LOL: The Iraqi (officer) explained, he didn't have a shovel.

[Flabbergasted]

Not sure what the proverb is but I'm sure its there somewhere.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gGqUNWnNmDIC7My3xsdckWCHoevQ

US Starts Late Manning Iran-Iraq Border
By KIM GAMEL – 2 hours ago

ZURBATIYA, Iraq (AP) — The U.S. colonel had a simple question.

"Where are the signs you were supposed to get?" he asked the Iraqi border guard as they stood on a remote desert road believed to be a smuggling route from Iran.

The Iraqi officer pointed his flashlight at three signs that were intended to alert motorists to checkpoints. The signs were lying on a mound of sand.

"Why haven't you put them up?" Col. Mark Mueller asked during a late-night inspection. "All you have to do is pound the stakes into the ground."

But, the Iraqi explained, he didn't have a shovel.

Such are the obstacles facing U.S. soldiers as they increase training of Iraqi border guards in this sparsely populated mountainous area southeast of Baghdad, believed to be a major route for weapons and fighters slipping into the country from Iran.

The former Soviet republic of Georgia sent 2,000 troops to help last month, but they haven't yet left a major base in the area. Mueller and his troops are also getting a late start, basically trying to secure the thinly patrolled border from scratch after it was largely ignored during more than four years of war.

The area has attracted new U.S. attention as the military steps up allegations that Tehran is aiding Shiite extremists who have killed hundreds of American troops with powerful bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, believed to be brought in from Iran. Tensions between the two countries also have been rising over Iran's nuclear program and the recent detentions of each others' citizens.

Mueller, 48, from Yorktown, Va., is the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's border transition team at the heart of an intensified U.S. push to stop the smuggling. The strategy is similar to American efforts elsewhere in Iraq — build up the infrastructure and train the Iraqi forces to take over eventually.

[DS1]

1. dismantle another sign and use it to pound the rest into the ground

no ingenuity or desire, imo

[sam sarrha]

3. in uncle was the middle east and the locals ruined a $2,500,000 gunite pump, they left concrete

in it to harden after work... when turned on in the morning it exploded.. they said they didn't clean it out because that was womens work and there were no women around to do it.

it is a parallel universe there.. we cant even imagine

[TomInTib]

8. Perfect.

A shining example of culture clash.

We won't be able to figure out the nuances in a hundred years.

[dipsydoodle]

11. Lol

I suppose their shirts don't get ironed either. :rofl:

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. Imagine how their bathrooms must smell

[sam sarrha]

15. i was in NW africa in the he peace corps in 73, they are pretty clean, but there is no toilet paper,

there is a coffee can of water by the hole in the floor, Turkish toilets are cool.. they use there left hand to wipe their butts after they shit and rinse their hand in the can of water.. that is why it is serious when a their loses their hand.. they all eat collectively out of the same bowl... a thief could starve, unless they eat with other thieves.

it is also probably why disease kills so many children there

[DS1]

13. oh yes, the "parallel universe" where hard work is unheard of

fuck that action. sometimes you are given a task, and lives depend on that task, and you do it. In this case, lives did depend on these signs being placed, but the person in charge didn't give a shit about it. Fine, fuck em. It's times like these where I side with the Blackwater crew and say destroy everything, because the ones who are supposed to be helping clearly don't give a fuck.

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. That's what they TOLD your uncle

Jesus, it's like nobody's read any history of colonialism. They didn't clean it out because they didn't want to or they had some issue with it. Or, they didn't like it. They told your uncle that they didn't clean it out because it was women's work, an excuse sure-fired to piss him off. There are a million stories like this in the history of colonialism. Read any British rag from the about 1850-1940 and you'll find thousands of similar anecdotes. Hell, read EM Forster for that matter. The colonials always think it is the natives being imbeciles, but, of course, it is the natives playing the game. "Colored People's Time" wasn't some deficit of thought or plain culture clash. It was a labor strategy.

Hint to astounded Westerners: the natives aren't stupid. They're FUCKING WITH YOU....

I learned this lesson at my father's knee when he was running French chemical plants in Kuala Lumpur, Abidjan, and Port-au-Prince. I remember a number of times as a small boy seeing some ridiculous incompetence (putative) among the Ivorians or the Haitians and saying to my father "Look what he's doing! Why is he doing it wrong?" My father would smile knowingly and say "He's doing it on purpose. He doesn't like us."

We didn't have any shovels. Riiiiiiiiight.

It's not even that they don't give a fuck. This stuff is a mode of resistance. Do we have to learn these lessons all over again.

[sam sarrha]

16. that was the sub story in 'The Sand Pebbles', and book is 100X better than the movie

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. It's a common trope of colonialism

[terisan]

2. PASSIVE AGRESSIVE !

[TomInTib]

4. "The apples were shoveled into barrels and burned"

Goodness, this reminds me of something.

But I just don't want to think that far back in time.

[Flabbergasted]

5. Is it that painful? nt

[TomInTib]

6. Not that kind of painful.

But I was given a ride home by a Tiburon policeman this morning, and my mind isn't working too well right now.

And I have to rest up for a Wine Cruise at 6:30.

Sometimes, it is hard work.

[Flabbergasted]

7. ...

Get thrown in the drunk tank buddy?

[TomInTib]

9. No, just walking down the street.

But only barely.

They rarely throw locals in jail unless there is some sort of disturbance.

I was only pissing on a dumpster.

[Flabbergasted]

10. lol