Bible Belters in the Sunni Triangle

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=2/6/2005&Cat=14&Num=001

By Hamid Golpira

Who are the U.S. soldiers occupying Iraq? snip

A large segment of these soldiers are from the inner city ghettoes of the United States and only joined the military because they saw it as a way out of poverty. Others are from the Bible Belt, an area in the U.S. South and Midwest that is a bastion of conservative Christian fundamentalism.

Many young people from the Bible Belt also joined the military to escape poverty or to fund their university studies. Some of them even joined the military to get away from Christian fundamentalists.

Ironically, these same youths who sought to flee a stiff fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity are now being killed by Al-Qaeda supporters with a stiff fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. If these young men from the Bible Belt know about the Najaf seminary, they probably prefer the fundamentalism of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and his followers, who are offering U.S troops a face-saving way to withdraw from Iraq.

The majority of low-ranking U.S. soldiers are just scared kids with M-16s in their hands, hoping that they get out of Iraq alive. These Bible Belters in the Sunni Triangle are wishing that they were somewhere else, anywhere else, even in the relative safety of Karbala.

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[The Sheik]

1. In the words of the commedian David Burr...

them southerns are some of the best soldiers in this nation. They got the guts, the balls, and the smarts to make Americas army tip top shape.