Left cries foul over seperate restrooms at U.S. bases in Iraq
Part of the reason I got into this blogging business was to help dispel some of the inaccurate nonsense coming out of the media in general and the left in particular, when it comes to the war in Iraq. Today, I found a perfect example of that kind of nonsense.
When you want to find idiots talking to themselves, you go to the Democratic Underground. The way it works is, someone posts a portion of a news article, then the liberal masses take their turns making snarky remarks about said article.
Today’s story in question is this the following, which talks about how Iraqis are required to use separate latrines from the Americans at one of the Forward Operating Bases in Iraq:
FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq — 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…
…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.
There’s a lot more to the story, including some actual reasons it was done, but the DU failed to put that into their post. Of course, the charges of racism in the U.S. military immediately started. Here’s some of the choicer comments:
MisterP - Marines introduced Jim Crow into Haiti, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic when they controlled those countries in the 1900s-20s, disgusting the local populations to no end
WakeMeUp - Are our military leaders too good to have to share with the “brown people” who work on their base? Why does the U. S. get to decide who uses certain bathrooms in a country that is not their own? The arrogance astounds me.
tom_paine - Creating the Bushmerika oftheir dreams in Imperial Fredomstan. We are enslaving them over there, so the Royal Bushies can follow us home and enslave us over here.
For those of you who have never been to the Middle East, or some areas of Asia, people in that part of the world do not use toilets like North Americans and most Europeans do. We do our business sitting down. Arabs go number two squatting down over a hole in the floor. Their toilets, literally, are holes in the floor. The holes are sometimes very well constructed porcelain-lined holes, but they are holes nevertheless. They don’t use toilet paper. In fact, you more likely to see them using toilet paper as a napkin at a table than in the bathroom. They wash their rear ends using water and their left hand - thus the prohibition of eating with your left hand.
Whenever we had Westerners and Arabs living or working in close proximity, the subject of bathroom habits was a real problem. Because most Iraqis are unfamiliar with Western toilets, they don’t know how to use them. More than once, I’ve found toilet seats covered with shoe prints and mud, because the Arab person who used it before me didn’t understand that he was supposed to sit on the thing, and instead climbed up on it and squatted down over it. Often, in that position, his aim wasn’t particularly good and he didn’t quite put everything in the bowl. Plus, since they use water to clean themselves, you would also find the toilet and floor around it covered in dirty water, plus a couple of tell-tale water bottles laying about. Also, since they are used to using toilets that are holes in the ground, often times they will - and I’m not kidding here - take a dump into the drain in the shower.
Now, imagine yourself as a typical American soldier walking into a public toilet, on an American base, at 2 in the morning. You open the stall door and what do you see - footprints on the seat, water all over the place, and Mr. Hanky waving ‘hi’ to you on the back of the seat. Disgusted, you walk over to the shower to wash up. Inside, you see Mr. Hanky’s brother and sister, hanging out on the floor of the shower stall. Meanwhile, one of our Arab national hosts is standing next to the sink with one of his feet propped up in it, washing it. Your thoughts of brushing your teeth in that sink evaporate.
On the more comical side, I heard the story of an Iraqi soldier who attempted to use a Western-style porta-pot. He apparently climbed up on the seat, as I’ve described above, to do his business. I’m not sure what caused it, but he slipped, fell forward, and literally came shooting out the door of the pot and on to the ground - much to the laughter of every one in the area!
Can we all see that this situation would be hard to deal with on a daily basis? Sure, there are many Arabic people who understand Western ways and know that what I’ve described is a major faux paux. But, unfortunately, there are tons who work on Coalition bases over there who don’t. That, my friends, is why we often insist on separate toilets and bathing facilities for persons of Middle Eastern descent while working on American bases in Iraq.
And guess what? Whenever possible, we would provide what are called “Mediterranean” toilets for them to use - the ones with the holes in the floors. You know what the signs on those toilets say? “Local and Third Country Nationals only.”
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mullah cimoc say ameriki need stop listen for the lie of usa media. usa media so control.
so soon all ameriki man under control the hillary clinton. this just the punish for abdicate duty to wife and the child. he so weak now. just the feminize. this job of usa tv show, depection woman for all power position make him aemriki thinking natural for woman rule the man.
this the natural selection punish the stupid and wicked ameriki letting masters in tel aviv run all usa, for kill and torture him muslim.
ameriki had him chance for resist nazi in aemrika but too afraid. him just want 7-11 nacho and new refrigerator, or the meth. now him to suffer too much become man once again, but terrible suffer all aemriki person first.
stop1984now@yahoo.com
I love it when this guys shows up to comment. I get the feeling he just Google searches for anything having to do with Iraq and then posts stupid crap like this.
Yo! Mullah! Learn some effing English!
Hahaha! Screw off, mullah chump.
[...] Left cries foul over seperate restrooms at US bases in IraqPart of the reason I got into this blogging business was to help dispel some of the inaccurate nonsense coming out of the media in general and the left in particular, when it comes to the war in Iraq. Today, I found a perfect example of … [...]
[...] Left cries foul over seperate restrooms at US bases in IraqPart of the reason I got into this blogging business was to help dispel some of the inaccurate nonsense coming out of the media in general and the left in particular, when it comes to the war in Iraq. Today, I found a perfect example of … [...]