Soldiers facing trouble for marrying Iraqis

[Ronn_Bman]

Originally posted by Skunk: I'm also suspicious about motives here too. It's not often that highly educated women are attracted to 'grunts' - it's more likely that they saw a couple of tickets to the rich west on offer, and viewed it just like any other 'arranged marriage' - something for convenience, rather than for love. On the troops side, they might have seen a couple of lottery tickets - wives who are capable of earning more in a year than they could in 5 years... But hey, I could be wrong and maybe there won't be divorces soon after the women achieve US citizenship and maybe a country that is struggling to survive won't need a couple of highly educated doctors either.

A very astute observation, and one I have to agree completely with. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Cloudbringer]

Well, here's a first....I'm going to agree with you, Skunk! I know when we were in Moscow back in the Soviet Union days, we were all warned that students were frequently 'romanced' or outright paid for marriage to Russians in order to get them to the US and procure green cards. There was a booming black market in 'false marriages'.

Sure enough, one girl in our group fell for the line of a guy I'd already told to buzz off as I'd talked with him and figured out his main goal was getting to the US to see pals of his. I'd also seen him making his way through the women of our group, quite charming and all flattery. It was obvious to several of us that he was NOT really in love with our friend, just wanted a ticket to the US. Well, he got here after dilly dallying around Europe once he was let out of the USSR and long story short: my friend worked THREE jobs while he sat at home making hundreds of long distance calls trying to do 'business' with old buddies who'd been through the USSR at one time or another and eventually he moved out and was caught living with a friend and a girl he CLAIMED was his cousin, but had no family relation to him and was only 14. Needless to say we all thought he'd be deported when our friend reported him to the Immigration office for the phoney marriage, but nope...he didn't, and then he disappeared, leaving my friend to spend lots of money and time trying to get a divorce.

So I'd question the veracity of these sudden marriages in Iraq. NOT that 'true love' doesn't ever happen in such circumstances but on the whole, it's easier to be 'in love' or think you are when far from home and your friends and family.

[ 10-06-2003, 08:58 PM: Message edited by: Cloudbringer ]

[khazadman]

Courtsmartial. They willfully disobeyed an order from their commanding officer. It's that simple.