Upcoming Duty In Iraq

by Ed Kinane,

from: Voices in the Wilderness

The war hits closer to home. In our local Syracuse paper we read that Army National Guard soldiers from Central New York are now training for upcoming duty in Iraq.

I try to imagine these young men -- and women -- in that hellish situation there. I wonder who will help them understand the people they are "liberating." I wonder who will help them understand why and for whose benefit they are risking their lives. I wonder who will equip these soldiers for the sacrifice they -- and their families -- are making.

I wonder who will -- who can? -- answer their questions honestly.

In thinking about these brave soldiers, I have a fantasy: it's that we could meet. We have experience and perspectives to share. Since February I've spent five months in Iraq. I lived in Baghdad, but also traveled to Kurdestan, Mosul, Basra and the Kuwait border. I lived there through the pre-invasion terror and the terror of "shock and awe." More recently I was there under the Occupation -- with its own kind of terror.

I was working with the Chicago-based human rights group, Voices in the Wilderness. Our team didn't live in a military compound or in a fortified hotel like most other Westerners. We felt safer because we weren't armed or armored. We lived with and among Iraqis. I have friends in Iraq with whom I trusted my life. I often walked the streets of Baghdad unaccompanied, even after dark.

I've had many a meal in Iraqi homes and have spent hours talking about life (and politics) with Iraqis. These ranged from the unemployed to the CEO of one of Iraq's major banks. I lost 10 pounds fasting from dawn till dusk as our household observed the holy month of Ramadan.

***

My fantasy of meeting with our National Guard soldiers, of course, is just a fantasy. The 27th Light Infantry Brigade isn't likely to invite me. After all, the military doesn't usually give a human rights activist the opportunity to dialog with its soldiers.

Soldiers aren't encouraged to think too much about why they are being trained to kill people they know little about -- people who, if unattacked, would do them no harm -- people who even now are no threat to our country. Soldiers aren't supposed to question why they are going to war. Or whose interests they are really defending.

I may know more about Iraq than some saber-rattling policy makers in Washington or the Pentagon. But if I did meet with our soldiers I'd acknowledge that I'm only just learning about that complex part of the world. I'd note that it's tricky to generalize about Iraqis. They are diverse; relations among their various groups and with neighboring countries aren't easy to untangle. And then there's all that history: before 1492 the land now known as Iraq already had thousands of years of civilization.

Before I first arrived in Iraq it sometimes seemed like there was only one person there -- Saddam Hussein -- and that the 25 million other Iraqis didn't matter. Most of those 25 million are under the age of 18. That's one reason why when Iraqi civilians are killed at a roadblock or in a bombing, often so many are children.

I'd hope the soldiers would ask me about the Iraqi people I knew. One was Joanna. We visited her in the leukemia ward of Baghdad's pediatric hospital. We don't know how Joanna contracted leukemia. But we do know that the children's leukemia rate in Iraq tripled after the U.S. military dispersed over 300 tons of depleted uranium (d.u.) into Iraq's air, soil and water during the 1991 Gulf war.

The U.S. military uses d.u. to harden its bombs, shells and tanks. Depleted uranium is both toxic and radioactive. U.S. soldiers inevitably are exposed to it; within several years of their return home Gulf War vets developed abnormally high rates of cancer. Because d.u. affects DNA, many vets fathered deformed babies.

The U.S. used depleted uranium again during the 2003 bombing of Baghdad. So the region is further contaminated. Before going there U.S. soldiers may want to check out depleted uranium on the Web.

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The Iraqis I met were remarkably welcoming. Hospitality is a broad and deep tradition there. Iraqis were never aggressive toward me and with few exceptions were never rude. This was true even of Iraqis on the street who had no idea who I was. Some surely wondered what on earth our team was doing there and were wary. But they didn't treat us as if we were their enemy.

In saying that Iraqis are hospitable I'm not saying U.S. soldiers will find them so. After all, the soldiers come not as friends, but as armed intruders in an illegal war. U.S. soldiers should be the first to understand what would drive people to sacrifice their lives defending their own country, their families and their land. Many U.S. soldiers believe they are doing the same.

Like our soldiers who enlist to help finance college, Iraqis value education highly. Despite their 13 years of isolation under the U.S./UN-imposed sanctions, a surprising number learned in school to speak English. (That was fortunate for me since I speak almost no Arabic.)

I was struck by the dignity of the people I met in Iraq. They treated themselves and others with respect. They had a gravity and sense of self -- which may derive in part from their Islamic faith and from the harsh realities of recent decades.

Yet another prominent Iraqi trait was their industriousness. Since before the days of Noah, Iraqis have been builders. Baghdad is brimming with engineers and entrepreneurs ready to go to work. Remove outside interference and Iraqis will soon rebuild their shattered economy.

Most Iraqis are pleased that Saddam is out of power. Some thank the U.S. for removing Saddam while wondering why it supported him for so many years in the first place. And they wonder why the U.S. has wreaked such havoc on Iraq. Most wish they could also be rid of the U.S. Occupation: it has turned so sour.

A few weeks ago I asked an Iraqi friend, a university student, how Iraqis felt about the shooting down of the Chinook helicopter and the death of the 15 US soldiers flying out from the Baghdad airport on leave. Salam said, "Some are happy. Some could care less. No one is sad."

Another friend, the banker, meets weekly with the Occupation authorities. When I asked him about them he shook his head sadly and said they were busy making enemies out of friends.

I believe Iraqis would readily be friends and allies of the U.S....if the U.S. didn't prop up tyrants (like Saddam before he outlived his usefulness) or appoint puppets (like the Governing Council) over them. Or let U.S. corporations steal their oil...or hog the contracts to rebuild the country. Or poison them with depleted uranium or maim and kill them.

There is much our soldiers could learn about Iraq and about the tragic war there. I wish I could share with them what I've seen and heard.

Ed is a Syracuse, NY-based editor. In Iraq he works with Voices in the Wilderness. For its campaign to lift the U.S.-imposed sanctions on Iraq, VITW was three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.