US destroys Iraqi homes as punishment for pro-Saddam yard signs

[DuctapeFatwa]

(Balad, Iraq) Mohammed Al-Awasari's shack was no match for the American M-113 armored personal carrier. In a matter of minutes, the APC's powerful tracks reduced his small shop in the village of Albu Hishma to a pile of rubble. The U.S. soldiers on this "PSYOPS" (psychological operations) mission deep inside Iraq's Sunni Triangle, were laughing, some were taking pictures to show back home, while the gathered villagers stood around and looked on helplessly.

Shopkeeper Mohammed was out of luck. The U.S. troops had decided to give him a break after he told them he wasn't responsible for the spray-painted pro-Saddam slogan on his shop's facade. But the Kurdish translator working with the Americans entered his shop and found a notebook in which Mohammed had apparently been practicing writing the very slogan on the wall outside: "Saddam is the heroic leader of a cowardly people. Saddam is the heroic leader of a cowardly people. Saddam..." Mohammed was given five minutes to clear out his produce before the APC went in.

Mohammed's shop was one of five houses in Albu Hishma that were partially destroyed on this day by the soldiers of the 1st Battalion 8th Infantry, stationed near the town of Balad. Several other villagers escaped the same fate by hurriedly covering up the anti-American graffiti with mud. Today's mission was part of a new, two-tiered approach to winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis in this area, notorious for its stiff resistance against the U.S.-led

"I feel bad that the children have to see this," said Specialist Bryan Bledsoe, "But we have tried to help these people and they have thanked us by shooting at us. Now we're trying it this way. We want to make them understand that there is a price to pay if they support the terrorists."

http://www.guerrillanews.com/intelligence/doc3092.html

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Makes me a little nervous

about our Dean sign.

[qanda]

4. You still have time to cover it up!

eom

[devinsgram]

5. Guess I won't be putting out any signs

for 2004 election.

[sujan]

2. taking a cue from Israel

Nothing new.

[arcane1]

3. great, let's add HOMES to the list of things we are destroying

in addition to the destroyed farms, and the run-over taxi from Frontline...


the Iraqi people KNOW the score!


:grr:

on edit- pointless rhetorical question- if one supports Saddam enough to paint a slogan on their home, how on EARTH can destroying their home make them support US???

[Cha]

6. I can't believe this...what kind of tactics are these?

Way to win friends and influence People!

[emcglynn]

7. No suprises here

Not all the soldiers over there are democrats.

[Mairead]

14. The beatings will continue until morale improves

[arcane1]

15. sad but 100% true

:toast:

[KoKo]

8. I hate to think when some of these soldiers come home? Having seen and

done things that are unmentionable. :scared:

They have to do what they are ordered to. It shouldn't have been this way, as we all know. They should have let the police that were there stay and not disbanded the beaurocrats who didn't support Saddam, but at least knew their own people. Bremer's order ended that and made the country a Military Occupantion, not a Liberation as was claimed.

If you saw Frontline this week, that was enough to give nightmares about what's going on over there.

[DuctapeFatwa]

18. They do not have to do it. Neither morally, nor according to Nuremberg

Each individual makes his or her own decision whether to follow an order or refuse it.

[jab105]

9. Isn't this a slightly less bad way...

of doing the same thing that Saddam Hussein did?

I mean, they aren't killing the people...scratch that, this person in particular...but they are still punishing him for having a different belief...if he isn't breaking the law, then I think its horrible to do that...we are a softer around the edges version of what we hate...spiffy!

[Darranar]

10. Saddam = terrorists?

Since when?

I guess the First Amendment only applies to US citizens.

[slor]

11. Gee, can someone please...

tell me why they want us to leave again? Or why they shoot at us again? Those psyops asswipes sound like they want to be the modern equivalent of the einsatzgruppen.

[MrJones]

12. Second sources?

Has anyone seen a second source for either the shop or orchard destructions?

[maggrwaggr]

16. there were multiple sources for the fruit orchard story

but I'd like to see one for this

Propaganda can work both ways.

[DuctapeFatwa]

19. 1st Battalion 8th Infantry, Sp Brian Bledsoe are cited by name

I am sure that if you contact centcom they will concur with Specialist Bledsoe's account.

[myomy]

13. Is this how you make friends and influence people?

.

[Junkdrawer]

17. Yeah, out winning hearts and minds again I see...

That'll learn 'em.