Iraqi Smart Card

[Bottomfeeder 244]

A NEW IRAQ CULTURE SMART CARD

"Don't use your left hand for contact with others," advises the U.S.

Marine Corps in a new edition of the Iraq Culture Smart Card which

is distributed to military personnel in Iraq.  "It is considered

unclean."

It seems late in the day for such niceties.  Amid the daily brutality

of the Iraq war, there is probably little to be gained by courtesy

or to be lost by mere rudeness.

But the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity evidently thinks

otherwise.

The MCIA has produced an updated Iraq Culture Smart Card, which

features rudimentary information on Iraqi customs, religion and

language.  A copy was obtained by Secrecy News and is available here

(in a very large 22 MB PDF file):

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/usmc/iraqsmart-0506.pdf

[bigsixfive 328]

It seems late in the day for such niceties.  Amid the daily brutality

of the Iraq war, there is probably little to be gained by courtesy

or to be lost by mere rudeness.

246830[/snapback]

This isnt exactly new or recent. My buddy in the NG is about to start his 2nd tour over there (he volunteered to go back), and they actually trained him on their customs. I won't comment on the absurdity of the second sentence.

[GoAU 1,600]

Wow - I am sure the author is quite up to speed on everything that's going on over there - like Abu Garib, the rape/murder thats gaining all the media attention these days, etc.

He obviously missed the "F'ing" part about two of our own soldiers getting tortured to death, or the car bombings of civillians going on on a daily basis by these damn terrorists. He also failed to notice the fact that brutality and torture was a way of life under Sodamn Insane and his 2 demented sons. How about the fact that under the current president there has yet to be another attack against the US - and it's not due to lack of effort. I guess the new schools, hosptials and nfrastructure being built in Iraq is a waste of time too?

Maybe it would just be better to pull the plug and run - that worked really well in Afganistan after we helped them beat the Russians out and then failed to help them rebuild...

Rant over

[Bottomfeeder 244]

It's the Federation of American Scientist. Most of the stuff I get from them is about FOIA, National Security Archive releases, etc.

Online Intelligence Forum:

http://www.gcn.com/print/25_17/41156-1.html

http://www.dni.gov/cgi-bin/dniwww/forms/Formman.cgi

[Captain Liger 0]

salaam a'alaykum

Who wrote this article? 2003 called, they want their article back. Man, we've had these "smart cards" since the war started. Everytime I turned around somebody was handing me a "smart card."

Something that was left off the "smart cards": Muslims drink like fish, fornicate, are habitual liars, yes means no, and no means yes.