Iraqis, GIs Share Uneasy Relationship

Hamza Hendawi
Associated Press
20 November 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - When a hail of bullets hit the car in which Jinan Adnan and her family were riding, she followed her maternal instincts - and paid with her life. Adnan, 37, used her body to shield her three children in the back seat. Her husband and the children survived. She was mortally wounded. Because American soldiers had been in a firefight nearby around the time, it remains unclear if a U.S. bullet killed her, though her husband, Aref Taha, says he saw four American soldiers firing in the car's direction. "That's what Americans do, isn't that so?" Taha said. "They do this all the time in Iraq."

Taha said he did not lodge a complaint with the U.S. military, which had no comment on the alleged incident. It is not clear why American soldiers would fire at a car carrying a family, although similar incidents have taken place when cars failed to stop at checkpoints. The four American soldiers moments earlier had checked the family's car for weapons, Taha said.

But even if it can't be proved that an American bullet killed Adnan, it's the kind of heartbreaking incident that Iraqis routinely blame on U.S. soldiers. Accounts of events such as the Nov. 9 shooting of the Taha family have spread through mosques, coffee shops and markets of this crisis-ridden nation, fueling anger and stoking the insurgency. The credibility Iraqis give to such accounts stems in part from the humiliation felt by many because of the U.S. military presence in Iraq despite the formal end to the occupation on June 28. Many of the stories amount to little more than hearsay or are grossly exaggerated. But some are credible, and they have contributed to an image of American troops as trigger-happy, fond of excessive force and acting with little regard for Iraqi lives.

The recent video of a U.S. Marine shooting a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque, aired frequently by Arab satellite television stations, has only served to reinforce the negative stereotype. "They are criminals," Zaid, Adnan's 15-year-old son, said of the Americans on Friday. His father said he cannot find words to describe his rage at the loss of his wife of 16 years. Making matters worse, U.S. troops surrounded the cemetery in Mahmoudiya, an insurgent-heavy area south of Baghdad, while his wife was being buried on Nov. 10.

Anmar Faleh, who attended the funeral, said the Americans told the 1,000 mourners that they surrounded the cemetery because they believed insurgents killed in a gunfight the previous day were being buried. The U.S. military has investigated virtually every case of unlawful killing or gross abuse by its soldiers in Iraq. Some of these investigations have led to trials and convictions. But Iraqis remain bitter.

Killings are not the only cause of discontent. Other acts that provoke rage include raids of private homes, the detention of women and the perceived humiliation of men in front of women and children. The recent U.S. military campaign to retake the Sunni city of Fallujah has given rise to an entirely new set of dangerous accusations. Residents who fled Fallujah this week speak of U.S. soldiers defacing mosques, destroying minarets to deny insurgents their use as firing positions and causing widespread devastation.

U.S. military commanders say their men operate under difficult circumstances in a country where they don't speak the language, don't share the Islamic faith of most of its people and face the constant threat of attack. Individual American soldiers complain that the rules governing when they can shoot are too restrictive and almost guarantee the insurgents the first shot. Despite the growing insurgent threat, the U.S. military has not stopped making overtures to the local population, distributing toys and school supplies to children and funding thousands of small and medium development projects. "What you have is scared young men and women with the potential to strike hard when faced with any perceived threat," said Marc Garlasco, a former Iraq analyst at the Pentagon who's now with Human Rights Watch, the New York-based rights group.

Garlasco blames some of the unlawful killings of Iraqis by American soldiers on cultural differences as well as the difficulties of identifying threats in populated areas. Adding to the fear and suspicion are methods used by the insurgents: booby-trapping corpses, pretending to surrender and then opening fire and ramming checkpoints with explosives-laden cars or suicide bombers. Nicole Choueiry, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International, says the human rights group has not detected a pattern of such killings by U.S. soldiers, but blames "recklessness" by the Americans for those that come to the attention of the London-based group.

Frank Schaeffer, the American author of the recently published book "Voices from the Front: Letters Home From America's Military Family," says U.S. soldiers in Iraq often long for a meaning for their mission and are eager to do good for Iraqis. "At the least sign of being appreciated by ordinary people in Iraq they are so happy," he wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

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Citation: Hamza Hendawi, "Iraqis, GIs Share Uneasy Relationship," Associated Press, 20 November 2004. Original URL: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041120/D86FHL4G0.html