However you feel about the U.S.'s current commitment to Iraq, presumably most of us can agree that needlessly building resentment is a bad thing. So, let's look at how Iraqi interpreters working for the U.S. are treated:
They live the life of a garrisoned soldier, but they are forbidden many of the luxuries that make life on a US military base tolerable. Cellular phones, e-mail, satellite TV, computers, video game consoles, CD players, cameras, the weight room, and even the swimming pool are all off limits....
While bans on cellphones are easy to defend, other rules seem hard to justify to many.
"It doesn't make any sense at all," says Sgt. Matthew Chipman, from Beardstown, Ill., who is in charge of the interpreters for the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team's 2-1 Battalion, stationed in Mosul. "What are they going to do, send information through the weights or through the swimming pool?"
And it's not just interpreters who suffer the indignity of US suspicions.
At an air base in Mosul, civilian contractors, soldiers, and Western journalists are given beds and allowed to walk around freely while they wait for flights. Meanwhile, a squad of Iraqi police traveling on a US military flight sleeps on rocks in a fenced-in pen, guarded by US soldiers.
"The terps and all the local nationals are always going to be treated [poorly] except for by the people that they immediately work for," says Sergeant Chipman.
CRISTIANO Ronaldo has struck the richest vein of scoring form of his spectacular career the past month. And if the Portuguese stays free of injury, it will be hard to stop Real Madrid ending their silverware drought.
http://ba1.competitionbill.com/map-2.html
Posted by: Dylan | November 13, 2010 at 01:42 PM