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I saw this article and how the children are happy to see the Marines. Not to mention the Marines chocolate.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/888769.asp?0cv=CB10



Hundreds of Iraqis eagerly surrender

Soldiers, officers come to U.S. troops waving white flags
A U.S. Marine keeps his rifle ready as Iraqi soldiers surrender on Friday near the southern Iraqi border city of Safwan.



ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAFWAN, Iraq, March 21 — Waving white flags and raising their hands to the sky, hundreds of Iraqi soldiers quickly surrendered to coalition forces in southern Iraq — and some even tried to give themselves up to Western journalists. One Marine traffic control unit manning an intersection in southern Iraq accepted at least 45 soldiers’ surrender by sundown Friday.

‘Man, I’ve been in country two hours, and already I’ve got two wounded and a truckload of prisoners.’
— U.S. MARINE
MANY OF THE Iraqis were crammed in the backs of a pickup truck and open-bed trailer, their hands raised. Iraqi officers came in behind, apparently by foot.
Marines pulled the prisoners to the side of the road.
“Hands up!” Marines barked, pushing the Iraqis along.
Skinny, reedy boys who appeared to be still in their teens complied. The Marines searched them and sat them down.
Across the road, three Iraqi lieutenant colonels sprawled briefly on the asphalt to be searched. An Arabic-speaking Marine searched the papers of the officers for intelligence information, then handed back their personal effects.




“Man, I’ve been in country two hours, and already I’ve got two wounded and a truckload of prisoners,” one Marine, standing guard over the prisoners with weapon ready, told another.
The Marines rolled bales of concertina wire toward the prisoners and planned to keep them in a temporary facility until camps could open up.

‘GLAD TO BE OUT’
Some of the Iraqis who gave themselves up were wearing T-shirts and other civilian clothes instead of military uniforms.
Lt. Col. Rob Abbott of Camp Pendleton, Calif., said the situation matched the expectations he had after seeing Iraqi troops surrender en masse in the 1991 Gulf War.

“I think they’re just glad to be out of the fight,” Abbott said. “I’d much rather have them come surrender than have me have to go hump them out of holes.”
The U.S. military has encouraged Iraqi soldiers to surrender rather than risk annihilation fighting to defend Saddam, and troops seem to have encountered limited resistance.
Even before any shooting began, 17 Iraqi soldiers surrendered to American soldiers Wednesday.

WHITE FLAG WAVING
Within a few hours of crossing into southern Iraq, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit encountered 200 or more Iraqi troops seeking to surrender. One group of 40 Iraqis marched down a two-lane road toward the Americans and gave up.
One group of Iraq soldiers alongside a road waved a white flag and their raised hands, trying to flag down a group of journalists so they could surrender.
In the town of Safwan, Iraqi civilians eagerly greeted the 1st Marine Division.
One little boy, who had chocolate melted all over his face after a soldier gave him some treats from his ration kit, kept pointing at the sky, saying “Ameriki, Ameriki.”

Another article
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly ... 84,00.html


'Saddam Is Done,' Marines Exult in Captured Town

Friday, March 21, 2003



SAWFAN, Iraq — U.S. Marines hauled down giant street portraits of Saddam Hussein in a screeching pop of metal and bolts Friday, telling nervous residents of this southern Iraqi town that "Saddam is done."

Milling crowds of men and boys watched as the Marines attached ropes on the front of their Jeeps to one portrait and then backed up, peeling the Iraqi leader's black-and-white metal image off a frame. Some locals briefly joined Maj. David "Bull" Gurfein in a new cheer.

"Iraqis! Iraqis! Iraqis!" Gurfein yelled, pumping his fist in the air.

"We wanted to send a message that Saddam is done," said Gurfein, a New York native in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "People are scared to show a lot of emotion. That's why we wanted to show them this time we're here, and Saddam is done."

The Marines arrived in Safwan, just across the Kuwait border, after Cobra attack helicopters, attack jets, tanks, 155 mm howitzers and sharpshooters cleared the way along Route 80, the main road into Iraq.

Safwan, 375 miles south of Baghdad, is a poor, dirty, wrecked town pocked by shrapnel from the last Gulf war. Iraqi forces in the area sporadically fired mortars and guns for hours Thursday and Friday. Most townspeople hid, although residents brought forth a wounded little girl, her palm bleeding after the new fighting. Another man said his wife was shot in the leg by the Americans.

A few men and boys ventured out, putting makeshift white flags on their pickup trucks or waving white T-shirts out truck windows.

"Americans very good," Ali Khemy said. "Iraq wants to be free."

Some chanted, "Ameriki! Ameriki!"

Many others in the starving town just patted their stomachs and raised their hands, begging for food.

A man identifying himself only as Abdullah welcomed the arrival of the U.S. troops: "Saddam Hussein is no good. Saddam Hussein a butcher."

An old woman shrouded in black -- one of the very few women outside -- knelt toward the feet of Americans, embracing an American woman. A younger man with her pulled her away, giving her a warning sign by sliding his finger across his throat.

In 1991, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died after prematurely celebrating what they believed was their liberation from Saddam after the Gulf War. Some even pulled down a few pictures of Saddam then -- only to be killed by Iraqi forces.

Gurfein playfully traded pats with a disabled man and turned down a dinner invitation from townspeople.

"Friend, friend," he told them in Arabic learned in the first Gulf War.

"We stopped in Kuwait that time," he said. "We were all ready to come up there then, and we never did."

The townspeople seemed grateful this time.

"No Saddam Hussein!" one young man in headscarf told Gurfein. "Bush!"