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

[bigtree]

Fri, August 3, 2007


FOB 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.

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.

It's unclear precisely who ordered the rules. "The rule separating local national latrines from soldiers was enacted about two to three rotations ago," Maj. Raul Marquez, a spokesman for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas, wrote in an e-mail. That was before his brigade or the 3rd Stryker Combat Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., the other major combat force here, was based at Warhorse.

There's also disagreement on the reason.

Marquez cited security. "We are at war, and operational security (OPSEC) and force protection are critical in this environment," Marquez wrote. "We screen all our local nationals working and living in the FOB, however, you can never know what's in their mind."

Other soldiers traced the regulations to what they called cultural differences between the Iraqis and the Americans.

"We've had issues with locals," said Staff Sgt. Oscar Garcia, who mans Warhorse's administrative hub. "It's not because we're segregating."


But the Iraqis who're paid $80,000 to $120,000 a year for their interpreting services are offended . . .


more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/18685.html


Breathing Space in Iraq and the Benchmark of Withdrawal
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1503029&mesg_id=1503029

[MADem]

1. If the US contractor crapper isn't a bomb site, there ARE cultural differences.

If there's no hose in the "American" crapper, you will find issues--like water from the sink everywhere, footprints on the toilet seat, and shitstained toilet paper not flushed, but flung all over the place. What they should do is colocate a bunch of "western" toilets and a bomb site or three, and that would solve the problem. As was noted in the article:

Garcia said some Iraqis squatted on the rims of unfamiliar American-style toilets or had used showers as toilets, forcing private contractors who maintain the facilities to clean up after them.

Another soldier at the administrative hub who declined to give his name or rank cited conflicts over hygiene habits. "We can't accept people washing their feet where I brush my teeth," he said.

I've seen that. So that's not a prime issue, so long as alternative, equally accessible, equally clean facilities are provided. However I have a problem with THIS part of the story, frankly:

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.

[bigtree]

2. good points

assuming the comments reported are accurate reflections of the state of the dispute

[MADem]

5. Well, I've been there, done that and bought the tee shirt.

In that culture, the bathroom is supposed to be a FILTHY place. And frankly, most of them are.

You take your shoes OFF to go into a home, but you put shoes ON to go to the crapper. They're left by the bathroom door, usually rubber sandals, so you don't have to have your socks or feet touch the nasty ass tile in the bomb site. The crapper is built into the floor with a hose in lieu of buttwipe. There may be tissues or paper towels about, but those are to dry your ass, not wipe it, really.

It's a totally different emphasis. It's a genuine cultural difference. Now, not everyone over there still uses the bombsite--some people prefer the western Throne version. Most modern homes have both, but many older ones do not.

This is quite typical:

[Ron Green]

3. In my home town it was just "White" and "Colored."

[SoCalDem]

4. Why am I reminded of this?