Mascot

The Iraqi news media covered the Democratic and the Republican national conventions.  I watched coverage from Iraqi anchors attending both.  At the bottom of the screen the party mascot was displayed along with the news ticker.

"What's the donkey?" asked Blade

"It's the Democratic Party mascot, their symbol."

He laughed, "why, man, donkey?!  They're stupid."

Sonic agreed, "Donkeys go crazy and kill themselves..."

"Suicide donkeys?"

"Insurgent donkeys," Blade laughed.

Sonic explained, "during the war [Iran/Iraq] donkeys carried supplies up mountains.  You teach a donkey the way two, three times it will walk by itself, man I'm serious.  But they never rested the donkeys so they just go crazy and walk off a cliff."

"Donkey is no good," agreed Blade.

Obama's picture came on the screen.

"Captain, you like Obama or McCain?"

I wanted to know their honest opinion so I said I was unsure.

"Obama no good," Blade and Sonic agreed.

I asked why.

"McCain is a soldier, he knows.  And he's friend with Bush."

"You like President Bush?"

"Bush capture Saddam... and help us kill Al Qaeda."

The Holidays

Right now the Arab Homeland is celebrating Ramadan.

"It's when the Prophet received the Qu'ran," said Ali. "When the angel Gabriel told him."

Muslims believe that Mohammed received the Qu'ran from the mouth of the angel Gabriel.  Although Ali doesn't normally pray 5 times a day--he does during Ramadan.  He also fasts from dawn to sunset.

"Because it's hard, it's discipline," he explains.  "In the past, Muslims used to fight wars and not eat for many days.  This tells you what it's like."

Another Iraqi on the patrol base told me that fasting, "reminds you of the poor, it reminds you what it is like to hunger.  Many people give away food during Ramadan."

"Not everyone fasts?"

"You can eat after sundown."

Often Muslims enjoy large feasts during Ramadan evenings.  It is a month of extremes.  Of hunger and satisfaction, of prayer and conversation, of solitude and companionship.

"Allah tells us to fast."

"In the Qu'ran?"

"Yes, and everything is good, like good points, you earn good points when you fast... forgiveness."

"You become holy?"

"Yes, even your breath it is holy."

Another Muslim on the patrol base asked me if we could give extra fabric to widows in our sewing class "as a present for Ramadan."  Mohammed asked if we could buy 100 sheep to give away poor families in the city.

"Where would we put them?  There'd be a riot."  I could see a mob of sheep and poor Iraqis swarming the front gate.

"Like Christmas," explained Mohammed.

"Riots?"

"No man, gifts... to celebrate."

Recruitment

Almost every night I watch satellite television with our Iraqi interpreters.  Some channels are infamous for anti-Western propaganda.  Such as the Al Jazeera Documentary Channel--which has great cinematography and an artistic eye, but has aired two features on White Supremacists in the last week.  One showed footage of skinheads at a death-metal concert in Europe.  A teenager at the bar had SNIPER tattooed on the back of his head.  He used to be in the army.  Later in that feature, the skinheads assembled for a torchlit march through the city.  Their flames were endless, trailing off into the night.

Another channel had an advertisement promoting the Iraqi Insurgency.  A man wearing a dishdasha crawled under concertina wire at the Iraqi border, he was carrying a blue duffle-bag.  I asked the Iraqis if they were ever asked to join Al Qaeda.

"Oh yeah, when I was in Syria," said Ali.  "When I worked in the grocery stand."  His family moved there several years ago and opened a small business.

"How did you know they were Al Qaeda?"

"These four guys, they come to the store and ask, 'how much this' and 'how much that' but I know these guys do not want to buy anything.

So I said, 'what do you want?'

'We're here to tell you good news.  To show you the way.'

They knew my family was Iraqi, see?

'We can help you go back to Iraq to fight,' they said.

'I don't want to fight Coalition Forces.'

'Why? You scared?'

'I'm not scared but I'm not crazy either.'  I asked them, 'where you from?'  Two were from Iraq and two from Syria.  'Okay, man so you're Iraqi, so why you go back to Iraq and kill your brothers?'

'They aren't my brothers, they're bastards.'

One said, 'Americans in the Arab Homeland, man!'

I told them if I ever saw them again, even just in the street somewhere, I would kill them.  So they left.  And my father he say this was dangerous and ask me why I talk that way but I knew how to deal with these guys."

"Did you see them again?"

"No, I left to come here.  I decided to be interpreter with the Coalition Forces."

Ali was impassioned: "and now Iraq become the first country to defeat Al Qaeda!" The channel we were watching showed another cache of enemy weapons discovered by the Iraqi Army.  "See?" Ali pointed.  "I'm going to have grandkids, and I'll say 'let me tell you a story, we were the first country to defeat Al Qaeda: they were a bunch of assholes who did not deserve to live and we kicked them out.'"

Dark Knight

While Batman makes a zillion dollars in the 'west,' Islam is celebrating their own superhero who died 1300 years ago.  This weekend millions of Shi'as will walk to Karbala to mourn the slaughter of Imam Hussein--a contender for succession to Mohammed's throne.  One of the soldiers who died with Hussein was his brother Abbas.  He's a superhero too.

One Muslim recounted the legend of Abbas' death to me: "...during the battle of Karbala the enemy forces kept Imam Hussein and his men from the river and they began to get thirsty.  Abbas was so strong he killed 4,000 enemy just to get water for Hussein.  But on his way back a guy chopped off his arm, then another guy chopped off his other arm, so he dropped the water.  Then an arrow hit him through the eye."

"Is all this in the Qu'ran?" I asked.

"Oh, no--this is the legend.  This was after the Qu'ran."

"Right in the eye?"

"Yes!" Mohammed pointed a finger at his eye, "they hit his head with a big metal pole too, and smashed it."

When we walked through the Yusufiya market the other day I saw two posters of Abbas.  Like most Islamic art they are comely, surreal depictions: comic book superheroes.  At the bottom of the picture the arabic reads, "Hussein, Peace Be With You."

Bruce Wayne is multi-cultural, suave, athletic, rich, and enigmatic.  He uses technology and determination to defeat the forces of evil.  With every generation Batman is re-invented.  Abbas was devout, strong, simple, and righteous.  His servanthood and sacrifice made him a martyr.  His legend has inspired Muslims for over a millennium.

Axe Historique

During mid-tour leave I saw Paris for the first time.  The sophisticated window frames, the grey stone, and notched spires, and bulbous light, and people wearing skinny jeans, and holding hands, and drinking carafes of wine: all of these impossibilities in Yusufiya.

We walked along the line of the city, Le Axe Historique, where the Arc de Triomphe is framed by the promenade of the Champs.

"Welcome to the West," Celina said.  And we crossed the Place de la Concorde at the base of a gold-capped obelisk.  It was carved with hieroglyphs.  "I bet that's stolen from Egypt," I said.  Celina didn't know.  I learned later that Josephine asked Napoleon for an obelisk before he set out for Egypt in 1798.  Even though Napoleon won many victories then the obelisk wasn't taken until later.

So it seems the West is always conquering the East for something...