US military furious at soldiers who converted and married Iraqis

Sunday Times ^ | Sunday 02 Nov 2003 | The Telegraph, London

[yonif]

Two US soldiers in Baghdad face charges of dereliction of duty after they converted to Islam and married two Iraqi women in defiance of orders.

Sergeant Sean Blackwell and Corporal Brett Dagen fell for two Iraqi translators. But few have empathised with the romances that began when the Americans met the women in the hotel that the soldiers were guarding.

The women are now in hiding after receiving death threats from those who consider them to be, quite literally, sleeping with the enemy, while Blackwell, 27, and Dagen, 37, are awaiting charges for dereliction of duty.

The men married while supposedly on foot patrol in August, conducting a hastily arranged joint ceremony in full combat gear, M16 rifles to hand. They have been confined to base while "the incident" is investigated.

A spokesman for the 1st Armoured Division said: "They disobeyed a direct order from their commanders not to get married. They also neglected their duty while on patrol. They're in serious trouble."

The plight of the women is no less grave. Joanne, 26, and her best friend Ahda, 25, have been in hiding since the weddings, fearful that they will be targeted as collaborators. The women have not seen their husbands since the day they tied the knot.

"The women will be turned away at the gate - just like any Iraqi national who tries to get in," a US officer said at the base where the men are confined. "They can communicate via letter or e-mail." There is little prospect that the couples will meet again before the soldiers' deployment comes to an end in eight months' time. The men will then face @ a lengthy battle to get visas for their wives.

All the women have to console them are photographs of their wedding day and an Iraqi marriage certificate which, in accordance with Islamic practice, shows a payment of $1 000 dollars by the grooms and a compensation pledge of 10 000 in case of divorce.

Iraq may be a staunchly conservative society, where weddings are arranged between cousins following tribal custom, but the story of star-crossed lovers struck a whimsical chord with war-weary Iraqis .

"'It's a beautiful idea," said 30-year-old Zena Ambouri, a civil engineer about the marriages.

"Personally I don't like the look of American soldiers. But why not? As long as the wedding followed Muslim law." But her sister Fatma, 21, wondered about the women's motives. "Life is very hard in Iraq . Everyone is looking for a way to get out and leave the violence behind. Perhaps this is what the women were after."

[Levante]

"Personally, I don't like the look of American soldiers."

Why? Because Americans have the annoying habit of shaving and bathing?

[Prince Caspian]

Perhaps this is what the women were after.

Gee, ya think?

[Arpege92]

This might get really ugly!

[First Amendment]

Marrying is one thing; the headline says that the American soldiers converted, but the article doesn't expand on this.

[gcruse]

Seems to me US soldiers should be free to do either.

[Consort]

Someday, Federation Forces will marry Vulcans and Romulans. No problem. Next thread.

[exit82]

These soldiers could have endangered others in their unit by getting married while on patrol. For all they knew it could have been trap to kill them. What if others on their patrol were attacked during the "ceremony" and they weren't where they needed to be to protect them?

The dereliction of duty charge is appropriate here.

[GovernmentShrinker]

a compensation pledge of 10 000 in case of divorce.

I'm afraid when the time comes, these soldiers will have come to their senses, and want to end the marriages. Then they'll be out a hefty chunk of change.

I hope commanding officers are now under orders to be on the lookout for these sorts of relationships developing, and transfer the lonely confused soldiers in question to another location in Iraq forthwith.

As for the conversion to Islam, that's a technicality required for a wedding to be performed under current Iraqi law. I doubt either the brides or the grooms are very serious about their official religious affiliation.

[Alouette]

It's not the marriage and the romance that is troubling, it's the conversion to Islam on the part of our soldiers. The girls should have converted to Christianity.

[kaboom]

The problem for these soldiers is that they apparently left their assigned posts (foot patrol)for the purposes of converting and marriage.

[wizardoz]

The women are now in hiding after receiving death threats from those who consider them to be, quite literally, sleeping with the enemy, while Blackwell, 27,

Ah well, young, dumb, and full of ***, what can you say? Too young to know any better, poor dumb sod.

.... and Dagen, 37

(screech of brakes) Old enough to know better, what kind of idiot is this?

Okay, well, whatever. You married these women, you're responsible for them. Bring 'em back to the states and prepare to have them offend your mom, take half your belongings, and bear children that you only get to see on weekends. Salud!

[lizbet]

I can see no reason for our boys to convert to a religion that teaches its followers to kill them! They may say that love conquers all but they are truly lacking in common sense.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[The women are now in hiding after receiving death threats from those who consider them to be, quite literally, sleeping with the enemy...]

LOL!

Well, I mean, after having "sampled the goods" so to speak, and, ah, well, vis a vis the "competition", ah, who could blame them...

[Steel Wolf]

Two US soldiers in Baghdad face charges of dereliction of duty after they converted to Islam and married two Iraqi women in defiance of orders.

What utterly shameless spin. These guys aren't in trouble because they're converting to Islam (which is clearly to facilitate their marriages). They're in trouble because they had unathorized contact with the locals, which is a very reasonable rule given the circumstances.

This article seems to imply that part of the charge against them was that they became Muslims, which is completely untrue.

[FairOpinion]

I read an earlier article, which said that the American soldiers converted to Islam, ot be able to marry the Iraqi women.

I personally think that was very poor judgment on their part.

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/964870/posts

"BAGHDAD, August 13 (IslamOnline.net) – Discovering an Islam that is totally different from the one smeared in their media, a number of American servicemen and women were said to have embraced Islam and married Iraqis.

"After daily interactions with Iraqi citizens and a first-hand experience in dealing with Muslims in the war-ravaged country, many U.S. soldiers willingly accepted Islam, " Sheikh Mahmoud el-Samydaei, member of Iraq’s Muslim Scholars Society, told IslamONline.net Wednesday, August 13.

A U.S. officer visited the Civil Affairs Court in the Baghdad district of el-Karkh earlier this week to declare: "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is His messenger."

The man later married Iraqi doctor Samar Ahmed whom we met while standing guard in Medicine City Hospital."


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/994844/posts

[FairOpinion]

Another article:

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/972708/posts

In spite of the prohibition, the soldiers -- National Guardsmen from the Florida Panhandle -- converted to Islam in an Iraqi court a couple of weeks before the ceremony.

[SkyPilot]

"Personally I don't like the look of American soldiers......{said 30-year-old Zena Ambouri, a civil engineer about the marriages.}

Well, yes, I can see the dilemma.

[pepsionice]

When one looks at the way this whole thing unfolded...you have to laugh. A couple of GIs fall madly in love, with very little contact, with a couple of Muslim women. Sounds like a plot for a Jerry Lewis movie. And then you add in the scene where Sgt Bubba and Private Bubba meet their commander to announce what they had done. I think we have a script for a $100 million dollar movie here. But who would play the two Burka gal's?

[FreedomCalls]

Marrying is one thing; the headline says that the American soldiers converted, but the article doesn't expand on this.

According to Iraqi law a man must be Muslim to legally marry an Iraqi woman. So they converted. What's wrong with that?