U.S. soldiers arrested a teenager for making fun of them. Here's the picture and brief account of what happened. This is just another piece of evidence to prove that the U.S. troops were not really liberating Iraq. As I understand it, American presence is seen as being worse than Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. That's pretty bad! I can understand if the kid did something, like throw rocks at them or try to steal something from them. But to make fun of them? Evidently, some soldiers are obviously thin skinned.

I believe, Salem Pax has done a brilliant job of explaining some of what is happening over there. He's Iraqi and has the weblog Dear Raed. He may have shed some light on who's attacking the U.S. troops and stirring up more of the chaos that has turned the troops on non-combatant Iraqis, thereby turning them against the troops. He does a much better job of explaining this than I. If you read the posts on his site dated in the final days of June, you'll see what I mean.

I never approved of this invasion. I didn't believe the Bush administration's claims, but that they were after Iraq's oil and also settling a score with Saddam. In fact, I protested against it out of support for our troops, compassion for Iraqis and allies that were also sent there. Now, I see what appears to be a lot of young American soldiers that haven't been properly prepared or trained for the situation surrounding them. I wonder if they were given a translation handbook, like the kind of handbooks my dad had, and some lessons to communicate with the Iraqi people, and to understand their culture as to avoid offending them. I seriously doubt it. After all, the soldiers are said to bark out orders in English to the Iraqis. What happens when they're trying to communicate in English with people that don't understand English? I mean, after all, these English-speaking troops are not in a land where English is the dominant language.

Who the hell is in charge of these soldiers? Someone hasn't done his/her job efficiently.