Do Iraqis and Afghans see our soldiers in a negative light?

Question

I'm guessing they do. If we had foreign soldiers in our country we'd not particularly like them. Then it would be worse if they were seen as heroes in the country they came from. So why do we see our soldiers as heroes? I don't mean to be disrespectful but it is always something that has bothered me.

Answer 1

Foreign invaders will never be popular in any country.

Answer 2

Depends on which parts you go to.

Northern Afghanistan, most of the people support the troops and are against the taliban.

Southern and South Eastern Afghanistan the civilians their despise the troops. ( these are where the hardcore pashtun soviet fighting afghans live )Thats where the Al-Qaeda recruits and thats where they hide.

All Afghans want is an end to fighting from both sides. They want the Taliban to leave. They want America to leave. 30 years of war has destroyed their nation and they just want to live in peace

My parents told me how before the Taliban, before the Russians, before the wars how beautiful and peaceful Afghanistan was. There were no religious fundies or anything.

Answer 3

Unfortunatley this the way of the world, every occuping force believes they are the "heros" while very few of the "liberated" see them as such. As far as the Iraqis and Afghans go, I'm sure some do, but I fear a majority view our soldiers as what they are an occuping force of a nation that is stealing their natrual resources and destroying their cultural landmarks.  

Answer 4

Sure.

Why not?

Can we blame them?

After being hit on the head with the Book of the Dead?

Without being aware they had been "Reincarnated" like the dead Mummy too with empty skeleton of skull and bones with two empty eye sockets from the twilight zone that could not even think or see in different time zone?

But to counter the negativity as the peace-maker with the Book of the Living and writing books with pencil and eraser, colour pencils for drawings for little children out  there in time.

Like communicating with the little one with the first words of A-B-C and counting  1-2-3 with poems and poetry, rhymes and riddles, fairy and folks tales to be a "Better man" in time.

Matt 5.9-14

What do you think?

Answer 5

i agree with you, those soldiers must be the root for the iraqis and afghans pain etc.  

Answer 6

Just a little example.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug...

What answer are you awaitinf for after that?

Answer 7

As with all of these questions, the answer is yes and no.  It depends on who you ask, what question you ask them and when you ask the question.

I know many Iraqi's who hated life under Saddam and suffered badly under him.  They were very pleased to have help to kick him out.  But they were not prepared for the level of chaos and violence that followed, as the coalition were not prepared.  In my opinion, Paul Bremmer and the US led coalition made a number of fundamental errors.

Afghanistan is similar.  Many Afghan's support foreign troops who are trying to get rid of other covert operators in their country.  Again there the issue is what is there to replace the coalition.  The current government is weak and reputed to be the most corrupt that Afghanistan has ever had.  Despite assurances, it actively promotes opium production.

Answer 8

Well, considering our soldiers don't really have any right to be there. But that's not really their fault, it's our governments fault, so it's not disrespectful towards out soldiers and it doesn't really make them any less heroic.

Answer 9

For the most part US doesn't start the wars.  We fight them and clean up.  We (USA) see ourselves as liberators.  We drove the Hun out of France twice, push the Japanese Empire back, rescued Korea from Communist oppression, drove a dictator out of his neighboring county he over ran, late freed the people of his county from his dictatorship, liberated an oppressed people form a religious extremest group that had seized power after a military vacuum.  

Our troops (USA) should be seen a liberators.  The kurdish part of Iraq this is what happened.  Parts of Afghan this is what happened, but both Iraq and Afghanistan have a long history of violence.  We are now caught up in that long history.

In Iraq even under a dictatorship the cities ran smoothly, power, water, food, trash pick up and peace in the streets were common.  Now since liberation from a dictator every perceived leader wants their share of the county and are willing to fight for it.  Things are bad in the cities and the citizens look at the US and say we caused it.

In Afghanistan we once again picked a side and backed it in long running tribal war.  The other side simply dids what their forefathers done before them and retreated to the highlands (mountains) to plan the next offensive.

Answer 10

My son's done 4 tours. His comment is that you don't turn your back on any of them - "they'll smile at you one minute and blow your fecking brains out the next"

His section had to go in to Kandahar back in 2006 to rescue a UK patrol that came under sniper fire - one dead, one dying from chest wounds - and the locals celebrating in the streets. That's how much support the troops get - feck all.

Why do I see them as heroes?

Because they keep going back time after time, with S**t kit, S**t conditions, barrack room lawyers and human rights solicitors watching their every move and knowing full well they can't win.

Answer 11

Imagine things were the other way round and we had been invaded by Afghan's and Iraqis.How would you feel towards their troops.  

Answer 12

Here are some Iraqi and Afghans' stories about their new democracy in pictures.  I doubt it will have any influence on someone like you, but you asked the question.

http://ustorture.blogspot.com/

You can click the 'older posts' link at the bottom.  

There are many photos.

Answer 13

actually yes and no.  From there point of view they just want things to get better they really dont care about us.  When the invasion started they thought of us as saviors but did not realize that the amount of time and energy required to rebuild a nation.  That has been the cause of many fustrations on behalf of the natives.

Answer 14

The nationalities you named, have mindsets like wolfpacks, & hence cares little about democracy. I doubt that your countrys soldiers are setting some kind of example/rolemodel for them.

Answer 15

The thing is about your question, you have never been in an environment that those people have lived with their entire lives. The reasoning is because the american soldiers do their jobs so you can live in a great nation and not worry about what goes on in the rest of the world. That is why you should consider any soldier, sailor, marine, and airman a hero... because they made a commitment to protect you and this great nation.

I have been deployed to Iraq, and have seen both jubilation and hate towards us. Of course the followers of Saddam hated that we moved in, but the others for the most part were very grateful and appreciative we had come. I remember on my first deployment, was working with a few Iraqi nationals and it was put out that Saddam had been captured and was in our custody. A couple of the men fell to their knees crying, I had to ask the interperator what was wrong and he said that each of them had a family member who had been executed by saddam. So I do beleive those guys were grateful we had come. The kurds who live in Northern Iraq were grateful that we came along too. Saddam had used chemial warfare against them back in the late 80's early 90's and killed over 80,000 people. See, these are the things that people don't know, or just care not to know or over look. People here in the U.S. don't have to worry about this cause we soldiers do care for you and would rather go fight somewhere else than have our families and friends have to deal with it here.

Answer 16

The media obscures it so much.  We have liberated many Afghan/Iraqi cities.  Set up electricity, gave them running water and helped out their starving children and gave them vaccinations and such.  For all the destruction we do in war we also help with relief.  

You fail to realize the oppressive regimes both Afghans and Iraqi's lived under.  Saddam executed many times more Iraqis then we have killed.  If you read the horror stories the Taliban would do to the Afghan people (go into their towns and kill all men of fighting age).

All you need to do is see the torture chambers of the Bath party in Iraq, or the mass graves in Afghanistan to realize what was going on.

Answer 17

I have been to both countries with the British Army and it is only the minority that do not like us. Everywhere we went in both countries, people were coming up to us and saying thank you and giving us thumbs up. It is usually the Shia Muslims in Iraq that don't like us and in Afghanistan there are very few people that are pro-Taleban.

It should not matter whether you agree with why we are out there or not. You should back us and show us respect for the things we have to do. It is not us that decides where we go, it's the government.

What if the worst happens and our country is invaded. Who would you turn to?

Answer 18

to us they are hero's. they do/ are willing to do everything that 98% of the country feel that "oh someone else will" you cant deny that we helped those people in the long run,they see it as change to everything they have known, what they have known has been the only way for so long thus seeing such a new way of life is completely alien to them. you will see the newer generations who grow up in this new iraq/afganistan much more positive. but still previous answers were totally right, Foreign invaders will never be popular in any country.