TRAVELOGUE TO IRAQ – ENTRY # 9 TRIP IS WINDING DOWN

Family and Friends,

Our trip is winding down and tomorrow night, we’ll start our journey home.  Looking forward to a good meal in NYC…

It has been an incredible trip and I feel so fortunate to be able to come back to Fallujah and see, first hand, what is going on here.  I also feel very lucky because of all the support and encouragement I have received from many of you throughout this trip.

Onto the update…

A feint glimmer of hope has appeared on the horizon for Fatima, the young Iraqi girl, stricken with a severe  form of cancer, whom we met on a patrol.  The 32 year old Mayor of Fallujah has agreed to personally take her to Jordan and raise money from his tribe in order to treat her.  We expect the surgery to cost about $15k and there is no guarantee that Fatima’s cancer has not already spread to her brain.  There is also no guarantee that the Jordanians will allow the Mayor, Fatima, and Fatima’s uncle or mother to enter the country.  With the increased expectations from a glimmer of hope come additional obstacles.  Time is short and the mayor hopes to be able to leave next Wednesday for Jordon.

I don’t know if I will ever be able to say the sacrifices, bloodshed, or tragedy I’ve witnessed in Iraq will have been be worth it.  I pray to G-d that one day I will, but I doubt it.  After this trip, however, I am no longer as preoccupied with that question.  Although the  present  is tied to the past and the past to the future, I think what matters most  are the decisions we as individuals choose to make each day. These  decisions and choices, regardless of the larger geopolitical implications speak for themselves. Whether it is a young Marine who puts himself in harms way to save a buddy’s life or a mayor who comforts a family and attempts to save a young girl, the culmination of such acts of heroism and decency have given me a little hope.  Is this naive?

Many of you have written asking how you could help Fatima.  I’m currently trying to figure out how to help the mayor get into Jordan.  If any of you have any ideas, please feel free to offer them.  Once he has arrived, I have some friends who will be meeting with him to ensure he and Fatima have made it safely.  Though I have been incredibly impressed by the mayor’s altruism, I want to make sure he is, in fact,taking the girl to Jordan and not taking me to the bank.  If he is able to get there with Fatima, I may go to meet her and her family there, or I may attempt to help raise some funds to augment the mayor’s tribe’s donations.  Standby for solicitations…

The first day I met with the Mayor, I showed him a picture of my sister and, I believe, he fell in love.  This could be another reason he has taken up Fatima’s case with such exuberance.  When I have not been around, I’ve heard he has asked the platoon’s interpreter and some of the Marines if I was serious about setting them up.  And when I returned last night to say goodbye, he had three huge wrapped gifts for her.  I have to figure out how to get them home.  Or I just need to figure out how to get my sister to Fallujah.

Before we went over to the mayor’s office, I had the opportunity to sit in on a radio show at the Fallujah radio station.  I have never thought that I would be ever come back to Fallujah and sit in a radio station studio with two journalists, while they questioned a tribal leader and the head of the city council about  the  problems encountered at the polls on election day.  While security was tight and no violent acts occurred in Fallujah on election day, there was a lot of confusion.  Many people went to the wrong polling stations and because cars were not allowed in the city on election day, they had to walk from polling location to polling location.  Many gave up before they had the opportunity to vote and head home for the day.  Turnout was low at an estimated 40%.  So I sat in the booth and listened to two journalists grill the head of the city council.  I was able to ask a few questions and got in a Sabah Al Har Al Fallujah- Good Morning Fallujah.

After the radio station and our meeting with the Mayor, we said goodbye to the Marines at OP Burgess, the last Marine post in Fallujah, and said goodbye to Fallujah.  Gunnery Sergeant Michael Van Daele picked us up to take us back to Camp Baharia on the outskirts of the city.  We served together in 3/1 and his platoon fought on the adjacent block to mine in 2004.  There are a lot of old faces out here.  We joked about the numbers of times we accidentally shot at each other or got into fights over the radio about who really needed fire support at certain precarious moments in that fight.  His Marines love him and it has been amazing to see their reactions when I tell them that we served together in 2004.

This morning we headed out to our last meeting with a tribal leader- Sheik Khamis.  I didn’t get the opportunity to really speak to him because the regimental commander was meeting with him for the first time, but I did get to speak at length with his eldest son and some of his subordinate Sheiks.  Sheik Khamis, in his early 70′s, is one of the 17 most powerful tribal leaders in Iraq.  His tribe, Abu Isa tribe fought against the Mongols and Ghengis Khan over 700 years ago.  He was one of the first tribal leaders to work alongside Americans and at one point, over 2/3rds of his tribesman were working with Al Qaeda.  He fled to Jordan and was only recently able to return.  His son and some of the other Sheiks had amazing stories- some ancient and some modern.  More to follow in the film….

Thanks again for all your comments and emails.  They mean so much and I promise to write back as soon as I get some time and a faster email connection.

Love ya’ll,

Zach

TRAVELOGUE TO IRAQ – ENTRY NUMBER 8

Hey all,

Iraq voted today. In Fallujah, Iraqi police and Iraqi Army maintained security. A year ago the two forces refused to work together, now they worked hand and hand throughout the city. We spent most of the day in the Fallujah Chief of Police’s office. Though we couldn’t make it out to a polling stations because of restrictions on the movement of US personnel in order to avoid the appearance of US interference in the election process, there was still a celebratory feeling throughout the city.

General Kelly, the Marine general in charge of all US and coalition forces in Iraq’s western provinces, stopped in the police chief’s office along with a number of senior Iraqi army officers. We spoke over lunch and he emphatically stated that as of 1730 (5:30pm) today, when the polls closed, that we won. His Sergeant Major asked me why I was smiling in disbelief and I said that I had heard the same thing from another Marine General in January of 2005.

Emphatic statements aside, I am always amazed at the candor of senior Marine Officers. Over a noisy lunch (I’m worried if we were able to capture the moment because of all the sounds), General Kelly spoke about the changes that have occurred and the mistakes we’ve made over the years. He was out here in 2004 as the deputy Division commander the same time I was. He believes we created the insurgency in 2003 and 2004, especially with the first invasion into Fallujah. After the Blackwater contractors were killed in 2004, Marine commanders protested the CPA and Administration’s plans to attack in the city. However, Marines follow orders. General Kelly believed that was the moment that we lost the trust and confidence of most of the population. At that point, he said, we became an occupying force in the eyes of the population.

As our conversation meandered, we began to talk about the work Marines are doing and have done in Al Anbar. General Kelly is getting ready to head home after a year in Iraq. He spoke about Agricultural projects, economic and political successes, and the relationships he has developed with security officials, tribal leaders, and other Iraqis. It is amazing to see how close Marines have become with Iraqis. Many police officers and Iraqi army soldiers wear Marine camouflage pattern uniforms they buy out in town with their own salaries. I remarked to the General that I have two police lieutenant lapel rank insignia I took off of a dead insurgent in 2004, now Fallujah police lieutenants eat Kabob and drink Chai with Marines and want to be Marines.

General Kelly has two sons in the Marine Corps, one fought in the second Battle of Fallujah a few blocks from me.

The election results will be officially announced on Februaru 23^rd, it will be interesting to see how things play out.

Yesterday, before the election we went to visit the Mayor of Fallujah. He was sitting on a couch in the parking lot outside his office surrounded by armed police officers and soldiers. I wanted to find out if he would be willing to try and help the little girl with cancer we’d met the night before. He is a young guy and has chose not to run in today’s election. We showed each other pictures of our families on our phones and he really liked my sister. I told him that she would be more than happy to move to Fallujah and marry him, but he would have to treat her as his first wife. I thought it would be easier for her to move to Iraq than for him to move to the States, he is the Mayor after all. Toward the end of our conversation, I brought up Fatima’s case and he said that he would stop by that day to see what he could do.

In the evening we went on what could very well be the last Marine foot mobile patrol in Fallujah. At least it will be one of the last. Considering the performance of Iraqi security forces leading up the elections, there is little need for the Marines to actively provide security.

We passed by the infamous Blackwater bridge, where the contractors were hung in 2004, and down the city’s western edge along the banks of the Euphrates. We stopped in Fatima’s house, the little girl with cancer, and spoke to her mother and family. They said that the Mayor stopped by as promised, but that he said he was going to come back after afternoon prayer and never did. I am going to see him again on Wednesday, he has a gift he wants me to bring to my sister, and will ask him if there is anything we can do.

Speaking to Fatima’s mother, however, I felt completely helpless and wondered if we were giving her mother a cruel and false sense of hope. They need $30,000 to pay for her treatment, but that was months ago and there is a good chance that the cancer has already spread to her daughter’s brain. Her mother has brought her to doctor after doctor after doctor. They tell her there is little they can do or that she needs to go to Jordan for treatment. She showed us a picture of her daughter taken 6 months ago before the cancer, she was beautiful, bright and lively. When we left, I spoke with the platoon commander about arranging for the Battalion Surgeon to pay her a visit, but with increasing restrictions on the movement of US and coalition forces, it may be difficult to get him out to see her. Even if he did, there is probably little he can do.

So much hope and despair.

Once again, thanks for continuing to read these updates and your comments and emails.

Best,

Zach