A different view

How to Win Friends and Influence Enemies 101

I can't believe that the administration could be this dumb on purpose. At a time when cartoons of Mohammed and new photos of the Abu Ghraib scandal are causing tensions, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw were publicly lecturing Iraqi leaders on how to run their country.

As a supervisor, I always learned to praise in public and reprimand in private. There is a lot of honor and pride in Iraqis, being one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and this public chastisement isn't going to do anyone any good. Not to mention that many Arabs blame Britain's colonialism and America's support of Saddam Hussein the original problems of their land.

In another faux pas, the governor of Iraq’s Karbala province, Aqil al-Khazali, said on Tuesday he had suspended all cooperation with U.S. forces because U.S. security staff last week used police dogs to search government buildings.

Many Muslims consider it degrading to have dogs brought into their homes or offices.

posted by don1one @ 9:37 AM