hot document: Primary sources exposed and explained.

Modern Iraqi Manners

hot document
entries
12345678
from: Timothy Noah

Posted Monday, July 17, 2006, at 5:59 PM ET

For the last two and a half years, the Marine Corps has been equipping troops with a sort of abbreviated Emily Post-style guide to etiquette in Iraq. The laminated "Iraq Culture Smart Card" consists of 16 panels and can fold down into something you can slip into your breast pocket. "It seems late in the day for such niceties," observed Steven Aftergood in Secrecy News, a Web log maintained by the Federation of American Scientists, which posted the Smart Card online. That may be so. But if one is going to occupy a country, surely we'd rather that soldiers had some sort of primer than not about local sensitivities, and how to avoid setting them aflame.

To read the footnotes below and on the following seven pages, roll your mouse over the portion highlighted in yellow. If you'd like to read the document in its entirety (warning: It's a very big file), click here.

If you have a document you'd like to suggest for this column, please send it to . Please indicate whether you'd like to be mentioned by name.

The Iraq Culture Smart Card has been through several editions since it was first published in 2004. This is the latest version.

hot document
entries
12345678
from: Timothy Noah

Posted Monday, July 17, 2006, at 5:59 PM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
Photograph of George W. Bush on Slate's home page by Getty.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
The Great Debate
Marcus | Forget Biden. I'd like to see McCain face off against Palin.
Toles: Another McCain SurpriseStumped: Where's Palin's Baby?