~~~~~~~~~


US BUSY MAKING FRIENDS OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE, SPREADING GOODWILL THROUGHOUT THE REGION

"US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops."

--Who of course have every right to be there, and are justly shocked at being targets of an unfairly resistant local populace. The jazz is a morbid Apocalypse Now touch.

"Informing US troops about the identity of their attackers would be extremely dangerous in Iraqi villages, where most people are related and everyone knows each other. The farmers who lost their fruit trees all belong to the Khazraji tribe and are unlikely to give information about fellow tribesmen if they are, in fact, attacking US troops.

Asked how much his lost orchard was worth, Nusayef Jassim said in a distraught voice: 'It is as if someone cut off my hands and you asked me how much my hands were worth.'"

At least they're not using agent orange. They aren't using napalm either; napalm is made with gasoline. They're using a not-napalm made with kerosene. Smells different; leaves good will behind.

[Story here, with thanks to Ron Andrews for the nudge.]