Hard Lesson

I received a hard lesson from Mother Nature today. Before heading off to Bob from Coffeyville’s wedding, I cut and put the sunflower heads into a five gallon bucket. Knowing that I would not have time to shell them for their seeds, I put the bucket in the washhouse to keep it out of the elements. Today, I settled in to shell the seeds from the flowers. To my disappointment, the week spent in a bucket in a dark washhouse produced sunflowers that were molded and rotting. Instead of the two gallons of seeds I expected from my little crop, I managed to pick out about a quart of seeds. Good thing I am not relying on the sunflowers for survival. What irritates me is that I knew better. I knew that the flowers had to dry but I cut corners and Nature smacked me upside the head. It was richly deserved.

I just finished Tony Shadid’s Night Draws Near. He is the best writer I have read on Iraq. This book is all about lives of everyday Iraqis. It is chilling. I knew these people. Tony begins a story and I inevitably finish it for him. I do not remember ever meeting an Iraqi that did not have a story of personal loss. I remember the chairman of the Taji Qada council pleading with me to help him find his brother who disappeared in 2006. Try as I did, I never found him. It was the cloud under which Lazem Abbass operated on a daily basis. I cannot imagine what it would be like to wake up every day wondering if my brother was alive and, if so, where he was. Estimates are that over 100,000 Iraqis died between 2003 and now for reasons directly tied to the war. The overwhelming majority of them were innocents. Blown up by an explosion in a market or by truck bombs guided toward some public building. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is deadly in Baghdad. I remember the Abu Graib Qada council not having a quorum for months because of the fear of assassination. Tell me the last time a city councilmember in your town feared for his/her life by attending a meeting.

A couple of my academic buddies are upset with me for my post regarding my version of President Obama’s speech on Iraq. It breaks my heart to disappoint my buds. But, to have written anything different would have been to pander. I like President Obama. I think he is over his head and lacks the maturity and sobriety to be president but I like his idealism. I am absolutely convinced that he is clueless regarding Iraq and Afghanistan, just as I am convinced that most Americans are unaware of the threat posed by radical Islam. Regardless, I am not writing a polemic. I am just writing. Enjoy the stuff I write that agrees with your world view and dismiss that which does not. Far be it from me to try to convince anybody of anything.