U.S. Troops Get Drinks, Warm Welcome in Iraq Town

Reuters ^ | Sat April 5, 2003 | Sean Maguire

[crobnson]

Cheering Iraqis handed out soft drinks and offered cigarettes to U.S. Marines on Saturday, warmly welcoming the troops and making throat-slitting gestures at pictures of President Saddam Hussein.

The Marines rolled into this town, 50 miles southeast of Baghdad, to tackle any pockets of resistance from Saddam loyalists bypassed as the U.S. vanguard swept toward the capital in the last two days.

Instead they saw hundreds of young men heading away from the capital, apparently deserting the Iraqi army. Senior officials of Saddam's Baath Party had fled the town, residents said.

[crobnson]

Searched and didn't find this article.

Flowers!

[SamAdams76]

Soft drinks? Bah humbug. Give us beer!

[xm177e2]

Iraqi beer is supposed to be very, very good. When this war is over, I want to get ahold of a bottle... you know, to support the Iraqi economy.

[crobnson]

Even though this war has been easy, I don't think the troops would like to be under the influence right now. But just wait until their done. PARTY TIME!!!

[SevenofNine]

YEAH Sam you got that right
Got beer????

I think Iraqis majority of them had secret stash somewhere dont' forget Saddam palaces okay come on you think wacky Iraqi dictator didn't stash bottle or two

Dream on

[Prince Charles]

This town's about 70 miles SE of Baghdad.

[primeval patriot]

U.S. Troops Get Drinks, Warm Welcome in Iraq Town
Sat April 5, 2003 10:26 AM ET
By Sean Maguire

AZIZIYAH, Iraq (Reuters) - Cheering Iraqis handed out soft drinks and offered cigarettes to U.S. Marines on Saturday, warmly welcoming the troops and making throat-slitting gestures at pictures of President Saddam Hussein.

The Marines rolled into this town, 50 miles southeast of Baghdad, to tackle any pockets of resistance from Saddam loyalists bypassed as the U.S. vanguard swept toward the capital in the last two days.

Instead they saw hundreds of young men heading away from the capital, apparently deserting the Iraqi army. Senior officials of Saddam's Baath Party had fled the town, residents said.

Happy crowds milled around the Marines' armored vehicles, asking in faltering English if they had come to free Iraq or take their oil, as the Iraqi leadership has repeatedly claimed.

A loud hurrah went up as a Marine told the crowd that the U.S.-led forces had come to liberate them.

"Thank you for coming, now I don't have to serve in the army," said Taha Ahmed, 35. "All of us have run away from the Iraqi army, we don't want to fight, we are tired of war."

U.S. troops expressed disappointment in the early days of the invasion when instead of an expected welcome from Iraqis they met stiff resistance.

The Marines were slightly bemused by the warmth with which they were greeted in this medium-sized town but accepted the bottles of soft drinks they were offered and politely declined the cigarettes. A girl in a blue vest held out a pink flower to a passing U.S. vehicle.

"It sure beats having to shoot them," said one Marine, sweating heavily in his protective anti-chemical weapon suit under the blazing sun. The reception in Aziziyah mirrored the friendly atmosphere this correspondent saw in many Iraqi towns passed through in recent days.

BAATH OFFICIALS FLED

All Iraqi forces and senior officials of Saddam's Baath Party had fled the town two days previously, leaving the locals to loot and burn their offices and tear down posters of Saddam, said Sirown, 21, who was too afraid to give his family name.

Sirown said he had come to Aziziyah from Baghdad to escape the bombing of the Iraqi capital.

His friend, Ali, 27, pulled out a large bankroll, pointed at the picture of Saddam that graces each Iraqi banknote and drew his finger across his throat with a smile.

"People are very happy now. We couldn't speak before because the Baath Party would kill them. Now everything is OK," Ali said. He said the first thing he wanted any new government to change was the banknotes.

"Will we have new money or will we have dollars?" he asked.

The crowd were curious, querying how long the U.S. forces would stay, what would happen to oil revenues, when U.N. food distribution would restart and when the power and water supply would come back on.

Some asked why U.S. forces would have to stay up to two years in Iraq and when they would have their own army again.

"Will we have democracy and clean water soon?" asked Malek Farhan, who said he was a town councillor. He wondered if Saddam was still in power in the capital or if U.S. forces already in the city had succeeded in finding the Iraqi leader.

Many of the men on the streets said they had deserted the Iraqi army, either by walking away, abandoning their uniforms, or bribing their commander to give them discharge papers.

Along the main highway to Baghdad hundreds of young men in civilian clothes with short haircuts were walking away from the capital. Most appeared to be deserters trying to put distance between themselves and the continuing fighting.

"Thank you for coming. For 17 years I've been running away from the army," said Hassan Zebun, who said he was unable to marry or buy a house since he could not get a job with his deserter status.

Marines searched the town for weapons abandoned by fleeing Iraqi forces and discovered mortar rounds, rocket propelled grenades and thousands of rounds of machine gun ammunition.

Many towns captured by the U.S. Marines in the Tigris valley were lightly fortified, but the defenders melted away without ever seriously using their bunkers and trenches. Sizeable amounts of ammunition have been found and destroyed.

[Happy2BMe]

Counting the Time of Operation Iraqi Freedom

FREED IRAQI:S CHEERING CHAMPIONS OF FREEDOM WHO ARRIVED

[LibWhacker]

Call me a Nervous Nellie, but given Iraqi tactics, I wouldn't allow our troops to accept any food, drink or smokes from any natives, no matter how friendly they might seem. Remember: unconventional means.

[ApesForEvolution]

The warm and generous greetings are extremely refreshing and pleasant to hear about, but I certainly hope the locals are taste-testing what they're sharing in the presence of our troops *before* one of ours is poisoned.

Just a thought.

Some of these people will stoop as low as possible, as we've seen...

[Reagan is King]

Great story. I'll bet it killed Reuters to have to print it.

[Spruce]

Corporal Byron Estay of New Orleans, Louisiana, with the Marines of the U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), stands near a line of Iraqis waiting to collect water from the Euphrates river in the town of Nassiriya in central Iraq, April 5, 2003. Water and power supplies have been disrupted by fighting in the city for the last two weeks. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan

A U.S. Marine from a tank battalion, a part of the 7th Marine Regiment, cleans his pistol before a final push on the road South-East from the Iraqi capital Baghdad, April 5, 2003

[happygrl]

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND OUR SOLDIERS. MAY HIS GRACE AND PEACE REIGN IN IRAQ.

[NordP]

No, I thought the same thing!

[NordP]

AND, I thought this, too! ;-)

[sydbas]

Over at the dark and angry Democratic Underground, my comic relief for the night, they are trying to say that when an Iraqi gives the 'thumbs up' sign it is the equivalent to giving the finger.

[Diddley]

[8] For me, that picture says it all. Great!

[michaelt]

It used to mean that over there, but now the 'thumbs up' means to them what it means to us. At least that's what I read last week. If I can remember where I'll post it.

The DU types are as desperate as Saddam is.

[Keith]

The DU types are as desperate as Saddam is.



no, more...and Kerry's stupid comment was a suicide bomb.

[Howlin]

A very nice and noble gesture on your part.