US military is having trouble recruiting local Arabs to help w/training by manning 'Iraqi villages'

[Ian David]

In Germany, few want to play an Iraqi
The US military is having trouble recruiting local Arabs to help with training by manning 'Iraqi villages.'


ROLE PLAY: A US soldier preparing for deployment to Iraq watches as Iraqi Americans portraying a security officer and a villager argue at Fort Polk, La. The military uses mock villages like this one to help soldiers bridge language and cultural barriers.

COLOGNE, GERMANY - The US Army is seeking 500 Arabs and Kurds for a special mission.

Those who sign up will be shipped off to villages with names like Tikrit and Fallujah, where they'll don dishdashas and head scarves and live in crowded huts surrounded by rumbling tanks and the crackle of machine guns. Their neighbors will be Shiites and Sunnis, soldiers and insurgents.

Iraq? No, it's the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) in Bavaria.

The Army has built a dozen mock villages complete with shops, gas stations, mosques, and prisons at the installation. The US army says making simulations more realistic saves both American and Iraqi lives.

It's now seeking hundreds of Arabs and Kurds to play Iraqi civilians in an elaborate three-week war game beginning March 20. Some will play imams or shopkeepers, others housewives or politicians. Most will speak only Arabic and pretend not to understand soldiers.

But there's a hitch: Unlike in the US, where hundreds of Iraqi Americans have eagerly taken part in life-like training exercises, many Arabs here are so angry at the US that the contractor charged with recruiting role players has been struggling to fill its quota.

"As soon as they hear it involves working with the US military, many people want nothing to do with it," says one recruiter, who asked that his name be withheld.

More:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0302/p06s02-woeu.html

America: Winning Hearts and Minds Around The World! Even paying them $130 per day isn't enough.

[Dhalgren]

1. The "Ugly American" writ large...

[Forkboy]

2. huh...imagine that

[ShortnFiery]

3. It's a little late for that.

Wow, shock and awe the hell out of the populace, occupy their country for four years ... yet still expect The Iraqis to NOT want you dead OR out of their NATIVE LAND.

Gawd, our leaders are f**king clueless. We lost the war during the first two years when we failed to put enough boots on the ground to provide security for the average Iraqi.

This strategy could have worked (with at least 50,000 MORE troops) in 2003 OR 2004, but all the potential "good will" between the natives and the occupiers is BLOWN TO SHIT! <pun intended>

Dumb a** politicians are too afraid of risking their careers to do NOW what we will be forced to do two years from now. In the interim, many more of our treasure and innocent Iraqi civilians will be blown to kibbles and bits. And for what? :grr:

For Our Pride. Face the fact that we made a poor decision and have lost the hearts and minds of the populace. Then withdraw to the periphery.

But Nooo! We will decide to leave Iraq, when we are kicked out. :(

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. They'd maybe have a clue if they bothered reading some of the

Iraq bloggers - like Riverbend. Over a few years I've seen her transform from a bemused and appalled girl who talked more about her family than about the occupation, to a bitter, angry woman who (quire rightly) despises the occupation and the puppet government who cannot keep her country from blowing apart.

I suspect she is typical - well educated, dismayed at what was happening but able to be won over, believing in the hope for democracy, then seeing it all turned over to gunmen and criminals and profiteers. No matter what happens now, I doubt she'll ever forgive the US.

[Supersedeas]

4. Nothing to see here -- feed them more ANS, right Abrams...right FOX

[Roland99]

6. How much are these little war game villages costing US taxpayers?