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Senior British commanders compare US troops to Nazis

repost | 11.04.2004 20:24

Senior British commanders have condemned American military tactics in Iraq as heavy-handed and disproportionate.

One senior officer said that America's aggressive methods were causing friction among allied commanders and that there was a growing sense of "unease and frustration" among the British high command.

The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said part of the problem was that American troops viewed Iraqis as untermenschen - the Nazi expression for "sub-humans".

Speaking from his base in southern Iraq, the officer said: "My view and the view of the British chain of command is that the Americans' use of violence is not proportionate and is over-responsive to the threat they are facing. They don't see the Iraqi people the way we see them. They view them as untermenschen. They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in the way the British are."


The phrase untermenschen - literally "under-people" - was brought to prominence by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf, published in 1925. He used the term to describe those he regarded as racially inferior: Jews, Slavs and gypsies.

From

 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/11/1081621835663.html

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Comments

Display the following 11 comments

  1. oh, puhleeese — Captain Wardrobe
  2. TERRORISTS — Captain Wardrobe
  3. Total misunderstanding of the American mind? — Mike
  4. . — mark
  5. Bullshit — Available force of bullshit
  6. more americans visit indymedia UK than actual brits — american
  7. They are forging a Nation. — Arm the people.
  8. What happens next is critical — Verite Sparks
  9. have i been misunderstood? — Captain Wardrobe
  10. Hmmm? — Skyver Bill
  11. Tired of this BULLSHIT from the 'honourable' British soldiers — Marie