QBLOG #44 One Tin Soldier

Fridays are always interesting days in Iraq. They are holy days here and in the past have usually been quiet. Fridays have not been quiet for a long time now. Each of the religious groups be it Sunni or Shi'ite have decided this is the best day to attack each other. It is very sad. There have been many explosions and gun fire this past Friday. Normally things would calm down on Saturday, but nothing is normal anymore. Three days passed before the Iraqi's who work for us were able to return to work. I greeted one of the Iraqi men I know out in our parking lot as they were preparing to depart Camp Liberty. I was concerned and asked how he and his family were. He told me that things have really gotten crazy and that everyone is shooting at everyone. " You don't know who to trust and so you trust no one." He and his family do not leave their house, even though the electricity does not work most of the time. He says it is better to live in heat of the house than to go out and chance getting shot or killed. Our conversation is cut short because the guards are ready to escort them out to the east gate on the Airport road. This gate has now been hit with car bombs twice. The mood changes and the 15 men who were able to make it to work load up in three cars headed back to their homes in the unprotected part of Baghdad known as the Red Zone.

It is now Ramadan. You hear two different types of events in the news media. It is getting better and under control. It is getting worse and things are falling apart. The sad part is both are true. If you live in the Green Zone and you pass the barriers and check points, things do in fact seem to be getting better. If you are out in the Red Zone as most Iraqis are, things are worse. More murder, more mayhem, more of everything except hope. I am friendly with a young Iraqi who works for us. I have not seen him or the other Iraqi's in some time. We greet each other though his manner is more cautious. There is a change in him and in his eyes. He normally greets me with a warm embrace and hand shake. Today it is very short. There is concern in his eyes. I ask again about his family and him. He simply says that death is everywhere and fear is constant. He feels safe here at work, but worries what he will go home to in the evenings. He says "you do not stop to talk to anyone anymore for fear that they will kill you. We are like the walking dead, eyes only forward praying that we make it safely home and that those we left at home are also safe.".

I can't imagine what that is like. I'd like to think I can, but I can't. For all intents and purpose, we living at Camp Liberty are removed from such terror. Are families are safe and comfortable in the U.S. We are for the most part, safe and comfortable on Liberty. We have food, water, electricity everyday. We get mortars and hear gunfire and feel the IED's, but it is not a constant fear on our minds. Certainly nothing like not being able to leave your home for fear of being shot or killed. Not living with electricity that is now up to about 30% of capacity in and around Baghdad. Not having to worry if we will return to our home alive or find our family kidnapped or dead. I cannot imagine what that is like.

Back in my youth I had considered politics as something worthy of a career; of a life to lead. I had begun to groom myself for such a life while I was in High School and sought to emulate Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. My friendships were diverse as were my interests. I would be elected Vice President of the Student Body and President of the Speech Team my Junior year and President of the Student Body my Sr. Year. I had big plans and big dreams. My first year in college everything changed. My intention was to major in Political Science, but current events of the time showed me an ugly side of politics that I felt I could not be part of nor would I be allowed to be part of politics.

Then religion is something I thought would work for me. I soon discovered that religion and politics were very similar and both tend to create divisions rather than bridges. The world seems to be filled with a desire for many to take what others have or not to allow others the same things they have. That is what politics and religion represent to me. I'm reminded of The Legend of Billy Jack. A song from that movie comes to mind today as another VBIED goes off near the Slayer gate right off of Road Irish. One Tin Soldier.

One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack)
by Lambert-Potter, sung by Coven

Listen, children, to a story
That was written long ago,
'Bout a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley-folk below.

On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath the stone,
And the valley-people swore
They'd have it for their very own.

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.

So the people of the valley
Sent a message up the hill,
Asking for the buried treasure,
Tons of gold for which they'd kill.

Came an answer from the kingdom,
"With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain,
All the riches buried there."

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.

Now the valley cried with anger,
"Mount your horses! Draw your sword!"
And they killed the mountain-people,
So they won their just reward.

Now they stood beside the treasure,
On the mountain, dark and red.
Turned the stone and looked beneath it...
"Peace on Earth" was all it said.

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.

In the past, One Tin Soldier in my minds eye was a soldier like King Arthur's knights, riding away into the sunset. Today that soldier is like the tin man in "The Wizard of OZ" and rides away wondering what the purpose of war is/was and seeking the heart he felt he once had. Being in Iraq, you see how this place, this ware affects those around you, Iraqi and American alike. You see changes in soldiers' attitudes and demeanor. You see the effect on the civilians here supporting those soldiers. Last year people were talking about being here as a patriotic duty, to support our soldiers. Now most of that is gone. There is no patriotic duty or gesture. It portends to get worse. I pray I am wrong. But my Iraqi brother's eyes say it will get much worse before it gets better.

I want to have, to believe in the ideals I had when I was in High School. I want to believe that the world will do what is right, that politics will resolve differences and that religion will bring people together. I want to believe that, but I don't. I think of this young Iraqi and his family, his friends. They are surviving as they must. They want the same things that each of us wants, a home, a family, a future...peace. But there is no peace and there is little room to believe much of the future. Maybe it will show up when that last soldier rides away from the hole where peace was buried. That One Tin Soldier who rides away looking for the heart of the world. There is no good solution. We cannot stay and we cannot go. Maybe....maybe if we pray hard enough that politics will act and religion will bridge the gaps, maybe then we will see the valley folk reach up to the mountain kingdom in a gesture of goodwill... and peace will be shared. Maybe.

Robert