or fix their sewage systems. Then he asks how else he can help them. What a stunning statement coming from a sergeant in the US military which is occupying Iraq.
Through two wars on their country we destroyed their infrastructure, and now we say we can do nothing for them about fresh water or electricity? Nothing about the raw sewage in the streets?
It makes the title of this US News article even stranger.
Putting a Human Face on the American Military Presence in Baghdad
BAGHDAD — Michael Duquette speaks with the slow and methodical cadence familiar to most old New England Yankees. He sports a salt and pepper mustache and uses silence as a soft cudgel to manage a conversation. While some of the more impetuous young infantry lieutenants will badger people into telling them something, even to the point of putting words into their mouths, Duke holds back. He lets the Iraqis fill the intervening silence with their thoughts and worries. It’s an old trick–pause long enough, and someone will step in and say something, say anything to break the uncomfortable silence.
But the words he speaks first are very telling. He says we can do nothing for you in the way of life’s necessities….so what else bothers you.
When Duke enters a large house in one of the formerly wealthy neighborhoods of Baghdad, he does so with a purpose. Tonight, it’s nothing more than to greet the neighbors, hear their concerns, and provide a human face to the American occupation of Iraq’s largest city. “I can’t fix your sewer, give you more electricity, or make fresh water run out of your taps,” he tells the Iraqi interpreter. “Let’s get that clear upfront.” He waits for the translator to finish and then pauses, allowing his hosts to size him up.
“What’s troubling you the most?”
So they speak of their lack of lack of employment, their lack of security and their fears of being killed by bombs.
Then comes the punch line, that we can help them with that because it would benefit us as well.
Duke nods. “We are doing all we can,” he says. “But we can’t change the government; that’s way above my pay level,” he says, pointing to his sergeant’s strips.
…””We live at the base right up the road,” says Duke, referring to Joint Security Station Thrasher, which his platoon shares with the Iraqi Army and the local concerned citizens group. “We don’t like the violence either. We don’t like driving around and worrying that we are going to get blown up. You guys are the only ones who can tell us who the bad guys are and where they are hiding. Remember, we share these streets too.”
…”As the soldiers leave, after more than an hour of talking with the three Iraqis, Duke unfastens one of his Velcro pockets and removes a printed business card with a telephone number on the back. “That number goes directly to Americans, not the Iraqi Army,” he says. “That means that if you call us and give us information, we can be sure that it remains anonymous. If you see someone bad planting bombs around here, give us a call, and that’s something we might be able to do something about.”
Maybe someday the country that used to be one of the most respected in the world can figure out how to give the Iraqi people more than one hour a day of electricity. Perhaps we could even figure out how to give them fresh water.
We have become a mere shadow of what we used to be.
