The lootings in Iraq

[Guest Renegade]

I haven’t seen any topics about the looting that has taken place in Iraq since the government was overthrown so posting this. Over the past couple of days I have never seen so much looting and chaos. Seeing people stealing heart equipment from hospitals when there are countless people in dire need of medical attention is some very unnerving viewing.

 

I don’t really know what else to say but I hope the troops can control the people.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?...f=18&t=30227&s=

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

The troops will be looting to.

 

To the Victor GO the Spoils

[Guest Powerplay]

The troops will be looting to.

 

To the Victor GO the Spoils

Doubtful. This isn't the 1800's, or even the 1940's. The Marines and Army have just started to act as police and are enforcing curfew. Jeez, people just have no faith in the Armed Forces anymore...

 

Edit: Post 1000! OMGODZ~!

[Guest Tyler McClelland]

The soldiers are people too... they just need to get their asses out there and restore order.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

I have faith in Human Nature.

 

And there was looting in the Persian Gulf War.

[Guest Tyler McClelland]

There will always be some sour apples, but the majority of troops out there, I'd be willing to bet, do care about the wellbeing of the Iraqi people. I don't think most of them would engage in this type of activity.

 

That being said, we need to control the situation and we need to control it now.

[Guest Powerplay]

There will always be some sour apples, but the majority of troops out there, I'd be willing to bet, do care about the wellbeing of the Iraqi people. I don't think most of them would engage in this type of activity.

 

That being said, we need to control the situation and we need to control it now.

I totally agree, and I'm sure they are working on the situation as we speak.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

Oh I doubt they're stealing fromn the average Iraqi citizen, but I also bet you that they're grabbing Sovieners from Iraqi Officals palaces,offices,etc.

[Guest Tyler McClelland]

Oh, of course. That doesn't count, though.

 

*Three Kings!!!!!!!*

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

The troops will be looting to.

 

To the Victor GO the Spoils

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1547EDT0755.DTL

 

Grenades, rifles, Iraqi helmets, Marines forced to give up war booty

 

Since they arrived, U.S. Marines have been doing their own kind of looting -- grabbing Iraqi pistols, rifles, uniforms and pictures of Saddam Hussein.

 

On Friday, they were ordered to dump what they took or lose their rank.

 

"You did not conquer ... this country. Get off your high horse," Lt. Col. Michael Belcher told his officers. "You took some thugs and ran them out."

 

The commander of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, reminded his soldiers that the Iraqi people allowed U.S.-led forces to oust Saddam Hussein. They deserve respect, he said, and that means no looting.

 

There will be no "'I won this country back. I can take what I can get,"' Belcher said.

 

Then he pulled out a pile of booty already confiscated: a picture of Saddam with a bullseye drawn on it, ammunition magazines and Iraqi uniforms.

 

Stolen tear gas canisters particularly infuriated Belcher, who worried that a Marine might fire off a canister to disperse unruly crowds in the city.

 

"It's chemical warfare," Belcher said.

 

Soon, a group of quiet Marines glumly gathered to toss their booty onto an ever-growing pile.

 

They threw in Kalashnikov rifles, gas masks and sacks of bullets.

 

One Marine dropped an assault vest filled with ammunition clips.

 

Another put in a rocket-propelled grenade round.

 

Lance Cpl. Randall Taylor, 19, of Texarkana, Texas, came out of his Humvee carrying two Iraqi grenades he had hoped to use before leaving.

 

"I was gonna throw these," he said, smiling like a shamed child.

 

Other Marines were angry.

 

"You don't have to give that up, do you?" Pfc. Michael Lara, 19, of Raymondville, Texas, asked as a colleague added a helmet to the pile.

 

Some Marines plotted to smuggle home smaller things -- a pistol, Iraqi military patches ripped from uniforms, small pictures of Saddam.

 

They had been warned before against collecting war souvenirs, but some Marines had been rapidly collecting huge caches.

 

At first they took small things -- knives, perhaps a pistol or two. But as they stumbled upon large armories filled with nearly every type of weapon in Iraqi's arsenal, they became more brazen, taking rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

 

A bartering economy emerged based on weaponry and cigarettes. One Marine offered an Iraqi sword for a pack of hard-to-get smokes. He was turned down. Hiding a military patch is one thing. Smuggling a sword is altogether different.

 

Cpl. Jesse Schutz, 21, of Omaha, Neb., happily surrendered two Kalashnikov rifles and swords a few days ago so they could be run over by a tank and destroyed.

 

"It just isn't worth it," he said. "I can go back to Wal-Mart to buy a gun instead of stealing it from a country."

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

COUGHpropagandaCOUGH

[Guest Powerplay]

COUGHpropagandaCOUGH

*COUGHYeahsureCOUGH*

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

It was a joke.

 

But They are going to be taking SOME things home. Of course not GUNS, that's OBVIOUS.

 

But a necklace,a mirror,etc.? some papers with Hussien's signiture on that? That's all stuff they could concievably take.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

No, the propaganda is a lot more subtle.

 

On Friday, the front page had one picture of "looters running through Baghdad" and next to it was a picture of a US soldier playing around with a sword of that he "found."

[Guest Vern Gagne]

One problem with having soldiers in Iraq be policemen, is any picture of some Iraqi being handcuffed by a US soldier will piss off the Arab world even more.

[Guest DrTom]

But a necklace,a mirror,etc.? some papers with Hussien's signiture on that? That's all stuff they could concievably take.

Really, who gives a shit about trinkets like that? Victorious soldiers have taken things like that from their enemies for ages. There's no reason to paint today's American troops with such a ridiculously negative brush just because they might be doing it, too.

 

My dad has a large collection of Nazi knives, medals, and propaganda. His father brought it home from the frontlines of Germany following WWII, after killing the people those items belonged to. My father still keeps these things in a locked metal box. Things like this have always happened, and they're no big deal.

[Guest SweetNSexyDiva]

I think that the looting from the hospitals is wrong, but I say, let them loot the palaces! It is appalling to know that Sadaam lived in such debauchery when there were so many people starving each day.

[Guest Mindless_Aggression]

I can't really blame the people, if I lived like they did for so long I'd be looting like a psycho too. Hell if shit went down in America and chaos broke loose, I freely admit I'd walk to the local Best Buy and declare Jihad on that fucker as I took everything I could carry.

[Guest NoCalMike]

ANother problem is what exactly was stolen from the hospitals. Viruses and diseases such as the black plague and HIV strains among other things. That could be a serious health hazard and just a national risk if they end up in the open air or in the wrong hands.