American Techniques of War & Iraqi Civilians

During the summer of 2003, the US troops in Iraq did not uphold very high standards of wartime behavior, to say the least. There was little differentiation or even attempt at differentiation between innocent civilians and enemy soldiers. Male civilians were often herded up indiscriminately and imprisoned, their houses looted, and their wives and children terrified.

Soldiers arrived with little to no information on the culture they were entering and were encouraged to view all Iraqi people as the enemy. Ken Davis, a member of the military police, was told to shoot anyone who “looked like the enemy”. They had no direction for who to target, and often arrested mass quantities of people, imprisoning and interrogating the innocent along with the guilty. Many Iraqi civilians were treated as if they were enemy combatants, and were taken to Abu Ghraib, having committed no violence.

If the civilians were treated as enemy combatants, they were not even given the dignity that American troops have traditionally afforded to enemy prisoners of war. Degradation and intimidation were hallmarks of the methods of the American troops in Iraq, even when dealing with civilian women and children. The troops, probably motivated by fear and crippled by not having enough information, did not behave humanely.