At US base, Iraqis must use separate latrine.

[Reciprocity]

I saw this on Free Speech TV. The show is AGR TV Frontline News. Seems like we should have already learned this lesson.


http://www.agrnews.org/?section=archives&cat_id=92§ion_id=10&briefs=true

The sign taped to the men's latrine is just five lines:

"US

MILITARY

CONTRACTORS

CIVILIANS

ONLY!!!!!"

It needed only one: "NO IRAQIS."

At Forward Operating Base "Warhorse," Iraqis — including interpreters who walk the same foot patrols and sleep in the same tents as US 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. US 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 US military. But at Warhorse it's alive and well, perhaps the only US military facility with such rules, Iraqi interpreters say.

"I don't understand having separate bathrooms. It seems to go against everything that the United States stands for," said Laila al Qatami, spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington.

Source: (McClatchy Newspapers)

[MADem]

1. There IS a cultural difference to the approach to restrooms.

If you've ever been in one, you know what I mean....

What they should do, though, is have the "bomb sites" with the hoses, and the western toilets with the toilet paper, co-located in the same facility. That would solve the problem of people crapping in the shower stalls and washing their asses in the sinks. And I'm not exaggerating, either.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Fair comment

Didn't realise there was that issue,

[MADem]

5. In the average Arab or Persian home, you take OFF your shoes at the door

But when you go in the crapper, you PUT ON shoes--usually plastic ones, left outside the crapper for that purpose.

It's viewed as a dirty, filthy place over there, and because it is dirty "anyway" there isn't as much motivation to keep it clean. Also, flushing toilet paper doesn't happen over there. If it is used because there's no hose, one finds it piled around the shitter, tossed in a trash can , or shoved in the corner. And the "gotta wash your ass" requirement remains--so that happens in the sink where you might brush your teeth...Picture it--it isn't pleasant.

When people talk about footprints on the toilet seat, they are NOT joking.

[dipsydoodle]

2. "It seems to go against everything

that the United States stands for" sums it up pretty well. Also makes me wonder if all of the military c*ntractors are white ? :shrug:

[MADem]

7. No it doesn't. Would you especially like to use a crapper

that had shit smears on the seat, and toilet paper with crap on it scattered around the facility? And come in to find your coworker using the sink to wash his ass?

It's a different way of crapping over there. It eschews paper, and requires a hose and water.

[obama_girl]

4. they use totally different types of toilets

Iraqis use the squat holes, and if they have to use a western toilet then they squat with their feet on the seat.

[SoCalDem]

6. ans apparently they use the sinks to wash their feet for prayer purposes

A well thought out plan would have accomodated all people.But hen we all know how the military works..

they could have also had some planning sessions with Iraqi employees to indoctrinate them for "proper" bathroom usage.. Let them choose.. use the bathrooms in the American way, or find other facilities :)

[obama_girl]

8. most facilities are in trailers

So you are pretty much stuck with all or nothing. They aren't building many custom facilities.

[SoCalDem]

10. If they wanted to address the problem , they could

maybe TWO trailers.. one for each :)

[obama_girl]

16. That is what they do

And is what the article is angry about.

[MADem]

9. The smartest way of handling it is to colocate bomb sites and

throne rooms--you go in a door, and it's left to the bomb sites, right to the thrones.

That would solve the problem.


But expecting Arabs to NOT wash their asses? Forget it. That's like expecting Americans to use their left hand to clean their asshole instead of toilet paper. Not to be graphic, but there it is...

[Bluebear]

12. There could be 2 trailers, marked "western toilet" & "traditional toilet"

for example?

[Reciprocity]

11. The things I learn on DU could fill a book.

This is a very serious charge discrimination, and looks to like this Laila al Qatami from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee could have cleared this up with an explanation on the cultural differences.

[liberal N proud]

13. Sounds like the old South in the US

White and Colored drinking fountains.

America, the great liberators? RIGHT!

[NutmegYankee]

15. Not really.

The Problem is different. Americans want to want to eat their typical foods, many of which are offensive to Iraqis at meals, before switching over to Iraqi acceptable food. (bacon etc with breakfast).

Restrooms as mentioned earlier are viewed differently by Iraqis, who leave soiled TP on the floor and sit on the sinks to wash their rectums. It's this disgusting aspect, not racism that fuels that policy.

[shadowknows69]

14. From a strictly security point of view this makes sense actually n/t