Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Post for J349T on the Iraq grassroots perspective, etc. through blogs

The sanctity of life as seen through the eyes of Iraqi and military wives

I decided to focus on the women whose lives are closely bound up with Iraq, both on the Iraqi side and through the U.S. Army. Some are wives of soldiers; others are soldiers themselves. It's almost a cheat, how easily I found these women connected through the Internet and a common denominator - their blog sidebars and mutual experiences linked them together. They offered some very interesting perspectives - most were very politically neutral, merely detailing the struggles of daily life without a complete family. I found them, on the whole, more open-minded than the general American public I have encountered thus far. Why? Maybe because to them, the people living and dying are human beings, not just obstacles to overcome, as Hitchens suggests Kissinger viewed those in Chile and Cambodia.

Blogger "Strawberry Fields" has a tagline: "Thoughts about life, death, war, peace and everything in between - from an army wife whose husband is on his second deployment in Iraq."

Her last blogpost is dated May 2005 and talks about how her time in Iraq has come to a close, and she is returning to the U.S. to await her husband's return. The lack of subsequent postings makes me wonder what made her stop blogging. Did he come home, closing a lonely chapter in her life and eliminating the need for writing out her thoughts? Did something terrible happen? Does life go on? It freezes a moment from two years ago that in our busy lives, we have not revisited in a while.

"I'm sad to go as I have made great friends here and forged wonderful memories," she writes. "Amidst the misery, there is joy."

"Still, I leave feeling angry, disgusted, upset and totally disheartened by what has been happening. ...A co-worker said, 'We like Americans but we don’t like the American soldiers because of the incidents that have happened. Instead of being friends, we are now enemies. I feel sorry for them when I see them patrolling and I think they look sad, maybe because they are missing their homes. And maybe they feel like they are unwanted here because they are foreign occupiers.'"

She writes about how to her, what are just numbers and statistics to the general American population are to her friends, associates, co-workers' family members - soldiers and Iraqi civilian casualties alike. This is a common theme throughout the blogs, I found - those who have actual interaction with the battlefield see faces and names. Those who are serving a specific agenda often see only bodies and numbers.

Umhakima is "an American Muslim SAHM whose dh [dear husband] is working in Iraq." Her tagline reads, "My thoughts, worries, etc. about my life while my dh is thousands of miles away in Iraq."

Her first post is likewise dated almost 3 years back - voter registration day, 2004. Titled "Election Day," it plaintively begins with a disclaimer: "Don't worry. I won't endorse any candidate or party on this blog. All I ask is that all people here in the U.S. go out and vote, whoever it is that you vote for." She goes on to remind her readers that many crucial decisions depend on this election. The unspoken ending lingers after that sentence - and many families' happiness depend on the election as well.

A few posts down, Umhakima describes a conversation with her husband. She relates somewhat humorously how he slyly tries to hint how he is enjoying his job in Iraq because he is able to help people and is living out a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She says, "And then the unthinkable happened. I heard myself saying, 'Well if you really, really feel this strongly and you really want to stay longer, I guess I could be OK with that."

Again, she deprecatingly appeals to her readers to listen to her reasoning before judging her off the bat. While this observation may distract from the point of her blog post, I thought it worth mentioning. Twice in a week's worth of blogging she asked for understanding and at least a fair chance to explain herself before her audience jumped to a conclusion. How often do we see that attitude on any front today, regardless of political parties, national boundaries, territorial fronts?

Umhakima's attitude of quiet selflessness may seem heroic when pulled up for scrutiny, but her action is repeated a thousand times over every day in many men and women serving their country. Blogger "An Army Wife Life" talks about how her husband was awarded a medal of valor but refused to tell her any specifics. She says, "Said he was 'just doing his job.' So humble he is." Her commentary echoes in my mind regarding Umhakima's support of her husband. Despite the obvious struggles she was facing, raising three children alone in Muslim-hostile America, she urged him to do what he felt he had to do.

Blogger "Neurotic Iraqi wife" had the cleverest/most humorous self-description out of all the blogs I saw. Still practically a newlywed, she writes, "This blog is about me being an Iraqi wife whose husband chose to rebuild his country over building his new life with his new wife, ME!!!"

While she can find the humor in her current situation, what she finds in the news apparently does not offer much by way of laughter. Her latest post, dated Sunday, talks about how insulting she found some responses to a Times Online UK article. The piece applauds "Iraqi interpreters and other key support staff who have risked their lives to work for Britain," congratulating them on being allowed to settle in the UK. "Neurotic" writes, although the article made her really happy for them, going back to the article to skim the readers' comments the next day was "a very very bad decision."

Amongst other comments, one writer said, "This is shocking. I was in Iraq. Don't kid yourself that the interpreters are some kind of brave hero risking their lives for democracy and a better Iraq, etc. They wanted money and they got it. Many of them were handsomely paid for little work and more than a few were 'playing for the other side.' We have just opened the gates for more people to sponge from our welfare system."

"Neurotic" wrote an angry response, but kept it to her blog. Here is something I found significant within the post: "Why is it that Iraqis are viewed worthless??? Why is YOUR BLOOD more important THAN THEIRS??? WHY ARE YOUR LIVES MORE PRECIOUS THAN THEIRS???WHY???" She asks good questions which brings us back to Manufacturing Consent, and the dichotomy of filtering "worthy" and "unworthy" victims.

I can imagine that if a similar situation happened in the U.S., we could expect like comments.

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