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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NickSE who wrote (43914)	3/30/2003 4:14:05 PM
From: NickSE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Marines Build Ties With Iraqis washingtonpost.com NORTH OF NASIRIYAH, Iraq (March 30) -- On Saturday, the Marines found a cache of weapons in a tiny village along the road to Baghdad. This morning they returned for lunch with the locals. In a model of how the Marines say they hope their relationship with the Iraqi people can evolve, the two sides struck a deal: the Marines agreed to escort some villagers to a nearby well to get clean water and help repair damage caused by the fleeing Iraqi army. The village leaders agreed to go house to house, rounding up rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons that could be used against U.S. forces. The bargain was sealed with a feast cooked up by the townspeople, featuring rice, bread and goat cooked over an open fire. "I was concerned because of what we found here," said Lt. Col. Christopher Conlin, who led Marines from the 1st battalion, 7th Marine regiment into town in a predawn raid. In recent nights, the Marines have suffered small arms attacks that many believe were launched by paramilitary forces loyal to the Iraqi government who disappear into the villages by day. Conlin said he wanted to see where these villager's loyalties lay. The Marines found a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and other weapons in a house Saturday. When they arrived at the outskirts of the farming village the day before, they had found Iraqi army helmets, uniforms and weapons scattered throughout the nearby fields. "It had to have been a pretty large force; there was lots of stuff," said Lt. Kohtara Terahira, 30, the battalion's intelligence officer. "They must have left in a hurry." This morning, two platoons of Marines stormed into the mud brick village in amphibious assault vehicles to provide security. Conlin and two interpreters went house to house, asking where they could find the village elder, while the Marines took up positions on sand berms that lined the town's muddy main street. They were directed to a three-building compound at the end of the main street with a stable in the front yard for cows, horses and donkeys. Inside, Conlin said, he expressed his concerns through interpreters. A villager told him residents were getting sick from bad water, Conlin said. The group emerged smiling, and chatted for awhile, while leaning against the hood of a Humvee parked in the yard. The Marines were invited to stay for lunch in the family's front yard. For many, it was their first direct contact with Iraqi citizens they did not consider hostile. The Marines left boxes of humanitarian rations and promised there would be more to come. Conlin brought one young lieutenant over to apologize because his platoon had broken down a door in town during its patrol the day before. Greg Serdynski, 22, a Navy corpsman from Gulfport, Miss., made balloons for the children out of rubber medical gloves. Both sides made jokes about removing President Saddam Hussein from power. The Marines bought cigarettes from the townspeople and handed out chewing gum. Some exchanged dollars for Iraqi dinars. Sgt. Steven Christopher, 23, of Derry, N.H., showed some of the Iraqis pictures of his family. "It was the best part of the war so far," said Christopher. "Up until now I wasn't sure they wanted us here, but they seemed really friendly. It was like the cowboys sitting down with the Indians." Others acknowledged that one warm reception does not make them safe in the countryside. "I'm not saying I'd want my own kids to walk down the center street," said Conlin, who added that he hopes today's scene can be repeated as the Marines continue to push toward Baghdad. "I do feel more comfortable here now," he said. "I can say that."

To: NickSE who wrote (43914)	3/30/2003 6:01:06 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

<"We don't want Saddam Hussein. He doesn't pay attention to our suffering," said Ferras Mohammed, 30, > It is tragic that Muslims nations around the globe are so insular to the misery of their brethren. For 35 years world riches nation resources are being squandered by bunch of thugs and bandits under Baath, this is called as legitimate regime of Baghdad who should not touched, these guys without any remorse engaged in 10 year war with Iran ( Iran had its problems too) a brotherly Muslim nation, killed 1.5 million people, what was the issue, on Shat-ul- Arab, the agreements on Shat were unilaterally discarded by Saddam and he went on to invade which he later claimed was on instigation of Saudi and Kuwaitis so as to save them from Khomeini’s revolution, than mass killing of dissidents within Iraqi hierarchy, every leader within central Iraq has its roots only amongst the 20,0000 strong Tikritis. The narrow base of this illegitimate regime raises no eyebrows within the entire Islamic world. Saddam and most of Muslim apologists claim is a tout of CIA, he did their bidding, even Kuwait was invaded because April Gillespie told his that US does not interfere in inter Arab disputes. Why don’t these apologists buy a small pacifier for all these thugs that they continue to defend, these thugs like Osama, Arafat and Saddam have none of their faculties of reasonable conduct intact, whatever they did was CIA instigation and hence they should continue to go on with their evil conduct. My answer to these apologists is that nations are led by intelligent leaders, all nations make mistakes and nations have their own national interests, US has one too, they will and have sold nations short when they don’t need them look at Basra today the reason Basra is quiet is that they haven ot forgotten the betrayal of 1991. These bunch of thugs who seem to become the centre of Islami attraction should be driven by freedom, democracy and betterment of their people fate, on these three counts they would be judged and if someone tells them to do something foolish they should give them a firm no, nothing is more paramount then national interest of populace and that is eradication of extreme poverty. Today we should have no mercy and feeling of regret fro Saddam out hearts should go out to people who are being liberated and people who are liberating them that counts only. Iraq under Saddam is colonialism of worst kind where 25 million are ruled by few thousand Tikritis and the nation of Islam wants to encourage this enforced slavery of their brethren, the reason they gleefully like this is that he can show some teeth to 'Americans,' the rage of impotence comes on the surface, until nation of Islam does not get rid of these handful of bandits like Arafat, Saddam and Osama they will trapped in this misery, every political opportunity and every occasion where hundred of millions of poor Muslims can break through from the shackles of poverty even a ray of hope is forcibly taken away from them. The arm chair Muslim politicians really never want a change in Iraq; giving rights to people will mean similar demands in their own country. Just remove these thugs amongst them and like Afghanistan the Arab street once again to her peril realize that they were backing a fallen idol. From first Gulf war to Mogadishu and recently to Afghanistan and Kosovo where Serbs wanted to revenge 1368 victory of Ottomans by eliminating the entire Muslim population in late 90’s, one nation has helped eradicate injustices and some of those intervnetions has been without any authorisation of UN, Milosevic is now a war criminal he had blood of thousands of the Muslims on his hand, the European Union inept handling of Balkans lead to killing of thousands of these Muslims in Srebrenica and Bosnia until Dayton Peace Plan came to the rescue of Bosnians. There are hundred of thousands of women going to school and colleges in Kabul a luxury that was denied to them under Talebin, most of the fortunate Muslims hate US intervention but most of them have their daughters and next of kin in US schools and take great pride in US education, for the less fortunate populations most of these people sit and want these poor people to keep suffering under tyrants, the rights of differing opinions these guys can have through their colonial education is denied to populace being grind ot non-existence under these despotic regimes all around the Islamic world, this is a new renaissance, no Mosques is being razed or proselytising taking place rather Shiites poverty struck shoeless with untended bellies are being provided that lifeline which was denied to them since 30 years of Saddam rule. The marshlands Arabs have their own rich culture, 50 billion barrel of oil sits under their land, 150 billion $ of that as been spent by Saddam in last 15 years on wasteful wars and they sit their in huts and resources so meagre that even African standards look better, does Islamic nations or Arab Street has gone blind? Or they have lost their conscience, can’t they see how horribly these people have been treated, should they not be unshackled from this long reign of terror! Anyone who does this service it is an angel and anyone who considers this a violation of human rights should see this if the same regime would have done this to his own household, look around you and those of you who consider me traitor would realize that what I am asking for these poor people is same luxury what we have around us. The most common logic in Islamic land is that we hate Saddam and the Iraqis should bring the change within, that logic after the initial stages of war should be taken with some pinch of salt, with ten layers of security apparatus to safeguard his evil regime the only way for these poor Muslim Arabs was to throw the yoke away with external provocations, end of Saddam will bring a lot of smile to these marsh land and within the valley of Tigris and Euphrates right across to Mosul and Kirkuk. A new dawn is breaking, welcome every lover of mankind some 25 million people will be free.