Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Winning Hearts And Minds

If I were working for the W, Rove and Co, I'd be just about ready to toss in the towel for winning the hearts and minds of the American people, but that's the least of their worries. If we are to prevail in Iraq, they are going to have to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Trouble is, that ain't going to happen.

Have a look:

The camouflaged American soldiers, weary from hours of struggling to talk with Iraqis during a patrol in eastern Baghdad, laughed with relief after an Iraqi army major's wife met them at her door. The soldiers had no interpreter. She had a master's degree in English translation.

"Do you want to work for the Americans?" asked U.S. Army Lt. Anthony Slamar, 26. "Do you want a job as a translator?"

The woman stepped back into her darkened doorway.

"With you? No. Not with you. Do I want to die?" she said. "I am afraid of you, I'm sorry."
If our GIs can't get the wife of an Iraqi Major with a Master's Degree in English Translation to help them, we are SO screwed. She is supposed to be on our side, no? No doubt, she is holding out for a lucrative contract with the US Government at 10 to 100 times what they would pay her as a civilian employee. Even then, the job is not worth getting killed over, now is it?

This is a symptom of the larger problem caused by the illegal and illegitimate invasion of Iraq perpetrated by the W, Rove and Co. Any chance the bumbling idiots in the W, Rove and Co will be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity after they are out in 2009? Don't hold your breath.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...



Why bother, when it will get you killed?

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:5

It's the law of the excluded middle. Peace-makers are killed until the polarized parties want peace. There's nothing anyone can do until that condition is satisfied.

pissed off patricia said...

I don't blame her one damned bit! Translators are in danger all the time as they are seen as helping the US

Anonymous said...

Not just translators, but ANYONE even suspected of doing ANYTHING to help the Americans is putting their life in jeopardy. Any Iraqi who so much as carries water for the occupiers is seen as a traitor. And rightfully so. (Ask yourselves, if another country picked a fight with the U.S., invaded and occupied it, don't you think any Americans who drove trucks for the occupier, translated for him, washed their clothes etc. would have to be looking over their shoulder 24 hrs. a day? Alright then.) No Iraqi helping the occupiers deserves to even be considered an Iraqi. There is only one side in this war who has a moral right to be fighting anyone, and that sure as hell isn't the ones illegally occupying Iraq, but the ones fighting AGAINST the occupier. Face it, America is the "bad guy" in this war. It is no different whatsoever than when Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Poland. Calling it a "war of choice" is the biggest cop-out. When one side is doing nothing to provoke it and the other side launches an invasion, it is a WAR OF AGGRESSION. The one who starts a war of aggression isn't the "chooser" but the AGGRESSOR and anyone who resists said aggressor is well within their rights to use any means necessary. Face it, America is the "bad guy" in this war. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themself.