The ‘normal’ in Baghdad shocks
I've been back "in country" for about two weeks, and that's enough time, when covering Iraq, to numb the brain's synapses.
It's plenty of time to begin to forget any "normal" human reaction to the overwhelming sights and smells of the daily "butcher shop" that has become Baghdad: the parents, crazed with grief, swooning at the funeral of their 12-year old boy, kidnapped, tortured, shot in the head and chest, dragged through streets tied to the back of a car, and dumped in an empty lot...because he was a Shiite.
Or not to pause at the stench of hot, rancid blood basting the floor and walls of a restaurant that had been a "local" for Iraqi police one minute and a wreck of twisted metal and burnt flesh the next...
The horror - no matter how bad - no longer surprises you after two weeks of reporting here.
But I WAS surprised this morning, and that was pleasant. Buried deep below the fold of the daily al-Mautamar newspaper, a small headline followed by a single paragraph caught our translator's attention today. It read:
"THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH WARNS AGAINST USING CONTACT LENS SOLUTION..."
The story that followed – predictably - echoed the recall of ReNu MoistureLock in the States and advised all Iraqi users of ReNu to STOP using the solution or risk serious eye infection, or even blindness.
I was stunned. And when I wondered why?
I thought, at first, it was the utter absurdity of a public health warning about a product that few here have ever heard of, in a country where 40-50 people are killed every day by drive-by shootings and indiscriminate bombings. Especially in a country where everyone is now a target, including the Minister of Health.
But then I realized it wasn't the absurdity. It was in fact the benign and ordinary in the ReNu warning that had wrenched my synapses.
Here was proof that, at some forgotten level, there were still Iraqis who cared enough about other Iraqis to warn them of a danger to their quality of life, even when their very society was lurching through a daily paroxysm of death and mutilation.
The story seemed silly, yet – somehow – encouraging. Iraqis really weren't the alien monsters who thrive on violence, that many in the West have come to perceive them to be. They crave literature, theater, the arts, peace...and they worry about the same things we do. Kidnapping. Murder. Even eye infections.
And that's what surpised me MOST about a tiny public health story that would NEVER make any NBC News broadcast: it was so normal.
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Where do you come off saying 'many in the west'?? What are you talking about! Saying something like that shows you just do not get it. I just cannot believe you can justify that remark.
Tom Costello, Collings Lakes, NJ (Sent May 24, 2006 10:15:55 PM)
I really would like to know the murder rate for the entire country of Iraq compared to the entire United States. Why do I feel like it's not a given that they would come out looking worse?
John Morrissey, Harrisburg PA (Sent May 25, 2006 1:46:43 AM)
In fact, the majority of people of any country are just regular people, and not monsters worthy of death. We marginalize people in a country when we want to justify killing them. It was the same with the 'communists.' And it will be the same with the next made-up enemy. What surprises me is that how few reporters are reporting that the majority of the deaths in Iraq are civilians, families sitting around their dining table. That un-reporting is what is allowing this unjust war continue.
AG (Sent May 25, 2006 3:17:44 AM)
well what would you think? they do not care for life as if they just paid the mean americans to come over and kill them, how sad all the good life has let evil creap in to it.maybe there folks were not living to give them freedom in the ruff sixtys and there kids never left school to the real world,to complain over everthing and be payed for it with some importants of doing this to the best country in the world.
alan maney chaoltte nc (Sent May 25, 2006 8:16:21 AM)
Please continue your humane reporting. We need to hear it.
Pat Renner, Topsham, Vt. (Sent May 25, 2006 8:42:48 AM)
It is so very sad that the US played the role we have played in bringing chaos to Iraq. We were warned before the war [by several Arab leaders & by American experts on the area]that there would be civil war in Iraq if we removed Saddam Hussein, monster that he is. Understanding the history of Iraq & how this situation was nearly inevitable takes knowledge of the area and its people that the average American does not have. I think the news media seriously failed the American people in not focusing on the very real threat of the current situation, now unfolding, before we went racing in there like a bull in china shop. Of course, the Iraqi people are people just like us who want a decent life for themselves and their families. Pre-war, Shiites & Sunnis were living in the same neighborhoods, they were friends & good neighbors to one another, and even intermarried.
Mona, Oklahoma City, OK (Sent May 25, 2006 3:17:48 PM)
Well, I think I can easily justify the reference to '...many in the West...' referred to in the first post. Before and after the 'March To War' with Iraq [by the way, Tony Snow said the other day we are in Iraq at the request and behest of the Iraqi People!] I heard from any number of 'patriotic,' 'support our troops' Americans that Islam was a thuggish gang of bandits, barbarians and zealots. You can deny it now, but 'many in the west' heard this. The Bush administration, Fox News and the usual gang of warmongers hammered us with all kinds of crazy, made-up stories: Saddam stole the incubators from Kuwaiti hospitals during Desert Storm and threw the premature babies on the floor. Captain Speicher has been held captive by Saddam since the first Gulf War [go here cybersarges.tripod.com/speicher.html for a real hoot}, etc., etc., etc.
Jim Maceda's main point, I think, is that simple reminders of real compassion give us hope. Or maybe not--probably the consumer alert was simply someone's way of thwarting a global class-action lawsuit.
Junior Mint (Sent May 25, 2006 4:57:45 PM)
". . .in a country where 40-50 people are killed everyday. . ." ???". . .where everyone is now a target. . ."??? Is this what you call objective reporting?
Thankyou for the insight on the Public Health report (front page, no less). I agree with you that this is surprising under the circumstances. However, I think you exaggerated the circumstances a wee bit.
Dianne (Sent May 25, 2006 6:15:26 PM)
Way to go US !! We've taken a bad situation and made it worst. Yes there was many propblems before we went there. There are many countries with problems. We can't run around and spend Billions of dollars and loose American lives just to push our ideals on a people we know nothing about! Who is better off since we went to war?? There were many ways to improve the lives of these people, but no, we go in there with " SHOCK & AWE". We need our troops and money here at home, not fighting a winless battle on the other side of the world. God Bless the USA and give it some direction .
Russ (Sent May 30, 2006 8:47:20 AM)
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