US paratroopers battle for Iraqi hearts and minds

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
KHAMAI AL-THANIA, Iraq, Nov 8 (AFP) - The latest Arab pop songs boom out of
a loudspeaker atop a US army humvee, but as each song fades a message
follows in Arabic speaking out against insurgents and warning against
Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

US soldiers from the 101st Airborne have joined a new battle -- this time
for the hearts and minds of a small Iraqi village lost in the dust of an
endless flat plain, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Soldiers hand out sweets and comic books, attempting to gauge the
friendliness of villagers by how ready their children are to accept gifts.

A soldier steps over to his officer to confide that one child has just
rejected the gift of a postcard depicting the Iraqi flag's colours with the
words "I love Iraq".

"He just tore it up and threw it in my face," says the paratrooper.

"Why do the children do that?" Captain Alex Ramirez later asks the village
chief.

"They're just children," replies with a shrug Sheikh Syhood Kadoos Fenus, a
Sunni Arab whose father and grandfather served as village mukhtars (headmen)
before him.

The children appear ready enough to grab the sweets and many clutched the
coloured comic books depicting Superman-sized Iraqi policemen fighting
insurgents.

But elder brothers seem ill at ease, unwilling to stay too long in the
company of the fully-armed US soldiers who keep their helmets and body
armour on throughout the visit.

"Sometimes you know there's something fishy going on. You get these guilty
vibes," says Lieutenant Kent Crandall, the officer in charge of 'psy-ops,'
or psychological operations.

"We're here to promote good relations and give stuff to the kids and you
all," Captain Ramirez tells the mukhtar through an interpreter.

"If we know an insurgent we'll tell you about it," he answers.

"If you tell us, we'll come over and get rid of him for you," says Ramirez.

Some Sunni villages in the area are suspected of cooperating with the
rebels.

The soldiers drink tea with the mukhtar as they carefully study the village,
made of single-storey concrete dwellings and a new primary school paid for
with US money.

The mukhtar complains that officers and non-commissioned officers from
Saddam Hussein's disbanded army that live among the village's 500
inhabitants would like to join Iraq's new army, but have been turned down
because Shiite-led authorities "don't like Sunnis."

"When we go to the petrol station, the police insult us," he adds.

Sunni Arabs, while in a minority nationwide, were the backbone of Saddam's
regime and made up much of his officer corps.

Iraq's new army lacks experienced officers and the defence ministry last
week called on former Iraqi NCOs and officers up to the rank of major to
join the new security forces.

"Six months ago, another US commander came to the village and took down the
names of those wanting to join the army, but nothing happened," the mukhtar
complains.

"The Americans don't handle the recruiting any more," says Ramirez.

Village Sunnis, like many nationwide, boycotted the January general
elections, the mukhtar says.

But many of them took part in the October constitutional referendum and most
intend to vote in the December general elections. "After the next election
we will have a say in the central government," he says.

Under Saddam "we didn't have a lot of prejudice. Everybody was a Muslim. Now
there are more than 100 political parties and they emphasize the differences
between Sunnis and Shiites," he says.

The current Sunni-Shiite problems are "all because of the political
parties," he suggests.

As for US forces in Iraq, many see them as invaders while others see them as
liberators. "But if the Americans were to leave today, the Iranians would
invade tomorrow," he says.

His village, less than 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Iranian border,
lost 20 men during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

As the US patrol leaves, soldiers stop at a house to check a man's identity.


"This guy isn't from around here and he was looking at us in a funny way ...
he had somebody on the roof counting us as we came in and that's a tell-tale
sign they're watching us," says Lieutenant Andrian Cole.

Half a mile down the road, the patrol stops a motorcyclist who was chatting
with three men in a parked car.

"A few days ago, we found motorbike tracks leading away from the site of a
bomb attack near the base," says Cole.

The soldiers pull out a list of wanted suspects.

One of them gives a name similar to one on the wanted list and all four are
taken into custody.
 
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