Keeping the Faith

Over the past few years I've begun wondering if this creaping disillusionment was what members of the Roman Legions felt as their complacent people and utterly out of touch leadership watched their world crumble.

I don't really subscribe to the whole sky is falling, American is collapsing, alarmism that is out there. I think they overestimate the strenghts of other countries, underestimate their weaknesses, and overplay our own issues because of an intimate familiarity with them.

I'm sure I suffer from all of those issues too.

Be that as it may, I've still been incredibly disappointed in our leaders, our media, and us as a nation because we get the government we deserve in a democracy and we get the media we deserve as consumers.

In short, it's been very easy for me to conclude that we have chosen to be fat, dumb, and lazy as a society. In both the intellectual and physical sense.

Even college jeopardy is being dumbed down these days.

So my lunch with one of our interpreters came at a perfect time.

He told us all about growing up here. When he was a young teenager he would negotiate deals on random goods like soccer balls and then re-sell them in the street. He actually made a good amount of money doing it, but spent it all on movie tickets or gave it away to friends.

He distinctly remembers going to see some Jackie Chan movie eight times in Baghdad near the end of the Iran-Iraq War.

At 18, after Desert Storm, he and some friends stole a few rifles from Ba'ath Party offices in the Southern part of the country and joined the Shia Revolt. He did not wear any kind of mask and so Saddam's forces were able to identify him. His mother, fearing for his life, forced him to flee the country.

He spent a few years stuck in various refugee camps before being one of the lucky few allowed to to go to the US. He told the interviewer that he didn't want to go to Texas because he was afraid of Cowboys.

All he knew of the US was what he'd been told and what he'd seen in movies. Even so, he knew that his best future would be in America.

He described New York City as another planet after growing up mostly in rural Iraq. Not knowing the language or what any of the traffic signs meant, he almost got hit by more than a few cabs and buses.

But he's not a shy individual. He listened. He would ask any passer-by what a work meant or for directions. And people helped him.

One time in DC, he was asking someone for directions and got into a friendly conversation with some guy. The guy asked him where he was from. The interpreter told him he was from Iraq. So the guy asked what he was doing in DC.

The interpreter said, "I'm a terrorist."

The guy said, "No, no you're not."

The interpeter said "No, no. Really. I'm a terrorist."

The guy explained the difference between tourist and terrorist. This was in the late 90's when people could still admit to having a sense of humor about such things.

The interpreter agreed that he was, in fact, a tourist.

Incidentally, despite his fears of being caught up in the Indian Wars raging in Texas, the interpreter did end up witness a drug dealer getting murdered while in DC. Yeah. He said that he'd seen war, he'd fought the Iraqi Army, be he'd never seen something like that before. Not a good story, not something we are proud of in our nation's capital... but I love the irony and had to include it.

When the we invaded Iraq this time around, the interpreter was eager to help. He loathed Saddam with a passion. He has spent a few years, on and off, working with SOF as an interpreter. He's been wounded and he's come back.

This interpreter, an immigrant and new citizen, has done more to serve our country than most Americans can possibly realize.

Most importantly, it was incredible to see the opportunity that America can represent through his eyes.

Where else can an Iraqi refugee meet and marry a Guatemalan wife and from nothing earn a middle-class living for their new family?

As we walked back to the JOC, the SEAL I was eating with and I were pretty much speechless.

We had nothing. We've led easy and sheltered lives.

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Back at the JOC, I'm excited by the progress in my various projects. The only downside is that I think I'll leave everything primed for when my replacements get here. Then they'll get to do the fun final steps of implementation.

I'm also looking into getting certified to operate a fork lift. Why not?