This looks like a follow-up post to the following, which was a different military guidebook from the same period and is still on HN's front page:<p><i>112 Gripes About the French</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27852034" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27852034</a> - July 2021 (238 comments)<p>I wonder if Leo Rosten also wrote it (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27865731" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27865731</a>). One thing's for sure, they had good writers working on these.<p>Normally we'd downweight the follow-up post (see [1], [2] for why), but this case is such an outlier that I think two isn't too many the way it usually would be.<p>[1] <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=follow-up%20by%3Adang" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=curiosity%20repetition%20by:dang" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...</a>
My grampa was stationed in Iraq at this time. I bet he would have seen this manual.<p>I remember him telling me about hunting Warthogs in the desert. Bullets were in short supply so hunters were given one bullet and knife. You had one shot, and then you had to go slit the animals throat with the knife.<p>They gave the gun to my grampa a lot, he was an country boy who grew up target practicing on the range. He was always a solid shot.<p>Thanks for the memory!
> American success or failure in Iraq may well depend on whether the Iraqis like American soldiers or not. It may not be quite that simple. But then again it could be.<p>Wise words, not heeded.
The soldiers reading this guide would have had the truly remarkable opportunity to see the marshes in the south well before the more recent wars & Saddam's order to drain them. Worth reading about for anyone interested in the country. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamian_Marshes" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamian_Marshes</a>
Not bad for a 1943 field guide.<p>1. It’s a quick read.<p>2. It has a clear list of dos and donts.<p>3. It explains what the soldier’s mission there is in a broad sense (defeat Hitler).<p>4. It has quite a bit of quick-and-dirty info like language basics and a map (I’m guessing more than a few folks stationed there would not be able to find Iraq on a world map before they went — that’s true today for sure).<p>Not a bad effort.
Looks like the Special Service division was quite busy, more guides (including Iran, Syria and Great Britain) here <a href="https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=United%20States.%20Army%20Service%20Forces.%20Special%20Service%20Division" rel="nofollow">https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname...</a>
I bought this field guide as printed book in Germany a few years ago, next to a booklet in the same format "Instructions for British Servicemen in Germany - 1944", and for American soldiers the "Pocket Guide to Germany - 1944".<p>It's interesting to compare the British and US military leadership's view on their own soldiers and on the Germans. In general, the British seemed to be much more cautious towards the Germans, and the Americans seemed to have trusted their soldiers more to judge a situation.
TIL<p>1 Iraqi Dinar was 4.02 USD in 1945 and in 2021 1 Iraqi Dinar is 0.00069 USD<p><a href="https://history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/s/short-guide-to-iraq.html" rel="nofollow">https://history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-roo...</a><p><a href="https://google.com/search?q=1+dinar+to+usd&oq=1+&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j69i60l3j69i65j69i60l2.792j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" rel="nofollow">https://google.com/search?q=1+dinar+to+usd&oq=1+&aqs=chrome....</a>
"If you should see grown men walking hand in hand, igore it. They are not queer"<p>I think this is still "normal" for guys to walk around hand in hand in arab countries, although it is a serious crime to be homosexual...
Fascinating! Most of the messaging here is refreshingly open-minded, direct and timeless. I'd expected to read a lot of imperialistic bombast that aged horribly.<p>Truth is, as many other commenters have pointed out, this document's overall tone reflects better on the American spirit than a lot of what's in the global conversation today.
“Twin pipe-lines have been constructed to the ports of Tripoli in Syria and Haifa (HAI-fa) in Palestine, on the Mediterranean Sea.”<p>A reference in US military to Palestine before it was gifted to European settlers and rebranded as Israel. Guess it wasn’t a “land without a people” back then.
"One of your big jobs is to prevent Hitler's agents from getting in their dirty work. The best way you can do this is by getting along with the Iraqis and making them your friends. And the best way to get along with any people is to understand them" // Great advice from the dark times.
There are a lot of problems that could have been avoided in the past 20 years if everyone deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan or a similar location was forced to sit through, and pass, a one week length cultural/sociological/religious/history class.<p>I have found that the gaps in knowledge between your typical USAID worker in Afghanistan and some military members (even those who should know better, at E5 and E6 ranks and similar) can be quite vast.
Nicely done, from zero to a polite and not completely ignorant foreigner.<p>Was there an equivalent US Army guide from the last few decades? Was there ones for Afghanistan?
> You aren't going to Iraq to change the Iraqis. Just the opposite. we are fighting this war to preserve the principle of "live and let live."<p>Can we bring this America back?
I inherited my grandfather's guide to France from WW2 - it's a really lovely little guide with clear goals, practical advice about the country and local customs, and enough information to figure out where you are and how to get a hotel.
I read the whole thing and saved it for future reference, in case I ever go there.<p>I wish therenwere a class of travel books written in this style. This seems particularly helpful, which I didn't know before:<p>-3 teas/coffees is ok, 4th is a sign to leave.
- quick language reference. The amount there can be learned in a few weeks prior the trip. I also like the suggested vocabulary.
- a bit of history and context on why people live the way they live.<p>Thanks for sharing!
The pronunciation guides are embarrassing - "I-RAHK", "EE-RAHN".<p>BTW, I was puzzled by EE-RAHN - surely it was called Persia in those days?
“YOU HAVE been ordered to Iraq (i - RAHK) as part of the world-wide offensive to beat Hitler.”<p>I always laugh when Americans say <i>eye</i>Raq or <i>eye</i>Ran.<p>But apparently this incorrect pronunciation goes all the way back to 1943. Wild.
wow, that introduction is worth a read alone.<p>seems like an entirely different army mentality that today.<p>> The best way you can do this is by getting along with Iraqis and making them your friends<p>...<p>> And secondly, so that you as a human being will get the most out of an experience few Americans have been lucky enough to have.
Url changed from <a href="https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=477739" rel="nofollow">https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=477739</a> to one that doesn't do a file download. If there's a better URL, we can change it again.