Former US Army translator: military treated Iraqis ambiguously during occupation
Photo: Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters
During the occupation, the American military treated the Iraqis ambiguously: from malice to respect for local traditions. A former translator who collaborated with the occupying forces of the US Army said this in an interview with RIA Novosti.
The translator said that he divided the military in their attitude towards the Iraqis into three groups: the first supported the idea of the occupation of Iraq and harbored anger towards the local population, the second doubted the correctness of the actions of the US leadership, the third isolated themselves from politics and went to the service just to be able to get higher education.
He noted that the servicemen treated him very respectfully and showed sympathy for him. “I remember that in most cases, when there were no assignments, we played sports games – football, baseball, consoles, sat in a company and talked about different topics, talked about life and traditions,” said the translator.
According to the Iraqi translator, his commanding officer constantly clarified the subtleties of working with the local population, so as not to provoke them to aggression during searches of houses and the search for suspects. In such cases, he explained that if there are women in the building, then let them sit in one room and put on their hijabs, and the men will be in another room. “In most cases, the information turned out to be erroneous, as it came to us because of family squabbles, conflicts between neighbors, or, for example, the wife had a fight with her husband and said that he was a terrorist or extremist. We rushed in to him, detained him, after checking it turned out that he was not to blame, ”the translator added.
He also noted cases of a positive attitude towards Americans, who saw that they came to them for the sake of peace and order in the country. “There were those who collaborated with the Americans, sometimes when we entered the house, they poured tea for us, treated us to sweets, people greeted the American military,” the man said.
