At U.S. base, Iraqis must use separate latrine

[TechBear_Seattle]

At U.S. base, Iraqis must use separate latrine

The sign taped to the men's latrine is just five lines:

"US
MILITARY
CONTRACTORS
CIVILIANS
ONLY!!!!!"

It needed only one: "NO IRAQIS."

Here at this searing, dusty U.S. military base about four miles west of Baqouba , Iraqis— including interpreters who walk the same foot patrols and sleep in the same tents as U.S. troops— must use segregated bathrooms.

Another sign, in a dining hall, warns Iraqis and "third-country nationals" that they have just one hour for breakfast, lunch or dinner. American troops get three hours. Iraqis say they sometimes wait as long as 45 minutes in hot lines to get inside the chow hall, leaving just 15 minutes to get their food and eat it.

It's been nearly 60 years since President Harry Truman ended racial segregation in the U.S. military. But at Forward Operating Base Warhorse it's alive and well, perhaps the only U.S. military facility with such rules, Iraqi interpreters here say.

The article continues at http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20070803/wl_mcclatchy/20070803bcusiraqsegregation_attn_national_foreign_editors_ytop

It is a good thing they hate us for our freedom, because we certainly give them many other reasons to hate us.

[EFerrari]

1. Oh, christ. We need brakes for this slide.

:(

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Iraqis must ride in the back of the bus, too?

Our unique brand of "freedom and democracy.":thumbsdown:

[cspanlovr]

3. OMG! Exporting the Old South to the Middle East. Wonderful.

x(

[atreides1]

4. Several Possible Reasons

The military doesn't trust the Iraqis, or perhaps it's an American supremacist concept?

It doesn't look like the chain of command has any problems with it, after all what's an Iraqi, besides another type of "raghead", right?

[stillcool]

5. from the same article...

"It sucks," Ahmed Mohammed , 30, said of the latrine policy. He called the signs— in English and Arabic— "racist."

He's worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military since 2004. He's college educated and well versed in the ways of Western plumbing. He said Warhorse was the only American base where he'd encountered U.S.-only signs on latrines and country-of-origin restrictions on dining hours.

"I live in the same tent with 80 Americans," he said.

Mohammed works for L-3 Titan Group , a unit of New York -based L-3 Communications . He declined to have his picture taken for publication. He fears for his life. He said his brother was killed last year in Baghdad for working for an American company.

Mohammed has sold his house and has squirreled away enough money to buy visas for his family of four. He said he intended to quit soon and emigrate to Germany . The latrine policy is part of the reason, he said.

...winning hearts and minds, and spreading our style of democracy.

[Ezlivin]

6. Cultural differences

Not everyone uses the same type of facilities.

Take a look at this collection of toilets in the Middle East.

Most Middle Easterner's squat while defecating; they do not sit on porcelain thrones. (And they wipe with their left hand. That's why you never, ever offer your left hand to shake!)

[EFerrari]

7. Did any Iraqis put up those signs?