The Impact Of U.S. Culture On Iraq

Iraqi policemen assigned to the 2nd National Police Division's 8th National Police Brigade and U.S. paratroopers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, Multinational Division Baghdad look down a street while patrolling Sumer Al-Ghadier, in the 9 Nissan district of eastern Baghdad during Operation Asfah Ramlyah. The combined forces teamed up to confiscate several weapons and disrupt insurgent activity. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Alex Lice

A Quiet but Undeniable Cultural Legacy -- Washington Post

U.S. Occupation of Iraq Will End, but a Host of American Influences May Linger

Across the street from the tidy rows of tombstones in the British cemetery, mute testimony to the soldiers of an earlier occupation, Mustafa Muwaffaq bears witness to the quieter side of the United States' six-year-old presence in Iraq.

In wraparound sunglasses, shorts and shoes without socks, the burly 20-year-old student waxes eloquent about his love for heavy metal of all kinds: death, thrash, black. But none of it compares, he says, to the honky-tonk of Alan Jackson, whose tunes he strums on his acoustic guitar at night, pining for a life as far away as a passport will take him.

Read more ....

My Comment: I can only hope that they take the best of our culture, and not the worse.

U.S. Follows Iraqi Customs to Avoid New Enemies

HUSSENIYAH TOWN - U.S. Army Sgt. Joseph Baker, left, and Spc. Christopher Cumbie provide security in Husseniyah, Iraq, Jan. 22, 2009. Baker and Cumbie are assigned to the 25th Infantry Division's Company A, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class J.B. Jaso III

From The New York Times:

BAGHDAD — In Iraq, war deaths don’t always come via gunfire or exploding bombs. Sometimes, people get run over.

Near Samarra, last November, two Iraqi brothers were struck and killed by a vehicle that was part of a passing American military convoy.

The deaths were an accident. And against the backdrop of tens of thousands of deaths in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion, the incident received little attention.

But the small, halting gestures made by both the U.S. military and Iraqis in the weeks after the accident show how the U.S. has moved in a more serious way toward following certain Iraqi customs in order to avoid making new enemies.

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My Comment: Understanding the cultural uniqueness of a region or country makes a very difficult situation into one that can be (minimally) manageable.

Let us hope that the same understanding is going to be applied to Afghanistan.

Conservative Islam's Growing Influence In The Middle East

An Egyptian woman, right, wears a "niqab" a veil which shows only the eyes, as she walks with another, wearing the "hijab", or headscarf, left, in downtown Cairo, Egypt,Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Ultraconservative Islam On Rise In Mideast -- Breitbart/AP

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The Muslim call to prayer fills the halls of a Cairo computer shopping center, followed immediately by the click of locking doors as the young, bearded tech salesmen close shop and line up in rows to pray.

Business grinding to a halt for daily prayers is not unusual in conservative Saudi Arabia, but until recently it was rare in the Egyptian capital, especially in affluent commercial districts like Mohandiseen, where the mall is located.

But nearly the entire three-story mall is made up of computer stores run by Salafis, an ultraconservative Islamic movement that has grown dramatically across the Middle East in recent years.

"We all pray together," said Yasser Mandi, a salesman at the Nour el-Hoda computer store. "When we know someone who is good and prays, we invite them to open a shop here in this mall." Even the name of Mandi's store is religious, meaning "Light of Guidance."

Critics worry that the rise of Salafists in Egypt, as well as in other Arab countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, will crowd out the more liberal and tolerant version of Islam long practiced there. They also warn that the doctrine is only a few shades away from that of violent groups like al-Qaida—that it effectively preaches "Yes to jihad, just not now."

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My Comment: Corruption, hunger, poverty, social breakdown .... people always go to their religious roots when confronted with tough times. Everyone in Egypt is suffering .... it is therefore no surprise that many are reverting to their grandparents view of Islam.

Fruits Of Evil That Caused Gaza Refugee Death

Gaza

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

IT BEGAN with a mango three years ago. A member of Gaza's powerful Masri clan had stopped to buy fruit at a roadside stall in 2005, but the vendor did not have enough small change to break his 20 shekel note - equal to $5.

The Masri man pulled a gun and killed the vendor, who was a member of the Abu Taha clan.

By the end of last year, the ensuing feud had claimed the lives of 29 people - 10 from neither clan. Sixty had been wounded and homes and businesses on both sides had been torched.

"We want to kill one more to be equal," a member of the Abu Taha clan told a researcher for International Crisis Group. But then the toll moved to 10 Abu Taha and 11 Masris dead - and the Masris vowed revenge.

Read more ....

My Comment: An eye for an eye is a part of Middle East Arab culture that goes back centuries. This is one of the reasons why I was against the Iraq invasion when it occurred in 2003, blow-back and revenge is not a hornet's nest that you want to shake and kick around.

It was fortunate for the U.S. that Al Qaeda and their allies over reached and started to be the worse of the worse when it came to Iraq's tribal and family communities. The same can now be said of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Family. Tribe. And culture.

In North America we identify with the nation state. Our culture and sense of identity is tied to this country. This is one of the many reasons why America is so strong in the world today. We are a melting pot that has learned to work together when the need arises.

In the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia, it is the family and tribe that unifies a people, with religion being the ideology that transcends boundaries. This has fractured each nation state into multiple and different groups .... with many of them hating each other.

Yesterday, I had a post on the Niger Delta in Nigeria, and I made the following comment:

30 million people broken into 40 odd ethnic groups, speaking 200 different dialects and languages .... and they all are hostile to each other. Talk about ethnic tension.

Yes .... talk about ethnic, tribal, and racial tension. It is no surprise that nothing can be done.

If done properly, an imperial power can easily play each faction against each other .... a practice that the United States has learned a lot since 9/11 .... and is being a very good practitioner of it today. But in the long run it is never good to hang around these neighborhoods .... you will just end up being one of those tribes, allbeit the strongest one.