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thedrifter
10-18-05, 01:07 PM
Viewpoint: Iraq is complex on a personal level
18 Oct 2005
By Stan Jarvis

Last Tuesday, The Daily Universe published a viewpoint entitled, “In Fallujah, we focus on bad apples and ignore courageous heroes.”

One can understand the fervor of a man who has committed his life to the military to defend his nation’s interests and ideals. Faced with the undeniably challenging reality of any combat situation, those ideals often come out in sharper focus than the more abstract interests, which are not always as clear and motivating.

One can also understand the difficulties faced by a foreign press in Iraq, where editors back home are expecting their daily blood, yet they must face a hostile reporting environment where their lives are considered of little value by any side, where all sides expect them to report only what they want the world to hear and where most try to report without knowing more than a hint of the local language.

Reality may be more complex than what any single side may state. In Fallujah neither U.S. Marines or infiltrating Jihadists are necessarily any more representative of the city of Fallujah than are BYU students compared to the citizenry of Provo. Marines – and we salute them for it – take care of their own in their chosen way. Insurgents – and we fear them for it – take care of their own as well. But we hear nothing about people whose lives are daily impacted by these opposing forces, each of whom fervently believes in the cause for which they are there.

You never read about real people like Abdul-Salam Fadhil Muhammad, who has taught English for 20 years just South of Fallujah. He told me of having a US Marine patrol break down his door at 3 a.m., charging through the house searching for insurgents with all his children in sheer terror, not knowing if at any second they or their parents would die from a tragic language mistake.

You never read about people like Jameela Abdul Ameer Mahdi, who has taught for 20 years just east of Fallujah and saw her fellow high school teachers murdered simply because they could speak English.

Or there’s Kawther Hameed Fadhil, who upon returning from the Master Teacher Seminar where we met all of them this spring, saw her favorite restaurant blown up just before her family car stopped, leaving eight of her best friends dead and her father in critical condition.

Unfortunately, most only read or listen to news that fits within their pre-conceived bias. Consider this item that everybody in Baghdad seems aware of. Early this spring, a Commander near Baghdad called in one of his troops who had reportedly just killed his 82nd civilian. Civilians are fathers, mothers and their children. That’s quite a number, so the commander was rightly curious. The young dutiful soldier was like so many who are required to man roadblocks, despite having an MOS that should have guaranteed a desk job. The soldier recounted how the policy was for him to hold up a hand to order drivers to stop while holding his weapon ready to fire in case a driver failed to respond 200 meters out. What the soldier did not know was that the Iraqi hand signal for “come here” is very much like the American hand signal for “stop,” the only difference being that the top of the fingers curl in. One can easily see the difference a few feet away in broad daylight, but from over 200 meters away, at night, it’s a different story.

Iraq is indeed very dangerously complex.

Iraq is only one of today’s complexities. There will be many more. I do not argue against the value of remembering noble deeds of those in the uniforms of all nations. But those students today who are diligently striving to learn and love the languages and customs of others around the globe may ultimately have a greater impact for genuine peace later in their lives than one can ever accomplish through administration of military force alone, particularly if they use their listening and reasoning skills and avoid being drawn in by the bias of others without reasonable due diligence on their part.

Ellie