

And just um... how would they go about doing this?

[Lexingtonian]

6. They've grasped the Republican kind of freedom

You know, the kind that finds civilization merely an obstruction. They don't seem to embrace it with the love Big W expects, though....




[never cry wolf]

7. I agree with the previous posters on this thread

But I also found THIS interesting:

There is such a lack of knowledge about how to handle firearms that Bishop said he and other soldiers won't allow the Iraqi police to carry ammunition when they work alongside them.

We are training a bunch of Barney Fife's to be Iraq's police???

Do they allow them to carry ammunition when they are out among the masses? Oh, must be ok there, just a bunch of brown people.

[JPace]

8. Suspicion alone is enough for a death sentence....

"Recently a man suspected of stealing was brought into a police station and an Iraqi officer offered to take him out back and shoot him, Bishop said."
............................................................
So much for due process and a speedy trial by your peers.

[mike1963]

9. Yeah, they should do like we do, put him in jail with no lawyer or charges

for an indefinite time.
:grr:

[JPace]

10. I don't like either option....

but given a choice I'd pick jail....at least
I'd be alive and where there is life there
is hope for freedom.

[NJCher]

11. I don't buy the "Saddam took care of everything" line

They're focused on every day issues of living. They expect Americans to fix whatever problems they have."

Seems to me that Americans have caused most of their problems (of everyday life) so I don't think it's too much to ask the Americans to fix them.


Cher

[lumpy]

12. How many Americans

could put up without the daily needs of living after the infrastructure was destroyed by invasion? I would hate to imagine.

[Bob3]

13. does anybody remember FDR's 4 freedoms?

Freedom from Want and Freedom from fear were two of them. I would say that the average Iraqi does not have either of those freedoms. When you can't get enough for your family to eat and you're worried about either getting blown up and shot by the resistance or getting arrested bombed or shot by us - I don't think you give a flying fuck about being able to vote for one of our Tame Iraqis.

And just for the record we do have to fix this - we broke it.

[NNN0LHI]

14. Well then. We will just have to beat the meaning of freedom...

...into these people. That is all there is to it.

Don

[NickB79]

15. Idiot

"Of the Iraqi people Bishop said, "I don't think they grasp being free and being able to influence the government. They're focused on every day issues of living. They expect Americans to fix whatever problems they have." "

Well, considering the fact that the Americans are the ones that bombed and blew up most of the infrastructure, I think the Americans should be expected to fix the problems this bombing caused. And what they're "focused on" is trying to stay alive and not starve or be shot to death! What do you expect them to do first, repair a bombed-out factory or try to find food so they don't starve to death? What a complete moran.

[gate of the sun]

16. with the kindof freedom we are offering

who could grasp it?