Why have the US/UK troops not been greeted more warmly.

[Epidemic]

I am just curious as to what the other members here think is the reason US and UK have not been greeted with parades and flowers huggs and cheers.

[Creatures]

well you were already in Iraq and most of them helped you fighting saddam but you just ran away and saddam killed a lot of american-helping-people, so i guess they wont help you again

Creatures

[quux]

Originally posted by Creatures
well you were already in Iraq and most of them helped you fighting saddam but you just ran away and saddam killed a lot of american-helping-people, so i guess they wont help you again

Creatures

I second that. Besides, history tells that due to know-how administration is kept in place (below top level) - so who knows what really is to come ?

CC.

[pickel]

We're the INFIDELS, don't you know. If a hord of Muslums came over here to "liberate" us, would you trust them ??? I wouldn't, I'd feel that they were trying to get all they could get and leave us hanging, to stew in our own pot.

Can't blame them after aLL the PROPAGANDA and having lived under SaDamn for so long. The only thing that will convince them , is if Bush does as he says and uses their resources for their benefit.

[M_Six]

Fear, plain and simple.

Fear of the US. Fear of Saddam and his cronies. Fear of the unknown. These are not citizens of another country that has been overrun, like France in the 1940s or Kuwait 12 years ago. These folks have lived under this animal for decades and know nothing else but fear. Ever see one of those wildlife shows where some rangers free a trapped deer? Does the deer hang around to thank the rangers? Not a chance. All it knows is that it's terrified and it just wants to get back to "normal".

That's how the Iraqis are now. They're scared and want nothing to do with anyone other than those they know and trust, which can't be many people considering.

[nomaxim]

Well, there are people dancing around the British Tanks in Basra on CNN at the moment.

I'm not kidding, Just saw a boy of about 12 swinging on a Brit. tank barrel.

[Epidemic]

I would say that the people not attacking us with rocks in great quantity is a win after the way the UN treated them in 91. I say the UN because the US wanted to go and dethrone saddam but UN said we could not and our president at the time had no guts to stand up for what was right.

To see them dancing in any quantity is beyond my dreams. And to see them put their lives on the line like in baghdad uprisings is unbelievable considering that they live in the privileged city of Iraq. That means that even among the privilaged life sucked.

I am beyond extatic with their response thus far and I see no where but up from here.

I also do not think they fear us beyond the risk of approaching a military column that has been shot at by civillians before. They are wary of us leaving and wary of us shooting them as a suspected threat. But they do not fear our motives IMO as there is really no where but up from where they stand.

[caddmannq]

I'm with M_Six on this one. People have been fighting over this flea infested sand pit for thousands of years. In spite of any propaganda from any side, they're not gonna be happy about another war.

It's gonna take some time for them to realize that we didn't come to rape, plunder, and kill; like the previous dozen conquorers.

[Graham]

Option C, but more precisely "when they feel they can trust us this time"

G

[Theophylact]

we didn't come to rape, plunder, and kill like the previous dozen conquerors

Rape, no. Certainly not as a policy. Incidents are always to be expected (and the guilty are normally punished).

Kill, yes, within limits: I haven't seen a cumulative Iraqi casualty list yet, but it's surely in the thousands. Even when you're being liberated, you can get mad at someone who kills your mother.

As for plunder: we're probably not going to be able to pay the costs of this war with Iraqi oil, no matter how much we take, so plunder isn't a motive, but to Iraqis who see the oil revenues for the forseeable future disappearing into foreign pockets, it's sure going to feel like it.

So it may take quite some time for them to really welcome us.