Posted on 11/16/2011 6:53:22 AM PST by Cardhu
SOKUR, Iraq — The name of this dusty little village means falcon in Arabic, a reference to its history as a residential community for workers at a nearby airport. But most people in Iraq call it Traitor Town.
“It’s not fair, but it’s true,” one market vendor here said about the nickname, pointing down the street to the walls of a now-empty American base just beyond.
Years ago, the residents of this town formed an alliance with the Americans who had moved into the airport and renamed it Speicher Base.
Nearly every young man in the town worked at the base, making this place an illustrative, if extreme, example of the unfortunate turn of fate for Iraqis who took jobs with the United States military during the nearly nine-year war, and who are now being left behind.
A United States visa program for them is stalled in red tape, while the Iraqi government has no formal program to help. Though these workers were laid off months ago, they are now, finally and irrevocably, deprived of their job opportunities, off the bases and being shunned, or worse.
“At least they could come by to say goodbye, and say thank you, or maybe sorry to leave you in this disturbing situation,” the mayor, Adel Turki, said of the Americans in an interview. “But nobody said goodbye.”
Nobody denies, either, that the village had a heyday with the American base next door. Workers bought cars, built homes and started families.
But back in February, “the American guys say ‘no more work in Speicher,’ ” Mustafa Nasser, a laborer, said in English, which is widely if imperfectly spoken in this town. Mr. Nasser made a gesture of washing his hands, and then of waving them in the air, as if showing helicopters disappearing...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Iraq is the next South Vietnam. When the dimocrats and Nixon cut and ran from Vietnam, IT FELL. This is going to happen to Iraq. We left behind thousands of South Vietnamese who worked for the USA and supported the USA, to only die and pay a horrible price for their support too us. That is going to happen again in Iraq. Some of those people are going to be executed for supporting us. The good ole USA. We come, we use you, we leave and you die. What a deal. Thanks dimocrats. You once again have made the American military look like crap and exposed us around the world for what we have become, because of our so called crack head leaders, users and runners.
There it is Jim. Remember it like it was yesterday. 58,000 wasted deaths. You can add the folks of Iraq to this new list.
Can you imagine how the soldiers that worked with the Iraqis feel? I know one and he is very sad to know that the people he bonded with are probably going to die.
The blood of the forthcoming reprisals will be soley on Obummer’s hands.
“Mr. Abu Ali has a note, signed by an American lieutenant, that says, “This letter of recommendation is testament to his personal character and selfless services to our men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces.” The note adds that he “provided information freely to my soldiers about current situations.”
Mr. Abu Ali said of the letter, “When I want to die I’ll show this to a business” in Iraq while applying for a job.”
Now that is being smart. :)
Yes. Then it will be Afghanistan's turn.
In the mind of President Omoslem, any Iraqi who worked with the Americans is a traitor to Islam.
Omoslem will therefore enjoy watching the Iraqis get slaughtered.
One word: Vietnam
But realistically, in a land where all are Moslems and Islam is the rule of the land, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Islam demands that all non-Moslems are bad. And what “moderate” Moslem has the guts to oppose the Islamist Moslems?
For the USSR, for the USA, for the AnyCountry, there is no long term win in an Islamic culture.
As the USA got basically nothing out of Iraq, what is the point of staying a long time? We don’t have the money to pour down rat holes. Now if we were getting Iraq oil for say, $30 a barrel, then different. But even the oil we get over there, I’ve heard, costs us more than in the USA.
And Afganistan? Russia must be looking at us and thinking, “Didn’t you learn from our lesson there?”
When the religion teaches hate for those not of the same religion, and the Country is ruled by that religion, the best is to get in quick, do the mission, and get out quick.
Look at Israel, they kept their Moslems (despite the Moslem countries getting rid of their Jews) and it has been nothing but trouble for them.
I’m from the US Government, and I’m here to help!
Yep, let’s take over the world, so we can give them all jobs on a military base. /s
You think the Times could have take one more paragraph to explain the significance of the name “Speicher Base”
Welcome to what we Americans have been experiencing for years from Mordor-on-the-Potomac: the shaft.
Third world citizen responds:
“No thanks, Buckwheat. We prefer being alive rather than being “free” Freedom and democracy don’t amount to sh!t if we’re dead. So we’ll continue to live in poverty under a dictator and you can get the hell out of here. Just keep the free bags of flour and rice coming and we’ll sort things out ourselves.”
I agree. Obama hates America as much as Mookie Sadr does.
It will only end like Vietnam if we let it end that way. It's our choice.
At the end of the day, America cuts her losses by “declaring victory and then watching the implosion from far away.” Few care, little is said or done usually as this happens. Only when you have the final days as in Saigon do you actually get some coverage, but in reality the lead up to that point took two years as the enemy pushed down what we had built and the systems and structures in place eroded.
American, in fact Western strategic security interests are decided upon in election campaigns, by good sounding seven second sound bites, with a horizon that looks out no more than 6 months to two years and centers around individuals, not the best interests of the nation as a whole. While there are greater collective security interests the entire West shares, truth is other than a small few (US, UK, Australia) most see the world provincially and are apathetic to these concerns, taking security in stride and for granted. Not even internally and those directly affected can come to agreement or refrain from playing silly games with these issues, i.e. Germany during the last intervention in Libya fell into the back of her own European allies.
No one is really served by this nonsense other than the politicians scoring some points, or some political party that opportunistically uses such an issue in opposition politics. So a candidate Obama might benefit by exploiting Iraq as did the Democrats at large since the 2004 presidential campaign when they decided that they were actually against the war they voted for. Of course in the 90s the same held true with the Balkans campaign which saw the Republicans use this intervention against the administration in a similar fashion. What the media and public never asks is how is the US, Iraq, Middle East, Western security is helped by politicizing these issues and making them into a zero sum game?
Whoa, we should be thanking them?
Exactly - what do neo-conservatives want us to do? Should we stay in Iraq and Afghanistan another 20 years only to have the Muslims still hate our presence? What are we gaining by spending money and soldier’s lives in these places hostile to us?
Why did we go there in the first place if we were doing to create a dependency? BTW The military did it’s war duty well, nation building needs local leadership.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.