Distrust

In a New York Times column on 10-24-04, Tom Friedman reported that he had asked Scott Pelley of CBS how Iraqis on the streets referred to American troops. Pelley said, "Many Iraqis have so much distrust for U.S. forces we found they've come up with a nickname for our troops. They call American soldiers 'The Jews,' as in, 'Don't go down that street, the Jews set up a roadblock' " As sponsor of the detested Israeli occupation, Americans are distrusted and hated in the Muslim World. Just as Israel colonizes land promised by the U.N. to the Palestinians, the U.S. is suspected of plans to build permanent military installations in Iraq and to extract enormous profits from oil contracts. Terrorism will not end until the occupations end.