Yet another way to tick off Iraqis: “Derb—A scientist I recently worked

with was a Iraqi POW during the first Gulf War. … When he was captured by

American forces, apparently the Americans were told not to use the ‘okay’

hand gesture. So one of the American soldiers improvised and tried the

’thumbs ups’ instead to calm the Iraqis and let them know they would not be

harmed. This terrified my friend’s fellow Iraqi soldiers. They thought

they were going to be killed. They said something like, ‘We are doomed!

Look at the American. He is shaking his fist at us!’ My friend had to calm

them down and explain that this is a positive gesture in the USA. I suspect

the Clinton/Kerry/Edwards version would have looked even more ominous.”