Calling all wannabe Middle East actors in Bavaria

In the heart of Bavaria lies a recreated war torn Middle Eastern town. Apparently the U.S. gov is looking for "extras" for their training, but are having trouble with recruiting persons of Middle Eastern descent to play imans and regular old townfolks caught up in the middle of the fight. Hummm not surprised!

Yahoo! News: In Germany, few want to play an Iraqi




Photo: Sabaa Nissan Militiaman

My son participated in this twice before he ran off to Kentucky to join the Army*. Be wary. They really "interrogated" and "fought" the insurgents. On the evenings off, however, they had a great time together. And he still thinks the Army is the place to be ...
*he was on the U.S. side

Wow! That sounds like fun. I'll register myself as soon as I get my fingers out of my throat.

how much do they pay?

I don't quite recall, about 1300 net for 4 - 5 weeks? Something in that range.

How do they keep perpetuating these names they come up with to identify the opposing side.

INSURGENTS.. my god

If we repeat time after time after time that the American, Australian and British forces are "well financed, oil and land hungry, bombing innocents from 3000ft, baby slaughtering terrorists", i wonder if that will catch on too...

I understand that what I said above was harsh but if we continue to reinforce this propaganda then we only get more of it and before we now it reality is so polluted with lies, the lies become the reality...

Do you prefer Freedom Fighters? Guerilla soldiers is always good, but half of the US population can't pronounce it.

why can't the military just take turns dressing up as the 'enemy'?

Because the organizers (well, the Army) want authenticity. They want the language, the looks, the mentality so the soldiers know what the reality will be like and can get used to it.

I wonder if you play the role of an insurgent really well you get a reward, say a free all expenses trip to Cuba.

The Süddeutsche had an article on this 3 or 4 weeks ago. The participants (playing the Iraqis) are all students/freelancers/artists/teachers etc desperate for work. If I remember correctly they get paid about €1000 or €1500 for the week. The article reported that the participants were wooed by placing ads in local newspapers, stating that "they" (not mentioning the name of the company or institution behind the ad) were looking for supernumeraries for a film. An address was given where the interviews would take place. When the participants showed up, a third party was conducting the interviews and it was only then that they found out that the US Army was behind this.

I didn't read the yahoo article on this, but according to the SZ the particpants were told that they were not allowed to do sports during the week. Riots would be staged, but they didn't have to worry because the soldiers would only be firing at them with blanks (..). They would have to be exposed to smoke bombs etc. though. When asking about their safety, the participants were informed that the whole thing would be monitored the whole time and that the supervisors would intervene should the American soldiers go crazy and misuse their power.

and all that for 130$ a day! bargain!

Are you actually quoting SZ or have you added some adjectives of your own to the original story? I didn't know that soldiers were trained to shoot at people who riot? Thankfully there will be supervisors around to make sure soldiers don't "misuse power" with their blank bullets...

Where do I apply? Not Iraqi but chocolate color, dont speak Arabic but the language of the tribes in Afghanistan. Have shot a gun before too

I'll see if I can find the SZ article online. It was in the paper 4 weeks ago. Yes, riots would be staged and no, the idea is obviously not to take potshots at the participants. But should a trigger-happy youngster decided to shoot at the rioters, the bullets would at least be blanks. And Jules, don't tell me it doesn't happen that American soldiers shoot at rioters in Iraq.

Lucky you Jules, I found the article. Hope you can read German:
SZ article by Julius Müller-Meiningen, Süddeutsche Zeitung vom 15.2.2007


The German expression is "Massendemonstration wobei Soldaten angegriffen werden". This can be translated as riots.

I'm sure you don't want to make this a political thread but I'm not convinced that the classic definition of 'Guerilla soldiers' includes blowing up random people at markets on a regular basis and using women and children as human shields. Say what you want about the UK and US troops but I think the 'whatever romantic term you want to use' should be pretty happy to be labelled purely as insurgents

I have to admit that my German is quite crap, so maybe I didn't catch something. Where does it say that the soldiers are going to shoot at the rioters? Where is the part on soldiers "going crazy" and "misusing their power"?

Its a bit racialist that I can't apply because I don't look very middle eastern. I'm totally qualified to run about like a deranged lunatic, randomly firing off rounds into the air from a battered AK-47. Well gutted.

poetic licence apparently

Well Jules, your English doesn't seem to be that good either. The English word "should" means if. I wrote "should the soldiers go crazy" and not "when the soldiers go crazy".

I will do it for both of us Don! I look middle eastern and would love to fire rounds in the air and I can say dirka dirka exactly like an Iraqi

I would do it only if I was allowed to sing

dont ya wish your boyfriend was a freak like me...

D.R., I don't know if the U.S. military would stand a chance against you. Could bring the soldiers to tears...while you yet provided a delectible menu out of local food delicacies.

You gave your own personal political twist to a story, got caught and are now backtracking. Carry on.

Anybody familiar with the Standford Prison Experiment would want guarantees and insist on external observers.

It's nothing sinister ...Just a job.. I resd somewhere that the U.s. Military is the 5th largest employer in Bavaria. Surprising.

Perhpas I could audition for a female role. If I wore a full veil, nobody would be any the wiser. Sounds like easy money to me, although I do concede that it might be quite tiring on my arms to hold up one of those massive oil paintings of some fallen family member dressed in a suicide belt.

Don, you cannot apply because everyone knows that you will start firing at the muslims

@Jules
You are the only one twisting words here.
@Exile
Exactly. That's why I feel sorry for people who are that poor that they have to take such jobs in order to survive.

Indeed. These are drills and if contact with Arabs here can make the simulations more realistic, then it will only mean that the soldiers will be better prepared when it comes to interacting with the local population when they are in Iraq.

@majorbummer
Re-read what you wrote, I am not twisting anything.

quite honestly, no matter how hard up for money, the banning of alcohol for 3 weeks would be the deciding factor for the majority of TTers.

No booze for 3 weeks?!?! Man, I would not be simulating a riot, I can tell ya.

maybe the Iraqi army will come up with a similar training plan, requiring Americans & Brits to act as civilians in a mock Western society, whilst being patrolled by Iraqi soldiers with fake weapons. then we could volunteer. bagsy working in the Subway or the Sex Shop.

No Jules, YOU read my words:


I never said they would. The worrying thing is that there is a good chance of the whole thing getting out of hand as Exile also mentioned by referring to the Stanford prison experiments. It seems to be human nature and I would definitely not want to do a job like that.

"Wenn die Regeln mißachtet werden" can be translated as soldiers going crazy and abusing their power. I would leave the "going crazy" out myself.

Should, would, same difference. They're just "weasel words", as they say on Wikipedia. The insinuation is there and it is yours, as it does not appear in the SZ article you referred to make your point, as far as I know. If this does appear in the article, then the reporter is being irresponsible.

EDIT:@sarabyrd
LOL. "mißachtet" translated into English means "ignored". ODER??
"Soldiers going crazy and abusing their power" is a personal interpretation of what it could possibly allude to according to MajorBummer, and apparently, you as well.

When soldiers, especially kids that young, kids who just left school or quit school at the age of 16, join the army, they are simply not prepared for dealing with high stress situations. That's why they do go crazy occasionally. If you look at the history of any army anywhere on the planet, you will see that many of them do snap and it's not surprising.

What amazes me me is how much people seem to know about the US military without ever having been a member.

I do like the idea of being a "member" of an army. Makes it sound more fun, like the A Team.

EDIT: Actually, that has just given me the most super awesome idea I've ever had. We should get a few guys together, get a van, and gatecrash the whole thing dressed as The A Team. Man, that would be soo cool.

Mißachten means to ignore or to disregard. So to ignore or disregard the rules.

People know a lot about the government too! And about the football league! without ever being a member? whats your point, that you can only know about something if you have experienced it first hand? Sorry, doesnt hold much water that one.

Sergeant Eddie Jeffers is a US Army Infantryman serving in Ramadi, Iraq.

My point is perhaps some intrepid TT'er of middle eastern descent can participate in this and let us what really sinister designs are afoot. Then we will all have some first hand information rather than idle speculation on which to form opinions.

I think the problem is that people think that they know a lot about government, football and many other things, when they should really think more carefully about they are saying.

I for one would not want a nineteen-year-old stressed boy, deliberately put under stress in a war-like situation, pointing a gun at me, blanks or not. That was my point.

To be honest, I think it's better to practice the situation. Then, when the real situation occurs, there would be less chance of panicking under the stress, when it's not blanks in the guns.

thats why we have a democracy, innit? You say what you feel and think and if others have more info then you learn, also how would one know whether they know enough or not if they never voice whats in their head. debate always leads to betterment in me opinion. Intellectual casteism JW is not the way to go.

@majorbummer
OK, fair enough, but look at the ages of people who go into combat in any war. The majority of front line troops are always in that late-teen/early twenties age range.

@showem
Agreed, but whatever the US military ever does, it's always wrong for some people. In this case, either they are uncivilized hicks with no cultural sensitivity, or they try to make them more familiar with the theater they are going into, and there's some covert conspiracy to do God knows what to a bunch of people in the Bavarian hinterland.

@arshoo
I understand, and I am not saying that you need a PhD in Military History to talk about the army or to have coached a team in the Bundesliga to talk about football, but when you make certain statements, it does help when you have a little background knowledge to back up what you are saying.

They're not that stressed. It's training and controlled, very controlled.