Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to I did not ingore, your post was vague

A few links
alcaray — (archived)

I was going from memory of newspaper pieces I've read from the last few years. And I'm disappointed that in the time I gave myself to do this search, I didn't find any links to match what I recall reading.

Anyway, I should remind you that I provide these links not to prove that American forces are bad, or that they were at fault in the recent episode with the Italians, but instead (as was always my point in this thread) that Roaul's point of view is a rational one.

So the following 3 links:

"The Americans have to look again at the rules of engagement and just see what they're doing at these checkpoints...They are shooting first and asking questions later," Paul Beaver, the former publisher of Jane's Defense Weekly, told BBC television." *** ""The Americans are capable of dealing with the situation," said Israeli strategic analyst Ephraim Inbar. "But what these troops have to do is tread a golden path between being assertive, cautious and humane. Most of the people they will deal with are civilians. They have to do it in such a way as to minimize the hard feelings of the population."

And you could understand why the British down in Basra - the incident occurred in their area of operations - want to put a large piece of desert between themselves and the Americans. but in Basra they simply don't adopt the aggressive posture and sometimes brutal behaviour of the US occupiers.

Some observers say morale - and the security situation in general - would vastly improve if the Americans simply "lightened up". Since the occupation began, critics have drawn unfavourable parallels between the US style of military policing and the more relaxed "helmets-off" approach in the British-controlled southern Iraq. The difference now is that with travel in the country finally opening up once again, Iraqis are able to make such comparisons for themselves. Traders from Basra who visit Baghdad on business trips, for example, frequently claim they are treated far more gently at British checkpoints than at American ones. Stray too near a British checkpoint without permission and you are likely to get a verbal warning. Stray too near an American one and it may well be accompanied by a bullet fired overhead.

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