good video....the soldier is right

Regardless of weather the soldier is right or wrong. Wouldn't it make more sense to be a little more friendly? After all he could be working with these men in some sticky situations and they might seek revenge if you catch my drift. Often discretion is the better part of valor, especially when
we are what might be considered "guests" in THEIR country.

I can imagine how I would feel if some Mexican was talking to me like that.

[edit on 5-8-2009 by whaaa]

Sounded like a Richard Pryor concert.

The US soldier is right, but that still doesn't mean he's not being rigidly unrealistic.

Peace

[edit on 5-8-2009 by Dr Love]

He is right on the money! What a goof troop he is working with.

[edit on 5-8-2009 by TwoTechnics]

I think we all know how this is going to wind up. This soldier will get reprimanded for not respecting their "Hearts and minds" be forced to apologize to them, probably lose some rank through an Article 15. We can't have anyone upsetting the status quo or anything.

although i am strongly against the war, I guess this just shows the frustration of US troops who don't really know why they are in Iraq in the first place. the guy's only human and has obviously lost patience. best off bringing the troops home.

How can the US troop be right, as some of you say, when he should not even be there in the first place. When there were no WMD's. When Iraq had far less to do with 911 than say Saudi Arabia or, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan.

What the hell is he doing there? I'll answer. He's just passing time till he gets a bullet because he pissed off the locals. He is a soldier of an occupying force. In his mind he might be a freedom fighter or the world police or whatever the current delusion is, but those men he's shouting at I guarantee have a different perspective.

He should shut up and come home before someone kills him. There is nothing good to be done there. He is losing his soul.

He's frustrated? Imagine all those folks in front of him who probably are thinking "why don't we just kill this invader and get it over with".

This is the current state of Iraqi "freedom". Better wake up to it.

Originally posted by Kords21
I think we all know how this is going to wind up. This soldier will get reprimanded for not respecting their "Hearts and minds" be forced to apologize to them, probably lose some rank through an Article 15. We can't have anyone upsetting the status quo or anything.

No he won't be.

That is how combat arms soldiers speak. They don't sugar coat it.

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
although i am strongly against the war, I guess this just shows the frustration of US troops who don't really know why they are in Iraq in the first place. the guy's only human and has obviously lost patience. best off bringing the troops home.

I don't agree with the war either, but I also don't agree with leaving lambs to the slaughter.

The soldier is an IDIOT.

He's talking about the people who are "tearing Iraq apart"? That's the US. He wants them to be loyal to Iraq? Then they should kick his dumb behind out of the country.

The US is there to asset-strip Iraq. It's that simple. I don't blame the police for finding it funny... the self-righteous hypocrisy of the guy is hard to stomach, but so ludircous it's hard to take seriously.

There's also the little matter of the US sowing the seeds of religious dissent in Iraq.

Saddam ran a secular society. In Baghdad, certainly, religion had pretty much ceased to be an issue, people intermarried, the subject barely came up. Shortly after the invasion, leading Sunni and Shia clerics got together to say the Iraqis must unite to fight the invader.

It was shortly after that that the bombing campaign on mosques started. Remember the two SAS guys in Arab dress who were arrested by the Iraqi police because they were driving around, in disguise, with a trunk full of explosives and weapons? Remember how UK soldiers broke them out? That was just the tip of the iceberg. Divide and rule is a VERY obvious tactic and the US and UK have never been slow to use it.

Then of course John Negroponte visited Iraq. This is the guy who ran death squads all over Central and South America. Sure enough, only a few weeks later we start to get reports of sectarian cleansing, "men in police uniforms" as they were reported, turning up and taking people off in trucks to be shot.

It's a standard US tactic.

Now this buffoon expects the men in front of him to be "loyal to Iraq". Well, maybe some of them are... but not in the way he means.

Honestly, people invade your country, their army shoots up the place like there's no tomorrow, they install a puppet government that asset-strips your economy, they employ mercenaries who are even more uncontrolled than the regular soldiers (which is saying something), they use Saddam's old torture chamber in the same way he did... the list goes on and on. How should a loyal citizen who loves their country react?

Repel the invader by any means necessary.

I tried to reply to this thread about 10 minutes ago but I couldn't stop laughing.

Good for him. He'll probably get nailed for some of those comments even though he was right. The sooner the Iraqis pick up the ball and run with it the sooner we can leave.




[edit on 5-8-2009 by SLAYER69]

Absolutely, that soldier is an IDIOT!

I've spent 3 years over there, and I can tell you one thing for certain, insulting Arab men and their God is no way to get them do do what YOU think they should be doing.

Regardless of whether of not they "should" be there, they are, so there's no further point in debating that with a grunt on the ground.

However, calling them "women" calling them a "god-damn" anything will only get you shot in the back in the dark of night, or it will finally convince them that the Americans ARE really a bunch of assholes, and they'll sell or give information about operations, patrols, guards, et cetera to the Militias or other enemies.

That soldier thinks he's a real tough-guy, threatening to take them out back and beat the fuc out of them, c'mon, that only proves what much of the world already says about us as a culture.

The soldier is an idiot, and the best thing his commanders can do for the iraqi efforts, is to ship his arrogant ass back to the atates.

Originally posted by whaaa
Regardless of weather the soldier is right or wrong. Wouldn't it make more sense to be a little more friendly? After all he could be working with these men in some sticky situations and they might seek revenge if you catch my drift. Often discretion is the better part of valor, especially when
we are what might be considered "guests" in THEIR country.

I can imagine how I would feel if some Mexican was talking to me like that.

[edit on 5-8-2009 by whaaa]

, Spoken like a true liberal. I've had worse asschewings in bootcamp. When peoples lives are on the line it's not the time to pussyfoot around and be PC. He's supposed to train them to be men , and fight like professionals. They're getting paid to be Police Officers but when TSHTF It's our troops going out on patrols. The problem is those guys are just there to get a paycheck. They're not warriors , there is nothing wrong with being a pacifist , everyone isn't a trigger puller and that's fine... Just don't collect a check for something you aren't and put others lives on the line while you're doing it. As far as being "Guests" in their country , do you REALLY think that guy wants to be there. It's like Joe Torre trying to coach the bad news bears. You can obviously tell that he's tried everything that he could and he's at his wits end , I can feel his frustration in that simple 5 minutes.

I'm going to do something a bit lame, but I've got to thank someone and it's going to look like I'm thanking them just for agreeing with me... but what the hell, and there is a bit more to it than that.

Thank you for this post!

Originally posted by uaocteaou
Absolutely, that soldier is an IDIOT!

I've spent 3 years over there, and I can tell you one thing for certain, insulting Arab men and their God is no way to get them do do what YOU think they should be doing.

I got so cross at the guy's attitude and him telling those men to be loyal to "Iraq" that I kind of lost sight of this whole perspective... but you've obviously got experience to draw on that I so don't: and you articulate things that had no more than scamper across the back of my mind.

Regardless of whether of not they "should" be there, they are, so there's no further point in debating that with a grunt on the ground.

Absolutely. But that soldier might (as you point out) think of it as a survival issue to consider their perspective. Unfortunately, my impression of military culture (gleaned through lots of interviews I've read and seen with soldiers, plus talking to some on here) is that it tends to dehumanize the enemy. Who wants to kill a real person, right? Much better to think of them as "hajji".

So coming around to the frame of mind where you could appreciate how they feel must be difficult. It certainly is for him, anyway - you seem to have no trouble.

... it will finally convince them that the Americans ARE really a bunch of assholes, and they'll sell or give information about operations, patrols, guards, et cetera to the Militias or other enemies.

Exactly. It's counterproductive and dangerous on top of everything else.

That soldier thinks he's a real tough-guy, threatening to take them out back and beat the fuc out of them, c'mon, that only proves what much of the world already says about us as a culture.

Just... thanks for having that perspective. Heaven knows it's rare enough on here. I'm even going to resort to one of these (which almost never happens.)

Dammmmmn

I'm sure his commanding officers likely won't have any choice but to censure him, all the while patting him on the back; largely for manning up and telling it like it was.

It's not exactly good relations, but there are times when a boot to the a__ is more effective than a handshake.

M.

What we have here is a culture clash and people speaking at cross purposes. The US soldier is talking to the police officers as if they are grunts to be motivated into taking the fight to the enemy.

Secondly, the US soldier advises the police men to tool up and march towards the river to draw out enemy fire. Out of the ranks an Iraqi says, "Ma' an dush tibba....DRUGS!!!", to which the US soldier responds that they only need water, etc, and not drugs. The Iraqi was speaking in the context of the recommended march into a firefight and the lack of medical support. The American might be thinking of something else.

Then the same speaker from the ranks exclaims "Ma' an dush Ameriki tayarat bomba!", and the US soldier says no excuses and the rest.

Ma' an dush Ameriki tayarat bomba means; We don't have American bomber airplanes.

Basically the US soldiers is trying to shame them into acting like motivated soldiers when they are police. The American uses rude language in a formal exchange which usually considered vulgar. It is not a casual conversation amongst equals.

Finally, the US soldier makes the kind of assumptions made of the Iraqis as we commonly find being said on msn. The Iraqis try to point out the impracticalities of his demands. His response is dismissive.

The US soldier does not speak the language of the people he is giving a pep talk.

While the video plays well with American audiences, I am quite sure it is disastrous at handling men in a conflict situation. If this indicative of the relationship between American soldiers and Iraqi government volunteers, it is a catastrophy.

It smacks of Vietnam all over again.

[edit on 043131p://pm3121 by masonwatcher]