IRAQ: Occupiers are Near Prisoners [View All]

[DuctapeFatwa]

They are the hated ones, the despised face of U.S.. occupation in Iraq...
Officially too, these are not combat troops, but ”military police” out to catch ”the very bad people” from Saddam's regime. ”They do not have basic skills in civilian policing, and they are unaware of the law they are supposed to be applying,” says Curt Goerig from Amnesty International. At the military camp of the 1st Battalion of the 37th Armoured Division in Baghdad, that shows.

This unit has taken over Baghdad Island, the biggest park next to the Tigris river. The park is now off-limits to the Iraqis...The Department of Defence (DoD) says that in the first four months of the U.S. invasion, about 300 U.S. and British soldiers died in combat and ”non-combat” deaths. But both Iraqis and peace activists in Iraq doubt this figure.

With the death toll rising, and public support for the occupation of Iraq waning, the military is making sure no pictures of soldiers' bodies are shown on television. The military planners want cheerleading for the soldiers instead. There is a proposal from a producer at Fox TV û the most-loved television station by the troops û to produce something called 'COPS, the Baghdad Specials'. ..
The average soldier has little knowledge of the history and culture of Iraq, or of the Islamic faith. ...

the soldiers turn to the army chaplain for guidance. He issues guidebooks, such as 'Prayers for Iron Soldiers' or 'Iron Soldiers' Spiritual Fitness Nuggets', which essentially justify going to war and killing the enemy...A recent issue of Baghdad's activist-run newspaper, al-Muajaha (The Iraqi Witness) reports that a U.S. solider stole 25,000 Iraqi dinars (16 dollars) from supermarket owner Samir Adbul Rasool Al-Humdani. Amnesty International reports that an officer from the 101st Airborne Division stole three million Iraqi dinars (2,000 dollars). ...

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=20249