Germany (catch all, incl. terrorism)

[Rob Thornton]

One of the things I noticed when I started listening and thinking - was the use of the IA to jokingly use the term Ali-Baba when describing AIF activity. This was a hold over from young US soldiers looking for a word that would communicate a thought to Iraqis in 2003-2004 in order to collect information. Interestingly the word Ali-Baba was decreasing in favor of "Al havae" (bad spelling, but such are translations) which comes about as close as possible to terrorist in meaning. CFs working more closely with ISF have also picked up on this word, and Ali Baba is rarely heard anymore. Hajji - meaning among other things - one who has made the trip - is now used mostly in its proper context(s). Much of this has to do with soldiers and marines understanding more an more of the culture as they make multiple deployments, and the cultural training in the CTCs. I suspect if there is large scale residual use of deregatory terms, its by folks who made the initial 2003 (maybe 2004) deployments, but none since or the train up that accompanies them. Our soldiers are becoming culturally saavy, and astute. The only other people I've heard use deragatory terms were some of the people who never left the FOB or interacted with Iraqis (Arab, Kurdish, Turkoman, or other) as people.