In your time serving in Iraq, how would you describe your face to face interactions with Iraqi civilians?

Question

were they friendly to you? did they welcome you when you were around?

or were they very unfriendly and sometimes deadly?

or both?

thanks

Answer 1

Most of the civilians are grateful, but reluctant to offer information in fear of retaliation from insurgency/sectarian violence. I was there a whole year and they are very grateful when they see improvements or change. They are not very educated and many don't have the resources to educate themselves on world issues. So they listen to each other and probably believe almost anything they hear. If they didn't want anything to do with us, they were never disrespectful about it. Probably because they are scared and don't really trust anybody. I mean we walk around armed with guns and rifles 24/7; they dont want to disrespect someone with a weapon. People would give us food or whatever very little they had. We would always give out MRE's and bottled water when we could. We had informants but they would be kept secret and paid. Maybe they were just trying to feed their families. Basically, if they benefited from our presence, they liked us. If not, they would look the other way, and probably contribute to the attacks against coalition forces. Most of the people living in the desert (middle of nowhere) just kept to themselves.

Answer 2

The Iraqis I spoke to were cautious. The would be very standoffish in public but much more friendly when they were comfortable that they could not be seen by the enemy.

In general they were optimistic about a better future but realistic in the fact that it would take over 5 years for things to 'get better.'

One interesting response I had was when I asked an Iraqi religious leader about the differences between Shia and Sunni - he told me that it would take several hours to explain it to me.

They also had a lot of trust and respect for the US military - but not much trust and respect for US politicians or the American people. (BTW - they absolutely hate the Democrats for their willingness to abandon them for domestic political gain.)

Answer 3

There was some of both. It depends on who your talking to, (ethnic groups, government or non-government, what tribe), why you were there (helping, building, or arresting), what part of Iraq, (Northern Iraq was a lot more friendly in general).

Your demeanor depended on some too. You have a different approach if your helping at a school vs capturing a bomb-maker.

Answer 4

If I was interacting with an invading army I would be cautious not to be too friendly, and I'm sure a lot of smiling faces were trying to kill them later in the day

Answer 5

I don't think you will get a lot of honest answers to this question.