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Stryker brigade nickname probably not Arabic

Jun-18-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

Well, here's a weird story for you.

[Link to Full Article]
By DOUG ESSER, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SEATTLE -- President Bush sounded an off note during his visit to Fort Lewis when he said "Iraqis have taken to calling the Stryker brigades the 'Ghost Riders,' two Mideast experts said.

"It seems odd to me," said Ellis Goldberg, director of the Middle East Center at the University of Washington. "It sounds more American, from the song 'Ghost Riders in the Sky,'" a country music song about cowboys from hell.

"It just doesn't sound like something people might say in Arabic," Goldberg said.

The phrase had been used previously by an Army colonel at an April 5 Pentagon briefing.

Ghosts are not prevalent in Islamic culture, said Nicholas Heer, professor emeritus, UW Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. Heer said if Iraqis use it, "Ghost Riders" may be a phrase they have adopted.

"It doesn't sound very Islamic to me," he said.

Army spokesmen did not immediately respond Friday to a request for additional details about the nickname for the Stryker forces in Iraq.

Mybe they should look here or here.


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