Keeping the Peace
by admin on Jul.06, 2009, under Uncategorized
Lt. Col. Chris Hughes handled the situation like a pro. When he and his troops were confronted by angry Iraqi civilians, he kept it cool. Even when the mob began pelting rocks at the soldiers, he firmly instructed them not to take any action.
The soldiers were moving to the home of one of Iraq’s leading holy men, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein Sistani, seeking his crucial support for their stay in this southern Iraqi city.But as they turned a corner, a group of Iraqi men blocked their way.
Shouting in Arabic, “God is great,” the crowd grew into hundreds, many of whom mistakenly thought the Americans were trying to capture the town’s holy man and attack the Imam Ali Mosque, a holy site for Shiite Muslims around the world. Someone in the crowd lobbed a rock at the troops, then another.
Lt. Col. Chris Hughes, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, showed restraint and intelligence.
He yelled to his troops: “Smile, relax.” Then he commanded his soldiers to take a knee and point their weapons to the ground. Some Iraqis backed off and sat down. But many more continued to yell and block the road.
Lt. Col. Chris Hughes instructs his soldiers to get down on one knee and smile.“We’re going to withdraw out of this situation and let them defuse it themselves,” he told his troops through a loudspeaker. “All vehicles turn around.”
It is not uncommon for this sort of situation to explode into a cultural confrontation with tragic results. Hughes handled this amazingly well and prevented a dangerous incident. This shows that not all confrontation needs to end in violence.
