Disturbing story about the first aid distributed

The first food aid was distributed today in Iraq by the Muslim relief agency Red Crescent. ABC covered the story.

It was in the southern city of Safwan (right next to the Kuwati border) the local people looked pretty desparate to get the aid and the aid workers had a hard time maintaining order while locals pushed and struggled to get the bread, cheese and water.

As the trucks pulled in, the locals started to shout vigorously "With our blood, we sacrifice ourselves to you Saddam Hussein". One mother said to the reporter "You brought us chaos, people are sick and hungry".

The ABC reporter asked "The people of the United States thought you would be grateful to be liberated from Saddam Hussein"...the answer... "No. We are not happy. You have humiliated us more than our enemies.".

One Iraqi that did not want to be photographed said "We do not all love Saddam... but we do not love the United States either".

This is from the same area (the south) that rebelled against Saddam in 1991 when Bush '41 publically encouraged them to do it. When they did rebel, the U.S. forces looked the other way while Saddam crushed the rebellion. So...this is not an area that loves Saddam, and...it's not hard to understand why they might not love the U.S. either.

I'm reminded of a line from the Gandhi movie, he said..."There are few people who would not prefer the bad gov't of their own people to the good gov't of an alien power". This scene in Iraq today seems to be very much like that.

I think they're still afraid of Saddam. Or a combination of the two.

I saw that coverage on TV and it is a good illustration of the unfortunate fact that we (the US) will probably never win the "hearts and minds" of the people in the middle-east. If it ever happens it won't be in our lifetimes. The unfortunate fact is that anything bad that happens in the area is blamed on the US and anything good that we try to do will go unappreciated. Whether that is fair or unfair is irrelevant. I think the best thing we can do is wrap up our business there as quickly as possible and completely vacate the region. Any efforts to build goodwill will be counterproductive.

I think they would respect us more if we dropped the "liberation" jargon and just said we need to be in your country for a while to blow stuff up. We will try to minimize the inconvenience to you, but it's going to suck for a while. We won't be leaving until the job is done. Please bear with us in the meantime.

"Pardon us while we clean up our mess." /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The images you see on TV, whether it's Abhu-Dabhi, Al-Jazeera, CNN/ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX, or BBC, only tell a small frame of tale on how people are living in Iraq during the war and what they think of the US sending troops in.

Obviously, If I were to put myself in one of their shoes, I'd expect myself to be singled out and either assasinated or tortured, or worse, have my family members tortured in front of me if I told my story the way it is to any media. It's the risk some of these people take when they openly speak out, while they're under the rule of Hussein's government. They don't have the liberty we do to protest the government or ask for certain liberties; it's just not there.

I think fear goes a long way in hiding the true feelings of most Iraqis, and it falls somewhere between the absolute hatred for the US AND/OR Hussein, and the feeling of uncertainly for Iraq's future.

There was a story on MSNBC this morning where U.S. Troops were driving by a small town and an Iraqi woman was waving a white flag and smiling. They passed her up and hours later the troops returned and found her body hanging from a light pole.

Marty

That's just sad. It really makes you wonder what most of us in the US take for granted when we say "free speech"...

It's why I do believe that the Shiites (sp?) in the south really do not like Hussein, and do support the US war efforts, but are either unwilling to openly talk about it because of the fetayeen or still harbor uncertainly for the trust of the US (because of what we did (or didn't do) to/for them in 1991)...

[ QUOTE ]
Lurker said:
I saw that coverage on TV and it is a good illustration of the unfortunate fact that we (the US) will probably never win the "hearts and minds" of the people in the middle-east. If it ever happens it won't be in our lifetimes.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe in order to win the hearts and trust of the middle east, we need to be proactive in solving the situation between the Palestinians and Isreal. If you ask, most Arabs see that relationship as the worst knock on the US in terms of trust in the Arab world.

It's a good thing that the US and Isreal is starting to talk about an independant Palestine state, because it has to start somewhere, and no matter what your stance is on the Isreal-Palestinian conflict is, I think most can agree that the US can do better in helping the two sides to come to an agreement.

Re: Disturbing story about the first aid distribut

Check out the threads in the CAFE: "the experience of a human shield" and "more anti-war change their minds" to see links to what Iraqi's say when they are not being watched by "minders". I'll be the first to admit that they may not be thrilled with the aspects of foreigners in their homeland but they are definitely ready for liberation and democracy. Remember that the majority of attrocities against the people of Iraq are being committed by Baathist party members (the minority party that Saddam has been in since the 1960's which came to rule through assassination), militias and elite soldiers that are fiercely loyal to Saddam and guilty of crimes and brutality long before we ever entered the country and are not going to go without a fight and without taking as many down with them as possible. They are ruthless (truly, absolutely no exaggeration, you and I have never fathomed such brutality in our lives) and I believe the UN miserably failed the people of Iraq for decades by ignoring reports by their own Human Rights Council (These are published reports by the UN that date back prior to the Gulf War) and now I hope these men pay. Now they appeal to Allah as if they are good muslims and deserve deliverance. Saddam is so arrogant that he ordered his clerics to (falsely) trace his lineage 9 generations back to the founders of Islam so he could appear to be closer to God.

TSG

Re: Disturbing story about the first aid distribut

As a follow up...I saw another story where a reporter asked...when will Iraqis show more interest in the liberation that the U.S. says it is trying to achieve?

Answer...when we are sure that Saddam is dead.

Iraqis may be so a-culturated to the influence of Saddam, that it will take a long while for his influence to leave their minds.

Re: Disturbing story about the first aid distribut

Yeah Ikendu, I saw a statement by a CIA official who had been involved in monitoring the situation in Iraq for years, when asked by reporters when we could expect to see the supposed hatred of Saddam to manifest itself in the people of Iraq as the government had been stating (as if it had all been a lie) he said rather plainly "when they have his body to kick in the street." He went on to state how oppressive the regime has been and that the people still distrust the success of the campaign against Saddam and the American and British commitment to the Iraqi people but they would rejoice at his demise.

TSG

Re: Disturbing story about the first aid distribut

well there you have it, if you can't trust the CIA, who can you trust?

sarcastic!!!

Re: Disturbing story about the first aid distribut

Just one statement of many that reach the same conclusion. I don't express any bias due to personal vendetta.

TSG