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‘Thank you, Mr. Bush’
27.3.2008
By Marc Knutson
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March 27, 2008
I have fielded varied replies over the past few
months after my two-week trip to Iraq. People
instantly imagine violence, mayhem and chants of
“Death to America.” Then they ask, “You went where?”
Yes, I went to Iraq — on my own initiative and at my
own expense, unsponsored by anyone and responsible
to no one by myself. It was my own response to the
rumors of good news stories that have unfolded in
Iraq, but weren’t apparently being told in the
mainstream media. I reached into my billfold and set
out to find these stories. What I learned will
improve our opinion of the U.S. efforts in Iraq, and
help us feel more proud of our soldiers and of our
country.
In Iraq’s northern region of Kurdistan, I saw that
freedom and its twin sister, liberty, were being
treated by Iraqis as precious gems. It was easy to
be caught up in their excitement. It was a joy to
experience their wide-eyed innocence as they enjoyed
their inalienable rights and the fruits of freedom.
From Regional President Barzani to the regional
prime minister and all the peoples of the region,
one truth was for certain: These are indeed
gratefully liberated people. The word “liberation” —
as in “since the liberation,” or “following the ’03
liberation” — seasoned every conversation.
I asked Fawsi, a Saddam-era police officer who took
early retirement to protest Saddam Hussein’s edicts,
“What do you think of American and coalition efforts
in Iraq?”
Fawsi’s eyes lit up. “Tell you what I think?” Fawsi
exclaimed. I felt the intensity of his Iraqi stare.
Neither his English nor his body language required
any translation. “Tell you how I feel, what I think
about since the American liberation?” There was a
hint of incredulity that I had asked such an absurd
question.
“Allow me to put it this way,” he said. “Now I can
go where I want to, see who I want to, speak openly
about who or what I want to. I can even speak in a
public place about the distaste I have for the
government, and?…” he paused and looked directly
into my eyes,www.ekurd.net
wanting to emphasize his
concluding point: “I no longer have to worry about
whether I, or any members of my family, will be
murdered by my president.We are freed from the
weight of Saddam Hussein and his ghoulish henchmen,
yes! I am free; free from Saddam telling me how to
live?…” pausing again “…?and free from him telling
me how I am to die.”
His eyes drifted toward the floor. “I no longer have
to cry or grieve for my fellow countrymen who are
being murdered by him. Americans can’t relate. You
want to berate your president for his actions; I
wanted to kill mine for his!”
No one in the room spoke. His final words, as he
left, were muted: “Thank you, America.Thank you, Mr.
Bush, for getting us our lives back.”
Freedom truly has a face. In this case, more than 3
million faces, smiling with new hope, and no longer
distorted by fear of life, limb or torture.
What has happened in this part of Iraq? Quite
simply, the Kurdish people have received the baton
from the liberating forces and are carrying it with
extreme seriousness. They are not taking their
freedom for granted.
“We are a success story here,” beamed an official
with the regional government. We have been able to
govern our own land, police it and secure it, which
makes it a safe place to be.”
My briefing occurred in the office of the Department
of Foreign Relations. “What we have done is form a
national agreement among the people of Kurdistan. We
are tolerant of who lives among us; Shiite, Sunni,
Jewish or Christian, it doesn’t matter to us.
However, they must pass a security check! What
terrorist wants to go through a background check?”
He chuckled as I left his rhetorical question
unanswered. “See what I mean?”
That amounts to a neighborhood watch program, on a
national scale. Every man, woman and child has been
self-deputized to monitor their neighborhoods. They
watch for suspicious activity and report it to the
police, who have investigative power and
prosecutorial authority.
The Swedish chief project manager of the new Erbil
International Airport complex observed, “The amazing
thing with the Kurdish people is that the whole
population is security minded and watching out for
bad guys.”
My driver Hameed commented, “Since the first Gulf
War, and the liberation, the entire Kurdish
population has taken the torch from the Americans
and is willing to self-police our country.”
My natural response was, “So, are you telling me
that if all of Iraq took this posture, including
Baghdad, this war would be over?” I knew that was a
stretch of logic.
“We are proud that Kurdistan is a glowing model of
how all of Iraq can be. People living side by side
in peace. It can happen:As more attention is focused
on our success, we then become the pattern for all
of Iraq.” He added, “Remember, the people that are
causing the grief in the south aren’t even Iraqi.”
I tested the security claims on several occasions. I
went into the heavily trafficked shopping centers
and malls. I window-shopped, bought groceries and
souvenirs and just wandered about. I wore a coat and
tie, and looked quite American. Yet not a single
person approached me or confronted me. I went about
my window-shopping unthreatened. One side of me was
of course grateful; the other side saw just how
secure I really was.
Perhaps the most poignant example of the safety
issue was made as I returned the 400 kilometers to
Erbil from Halabja, the site where Saddam chemically
gassed people of the village. We stopped for dinner
in Dukan,www.ekurd.net
an obscure resort town.
As we were leaving, we discovered that our rear tire
was leaking air. Hameed changed the tire as I shared
in friendly banter with some local young men. Back
on the road toward Erbil, I was commenting on the
billions of stars that formed a canopy above.
Hameed then posed the most profound question of the
entire trip: “So, Marc, here you are in the middle
of nowhere, Iraq, considered by the world as the
most terrorized place on Earth. It is midnight and
there is no town in sight. We are driving on the
spare, with no replacement. You know that people saw
you back at that restaurant. So, what are you
thinking about your security now?”
Frankly, I hadn’t been. I was caught up watching the
stars, and laughing about the quality of the road,
which was about three notches above the Oregon
Trail. Until that moment, I hadn’t been concerned,
but now that he’d mentioned it, I had to decide — is
this a set-up because all this time he’s been
wanting to dump me in the desert? Or is he trying to
prove a point? I elected the latter. That’s when I
discovered that the Kurds were fiercely prideful
about their security achievements.
Wanting to know what the locals really thought of
American actions, I asked one question so often that
my driver would ask it before I did: “Do you see
America, and the coalition forces, as invaders or
liberators?” Overwhelmingly, the reply was
“Liberators!” with extra exclamation.
Adnan, the Iraqi country manager for a British oil
company in Erbil, was an elderly Iraqi man who
earned my instant respect. He didn’t want me to lose
a single syllable of his answer: “Liberators! That’s
who you are. That’s what you’ve done. That’s how we
will always think of you, and don’t let anyone tell
you anything different.”
I protested, “But many Americans believe that our
efforts were inspired by oil profits and political
gain.”
Adnan hesitated, then added, “I only ask for half of
America to live what we have lived, to experience
the everyday fear of torture, family separation and
harassment. I will say this as plainly as I can —
George Bush is a hero. He is our hero! The sons and
daughters of America who died to make it so we can
be free are heroes and indeed liberators! We now
enjoy freedom and liberty almost as the Americans
do.”
Once again, silence highlighted the moment. “The
great people of America are charged with duties of
helping the repressed peoples of the world. It’s not
something that I just believe, it is as a result of
your own greatness and moral integrity. America is
known around the world as a nation with a big heart
and a heavy responsibility.?... It is more incumbent
upon the most powerful nation in the world to help
the repressed.”
I thought of how people such as Adnan could now live
lives of guilt-free liberty and determine their own
society, culture and fate. There is a genuine
ownership of their new freedom, evidence that they
won’t take it for granted.
It is one thing to secure an area by force. Drop a
few bombs, roll in a couple of tanks, bivouac a
battalion or two of soldiers — and the area is
yours. However, not completely, not if you haven’t
won over the hearts of the people.
I visited Camp Zaytun, a Korean-operated military
installation where a small cadre of American
soldiers remains assigned to the camp. In fact, they
are the only American soldiers stationed in Kurdish
controlled territory. I was invited to have lunch
with them in their mess hall. After I handed out
Christmas cards and Oreo cookies from home, we sat
down to lunch. I was surrounded by four ranking Army
officers. For over an hour, they recounted endless
positive events that they had experienced. My
favorite was told by a colonel from the Oregon
National Guard:
“This past summer we decided to conduct a baseball
camp for local children. They weren’t very familiar
with baseball, so we had to start with the very,
very basics.” He beamed as he relived the event. “We
invited children from Erbil to participate, but we
encountered some issues right away. The U.S. State
Department required that the parents sign a waiver
of liability. Most of the parents opted out because
they didn’t trust the papers. Previously, signing
government papers in Iraq was usually for quite
severe reasons; these parents were too gun shy and
abused by the previous regime.
“This meant that we were short of kids to field
teams. We went to a local orphanage and recruited
kids from there. Another issue presented itself;
these kids needed the proper shoes. We had some, but
not all of them fit. So, we ran downtown and bought
enough sneakers for all the kids. We had a blast
teaching them the game.” He was proud as he spoke.
“Our primary mission was Iraqi Freedom. Today it is
‘Iraq: Enjoy Your Freedom!’?”
There are no explosions in the land that match the
construction boom coming from Kurdistan. Not just
re-construction, but brand-new, ultra modern
buildings.
The war itself barely touched the northern province.
Ironically, Turkish investors are the primary source
of investment monies rebuilding Kurdistan. After
years of neglect and abuse from Saddam’s government,
which sought the demise of the Kurds, their freedom
to build and expand is at a feverish pace.
Modern hotels, shopping centers, swim centers and
even bowling alleys have sprung up. In Erbil alone
there are four new shopping malls. The dollar is
welcome if you run out of Iraqi dinars.
Erbil International Airport is constructing an
ultra-modern terminal and a 4.8-kilometer runway —
the world’s fifth-longest, strong enough to handle
the new Airbus A380. Major airlines are looking at
Erbil as a hub for many air routes from Europe and
the West to the Far East and India.
The oil industry in Kurdistan is 25 years behind the
rest of the world. Saddam would not allow modern
technology or related information into the region.
Today the region is making up for lost time. New
wells are being drilled in areas where looking for
oil is a matter of taking a stroll, because there
are places where oil lies in puddles on the surface.
Kurdistan had been told for years that it had no oil
resources. Yet the oil is there, and that is great
economic news for the Kurds.
Northern Iraq was the antithesis of my expectations.
I saw people who had been released into the field of
life’s opportunities, their freedom unencumbered by
the yoke called Saddam Hussein.
As Americans, it is important to know what has
happened. Our work in Iraq has been well received
and greatly appreciated — and not treated in a light
or trivial fashion. These people grieve for the
sacrifices many Americans have paid. They are
ashamed and embarrassed by the renegade fanatics who
have caused so much grief elsewhere in Iraq. Through
her tears, one Iraqi mom whose son was killed in
action so choked out these words: “Your sons are our
sons.”
There are plenty of good news stories in Iraq that
need to be told to America, and indeed the entire
world. I have been misled into believing that there
can only be three things that we should expect from
Iraq: despair, hopelessness and death.
There are stories brimming with hope, stories that
fill our hearts and allow us to rise to the heights
of pride. Americans, using our resources that we
earned through liberty, helped to free others
quashed by tyranny. Who better than Americans to
realize the taste of freedom? Americans have been
given much, and much is expected of us.
The liberated peoples of Iraq now enjoy the
opportunity to release the pent-up ideas and
expressions that only liberation from tyranny can
offer. Only a few short years separate these people
from the days of hiding in fear. Savoring the fresh
taste of democracy, today, their worries consist of
children’s school grades, or oil prices, or other
common things that the rest of the world wrestles
with.
As one person in the government told me, “We love
America.We love George Bush.We want to maintain a
relationship with America like Israel has. In fact,
we want to be America’s ‘second Israel’ in the
region!”
Such high hopes! Such trust in America! I heard my
inner voice, dripping with cynicism, say, “I only
hope that your trust in America is not shattered by
American politicians and American politics.”
The hope in democracy, the faith in freedom and the
trust in liberty allow these people to have a say in
their own destiny.
Their fate rests in their hands, and from what I
observed, they are grateful and thankful. They know
it came at a great cost, to them and to America.
Because I have seen that look in their eyes, I
believe that they are not going to squander the
opportunity that has been given them. They don’t
take their freedom for granted — and they won’t.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
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