← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Centinel
Thread ID: 10431 | Posts: 8 | Started: 2003-10-11
2003-10-11 22:34 | User Profile
The Independent: [url]http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=452375[/url]
**US soldiers bulldoze farmers' crops
Americans accused of brutal 'punishment' tactics against villagers, while British are condemned as too soft**
By Patrick Cockburn in Dhuluaya 12 October 2003
US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.
The stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protrude from the brown earth scoured by the bulldozers beside the road at Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of Baghdad. Local women were yesterday busily bundling together the branches of the uprooted orange and lemon trees and carrying then back to their homes for firewood.
Nusayef Jassim, one of 32 farmers who saw their fruit trees destroyed, said: "They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but this is not true. They didn't capture anything. They didn't find any weapons."
Other farmers said that US troops had told them, over a loudspeaker in Arabic, that the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not informing on the resistance which is very active in this Sunni Muslim district.
"They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees," said one man. Ambushes of US troops have taken place around Dhuluaya. But Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri, a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees, said American officers described what had happened as "a punishment of local people because 'you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us'." What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added.
The destruction of the fruit trees took place in the second half of last month but, like much which happens in rural Iraq, word of what occurred has only slowly filtered out. The destruction of crops took place along a kilometre-long stretch of road just after it passes over a bridge.
Farmers say that 50 families lost their livelihoods, but a petition addressed to the coalition forces in Dhuluaya pleading in erratic English for compensation, lists only 32 people. The petition says: "Tens of poor families depend completely on earning their life on these orchards and now they became very poor and have nothing and waiting for hunger and death."
The children of one woman who owned some fruit trees lay down in front of a bulldozer but were dragged away, according to eyewitnesses who did not want to give their names. They said that one American soldier broke down and cried during the operation. When a reporter from the newspaper Iraq Today attempted to take a photograph of the bulldozers at work a soldier grabbed his camera and tried to smash it. The same paper quotes Lt Col Springman, a US commander in the region, as saying: "We asked the farmers several times to stop the attacks, or to tell us who was responsible, but the farmers didn't tell us."
Informing US troops about the identity of their attackers would be extremely dangerous in Iraqi villages, where most people are related and everyone knows each other. The farmers who lost their fruit trees all belong to the Khazraji tribe and are unlikely to give information about fellow tribesmen if they are, in fact, attacking US troops.
Asked how much his lost orchard was worth, Nusayef Jassim said in a distraught voice: "It is as if someone cut off my hands and you asked me how much my hands were worth."
2003-10-11 22:57 | User Profile
This is absolutely despicable -- a heartless act worthy of even the Israelis. It's also a war crime.
The same paper quotes Lt Col Springman, a US commander in the region, as saying: "We asked the farmers several times to stop the attacks, or to tell us who was responsible, but the farmers didn't tell us."
Maybe they didn't f__king know who was responsible. And even if they did, they're obviously too frightened to rat anyone out lest they be killed in retaliation. The US-ZOG stormtroopers are making those poor farmers choose between losing their livelihood and losing their lives!
2003-10-11 23:05 | User Profile
Truly sickening. And foolish. We are raising a new generation of people who will kill themselves in order to throw off their oppressors.
2003-10-11 23:31 | User Profile
Feeling an urge to swim in :dung:, I took a plunge into [url=http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/999541/posts]FreeRepublic[/url]. This reponse was typical:
[COLOR=Blue]If these villagers were aiding those who are killing our soldiers it seems the right thing to do. Yes it appears harsh but what else could we do after several warnings, especially if the villagers knew who the guerillas are?
The villagers did not choose well if they chose to protect the guerillas.
Of course this is if this story is true.
30 posted on 10/11/2003 2:06 PM PDT by swheats[/COLOR]
And then there's this (red text is quote from a previous post):
[COLOR=Red]Unfortunately, U.S. troops sometimes do resort to tactics like this. And worse.
Ever hear of My Lai?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=Blue]Well tearing up some fruit trees is a far cry from the My Lai massacre.We had a saying in the Army "We're here to win your hearts and minds... or we'll burn your f***in huts down." Some times you got to do just that.
41 posted on 10/11/2003 3:50 PM PDT by edchambers (Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?)[/COLOR]
:angry: How many more fighters did the resistance just recruit because of this :censored:?
2003-10-12 00:23 | User Profile
More details here: [url=http://forums.originaldissent.com/showthread.php?t=10434]To Avenge Their Trees, Iraqi Farmers Threaten Resistance[/url]
2003-10-12 18:12 | User Profile
A disgusting act that plays right into the hands of the Iraqi resistance, just as the jews' identical measures do in the West Bank. And don't think for a moment that "our boys" wouldn't instantly comply if ordered to do the same to any of us.
2003-10-12 18:24 | User Profile
[B][SIZE=5]We now live in a Soviet America!!!! [/SIZE][/B]
N.B. Forrest,
Sadly you most Right! [QUOTE]And don't think for a moment that "our boys" wouldn't instantly comply if ordered to do the same to any of us.[/QUOTE]
But I think we already proved that in 1861.
2003-10-12 18:45 | User Profile
Freepers are sick! Some them say it is all lies, and some them say it was a good thing to do. Make up your mind Freepers. Only a few attacked this savage act.
[QUOTE]To: All
I hope this is a false report. After reading it I expected the source to be al-jazeri.
We are supposed to be the good guys.
17 posted on 10/11/2003 1:25 PM PDT by Ahban
To: solo gringo
Then you believe that this story is accurate? Doesn't it bother you? So we only took their property and livelyhood instead of their lives. It hardly consoles me that we are somewhat less vicious than Saddam.
26 posted on 10/11/2003 1:57 PM PDT by Ahban
To: Husker24
"I dont believe this crap for a second, for one thing, this is not something we would do, for another the press would be all over it like flies on sh!t."
Unfortunately, U.S. troops sometimes do resort to tactics like this. And worse.
Ever hear of My Lai?
39 posted on 10/11/2003 3:34 PM PDT by Big Midget
To: Big Midget
Yep, young and scared draftees led by several incompetant officers.
Maybe our troops should do what the french did to stop ambushes of conveys.
In Viet Nam to stop the viet minh from attacking conveys in towns, go the head men together and volunteered their relatives to ride exposed on the vehicles.
Funny thing happen ambushes stopped.
The war then moved out of the cities and into less inhabited areas.
Of course the frogs not knowing what else to do gave up. Didn't the US Army do the same???
40 posted on 10/11/2003 3:39 PM PDT by dts32041 (Is it time to practice decimation with our representatives?)
To: concerned about politics
"They need food, so I doubt VERY much we'd destroy it."
2 words! "Agent Orange", we used it to destroy food too.
42 posted on 10/11/2003 3:52 PM PDT by Bringbackthedraft (Has anyone seen our Senator Hillary? NY wants to know; "Where is she today?")
To: Pokey78
If our soldiers did this, then I know they had a damned good reason.
How hard is it for the farmers to say "We are innocent, were not sheltering terrorists"?
If this happened two weeks ago, you can bet some other soldiers would have gotten the story out.
It amazes me that something like this gets printed somewhere and dem spies, whoops, I mean freepers start condemning the U.S.
50 posted on 10/11/2003 5:54 PM PDT by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll keep getting what you always get)
To: Support Free Republic
Support: I sent off a check today for $25.00. That is all that I can afford right now, but I always send that amount every quarter. Use it anyway that you see fit.
The very best to you and yours.
Semper Fi Tommie [email]texmarine@sbcglobal.net[/email]
51 posted on 10/11/2003 5:54 PM PDT by Texican (I have donated, why don't you?????) [/QUOTE]