Camel Spider, Iraqnaphobia, Scars & Stripes

Iraqnaphobia
by Lin McNulty
Apr. 29, 2004

Making its first-ever appearance on The Lycos 50 as a top search topic is the infamous camel spider (debuting at #46). The Lycos 50 first reported on the camel spider at the onset of the war in Iraq back on April 7, 2003. At that time, an email began circulating around the Internet claiming that the troops in Iraq were encountering camel spiders and discovering all kinds of amazing facts about the creatures. They run over 25 miles per hour. They make squealing noises like a child screaming when they scamper about. Worst of all, they are called "camel spiders" because they climb onto the bellies of camels and eat their stomachs from the outside, numbing the flesh by secreting a natural anesthetic. The camels don't even notice until their intestines fall out.

None of which is true. In reality, camel spiders are slightly smaller than the human hand, and while they do run quickly, their top speed is 10 miles per hour, not 25. But they also make no noise, they excrete no venom, and although they can be voracious nocturnal predators, they don't eat camels.

In short, this spider is not among the hazards our troops encounter in Iraq.

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"If I had any time and anything like your ability to study war, I think I should concentrate almost entirely on the "actualities of war"—the effects of tiredness, hunger, fear, lack of sleep, weather.... The principles of strategy and tactics, and the logistics of war are really absurdly simple: it is the actualities that make war so complicated and so difficult, and are usually so neglected by historians."

—Field Marshal Lord Wavell, in a lettter to Liddell Hart