Thieving Americans in Iraq

[Kurai Tsuki]

Iraqi citizens have complained that American soldiers have stolen money, jewlery and family heirlooms during raids on their homes.

Iraqis do report these incidents to military officials, but they often have to wait three months before recieving a response that the raid was justified and none of the materials, "confiscated," will be returned.

If there is any doubt in the matter of a complaint, the Americans usually assume that the complaint filer is lying; it becomes a matter of his word against the American Soldiers, and we all know who it's most likely to turn out in favour of.

Another problem is that the breadwinner of the house will be detained, and so that family will be left without its source of income. The Red Cross says that 90% of those detained in these raids is innocent.



Please see the Source (http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A6D8B265-4021-4F37-AFE9-664205961B4B.htm) for more information.

[refuse_resist]

That's just sickening. Its not suprising at all though, since they're using the same methods they used during the Vietnam War. Especially since 90% of the people they arrested are innocent, that just tells you many of them were out harassing people with all that spare time they had on their hands.

They wonder why the insurgency is getting bigger, well maybe if they all would start to think for once then they would finally realize and understand. As long as there is a western military presence there, the cycle of violence will continue and only get worse.

[h&s]

Its come to be what we expect from the U$ military nowadays. They do all of this disgusting stuff to the Iraqis, and then wonder why the Iraqis want them out of their country! How thick can you get? As the British army say about the U$ army, "they have all the gear and no idea!"

[FriedFrog]

"they have all the gear and no idea!"
That's very true. I like that.

[Sammi87]

i think it relates back to the fact that the military dont see the iraqis as people, in this case just easy targets for them to take advantage of.

[fuerzasocialista]

I wouldn't say that all military personel engages in these practices; But enough of them do to the point where it is a problem. But naturally, it won't be resloved.

[Kurai Tsuki]

I suppose there would be a few military personell who don't want to steal from or harass Iraqi civilians, but these few can hardly begin to compensate for the greater majority, much less influence the actions of their commanding officers.

With the U.S. military, like other branches of its authority, it's not a matter of how many are doing something immoral but how many are actually doing something that isn't immoral. It's just like how the actions of the good politition or legendary honest cops (legendary as in you only hear about them) hardly compensate for the acts of their colleagues.