Winning hearts and minds the FUCKING STUPID way

[Vympel]

US soldiers bulldoze farmers' crops
Americans accused of brutal 'punishment' tactics against villagers, while British are condemned as too soft
By Patrick Cockburn in Dhuluaya

12 October 2003

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.

The stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protrude from the brown earth scoured by the bulldozers beside the road at Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of Baghdad. Local women were yesterday busily bundling together the branches of the uprooted orange and lemon trees and carrying then back to their homes for firewood.

Nusayef Jassim, one of 32 farmers who saw their fruit trees destroyed, said: "They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but this is not true. They didn't capture anything. They didn't find any weapons."

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.

"They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees," said one man. 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'." What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added.

The destruction of the fruit trees took place in the second half of last month but, like much which happens in rural Iraq, word of what occurred has only slowly filtered out. The destruction of crops took place along a kilometre-long stretch of road just after it passes over a bridge.

Farmers say that 50 families lost their livelihoods, but a petition addressed to the coalition forces in Dhuluaya pleading in erratic English for compensation, lists only 32 people. The petition says: "Tens of poor families depend completely on earning their life on these orchards and now they became very poor and have nothing and waiting for hunger and death."

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. 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."

Informing US troops about the identity of their attackers would be extremely dangerous in Iraqi villages, where most people are related and everyone knows each other. The farmers who lost their fruit trees all belong to the Khazraji tribe and are unlikely to give information about fellow tribesmen if they are, in fact, attacking US troops.

Asked how much his lost orchard was worth, Nusayef Jassim said in a distraught voice: "It is as if someone cut off my hands and you asked me how much my hands were worth."

Well that's just BRILLIANT.

[Mr Bean]

Woops, I told them to stop listening to our Red Army liasons on how to get things done


Oh well might as well go all the way, Load the Napam!

[MKSheppard]

Woops, I told them to stop listening to our Red Army liasons on how to get things done

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I say we just preemptively nape
the entire Baghdad triangle and call it a day

[Iceberg]

Oh no, this isn't going to create more terrorists, no sir.

[Tsyroc]

Oh no, this isn't going to create more terrorists, no sir.

What!?! You don't think bulldozing someone's livelihood, something that's probably been in the family for generations, is going to turn them against the American troops do you? Frickin' idiots.



Basically it's going to come down to who they hate more and right now I think it's the guys who bulldozed their orchards.

Of course they could have (assuming they know anything about the guerillas) ratted the guerillas out and hoped the Americans will get them all. It's not like the guerillas might find out who squeeled and do anything bad to them or anything. You know, something a whole lot worse than getting your orchards and fields ruined. Nobody ever holds a grudge in the Middle East, nor do they do nasty things to each other so why not squeal on these guys?

[Stravo]

Look its Israe----uh----I mean the good old USofA. Boy now the Administration just wants us all to feel dirty about the occupation.

[Tsyroc]

Look its Israe----uh----I mean the good old USofA. Boy now the Administration just wants us all to feel dirty about the occupation.

Maybe that's the Bush administration's fallback plan. After they realized that things weren't going to be as easy as they planned on they came up with a plan that intentionally pushes the Iraqi occupation further and further into FUBAR. When it really hits the fan the American public will let Bush & co. weasle out of Iraq with little political fallout because by then it will have become obvious that there's just no reasoning with "those people" and that Bush and his guys did all that they could to rebuild Iraq.

Meanwhile they will continue to jack shit about Afghanistan and very few will say anything about it.

[Iceberg]

Oh no, this isn't going to create more terrorists, no sir.

What!?! You don't think bulldozing someone's livelihood, something that's probably been in the family for generations, is going to turn them against the American troops do you? Frickin' idiots.

Clearly my sarcasm is lost on you. I was sarcastically referring to people like Shep who apparently think that there's a fixed number of terrorist fanatics in the world, and drawing them into Iraq for a grand battle royal (HA HA!) will mean that there are fewer to endanger Americans elsewhere.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Link?

[Vympel]

Link?

The Independent

(which has a tendency for old stories to become part of the pay service, hence the full post here)

[Hamel]

They said that one American soldier broke down and cried during the operation.

Well, at least one solder in this operation had morals

[Howedar]

What a clusterfuck.

[Embracer Of Darkness]

That's just sadistic, and I hope whoever ordered it is fucking happy.

As for the soldier who cried, I actually feel sorry for him having to tolerate this shit from his own job.

[Chardok]

I always thought we were supposed to take the moral high road in operations like this? This doesn't make any sense! The United states isn't supposed to do things like that! Our position is precarious enough as it is for occupying Iraq, actions like this are simply ludicrous...I would think that the DoD would issue some kind of explaination if word of an operation like this got out, right? Or an investigation? Ugh, I'm shocked.

[Durandal]

I'm sure that Bush thinks that the Iraqis should be thankful. If Hussein had suspected such a thing, they'd have been thrown into chipper shredders. Under the rule of the Righteous and Holy United States of America, we only destroy their livelihood with bulldozers. That's a big improvement right there, after all.

So the soldiers took some liberties in playing jazz music and being sadistic assholes to the people they were "freeing." Big deal. This should send a powerful message to all fruit trees that might stand in the way of freedom.

[Embracer Of Darkness]

This should send a powerful message to all fruit trees that might stand in the way of freedom.

Sorry, but that just made me laugh my ass off!

[InnerBrat]

"They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but this is not true. They didn't capture anything. They didn't find any weapons."

Sums up the whole thing nicely...

[Companion Cube]

That's either indicative of a basic lack of common sense, or a disgusting lack of respect for the Iraqi people.

[Iceberg]

That's either indicative of a basic lack of common sense, or a disgusting lack of respect for the Iraqi people.

Or both. The Bush Administration hasn't exactly demonstrated a whole lot of respect for brown-skinned people.

[Spyder]

While this is obvious it needs to be said; taking away someone's livelyhood is an excellent way of making them want to see bad things happen to you.

I know if someone did that to me any "killing people is generally bad" philosiphy would go right out the window.

[Psycho Smiley]

I don't know which describes this better, fucking stupid or fucking sick. Oh hell, let's just take both. And they actually think this will help?!? Now you're giving more ammo to the resistance fighters and the opponents back home.

[Durandal]

"They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but this is not true. They didn't capture anything. They didn't find any weapons."

Sums up the whole thing nicely...

That seems to be a running trend in this farce that has been the past year. The official motto of the Bush administration is going to eventually be "Whoops! Our bad!"

[Howedar]

There are no orange and lemon trees! The orange and lemon trees are committing suicide at the blade of our bulldozers!

[Wicked Pilot]

Great use for our troops they got going on there. This will sure be more productive than using them to kill the enemy or rebuild the schools and hospitals. Why waste manpower repairing the infastructure when you can more easily tear it down.

[Keevan_Colton]

That shit is just plain sickening.
I cannot even begin to express my disgust at this action.