Saturday, July 14, 2007
Solid Khalid
On the morning of Friday the 13th, bad guys of uncertain faith shot and killed Khalid W. Hassan, a translator working in Baghdad for The New York Times. John Burns' story about the life and death of the good man known to his friends as "Solid Khalid" graces today's front page, as well it should. Read the whole thing, and think about your reaction to it. Do you believe Khalid died because the United States continues to occupy Iraq and therefore it would be immoral not to leave now, or do you believe that more like Khalid will die if we leave and therefore it would be tragic to abandon Iraq now? There is ample evidence for both positions in Burns' story.
Your answer to that question does not absolutely determine your position on the looming showdown between Congress and the White House over the future of Iraq policy, but I suspect it is a pretty good predictor.
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Jul 14, 03:42:00 PM:
My husband has worked in Baghdad on reconstruction efforts for the better part of the last 3 and half years with a hiatus in 2006. Returning in November of last year he was demoralized, so much time had been lost, the attitude of MNFI and State was bureaucratic and above all risk adverse. The infamous garrison mentality was allowing the militias, AQ and rank and file criminals to control the situation on the ground.
Now once again, he has hope for the Iraqis. Petraeus has given the project so much more than just additional troops and a new strategy; the energy and clear sightedness with which he has led have galvanized much of MNFI.
As to the NYT's piece John Burns is one of the best. Burns has consistently displayed an understanding of the complexities and nature of this war, recognizing there are no easy answers. As for most of the journalists there, well let's just say there is nothing like having one's spouse abused, lied about and misquoted in the press to sharpen the fangs.
Perhaps their worst fault is to not see the Iraqis as human beings unless it serves the purpose. It has been the very real experiences of my husband with ordinay Iraqis that makes our support of the effort unshakeable, despite the all too corrupt culture. My husband's translator, a young woman, has been repeatedly shot at and threatened because she works for the Americans. She keeps coming to work every day. The cleaners for the office are a couple of older women, a Muslim and a Christian, that have been a team for decades. Recently they gave a collegue a 12inch clock with a picture of Jesus on it because they thought he needed God to look after him. There are countless stories of the basic decency of the Iraqis, but we don't hear these often enough. It is for these people we must win.
By , at
Sat Jul 14, 10:48:00 PM:
Khadid was probably killed by someone who didn't know his employer, the New York Times, is on the side of the insurgency.
BTW- BAGHDAD (AP) — "Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shrugged off U.S. doubts of his government's military and political progress on Saturday, saying Iraqi forces are capable and American troops can leave "any time they want." One of his top aides, meanwhile, accused the United States of embarrassing the Iraqi government by violating human rights and treating his country like an "experiment in a U.S. lab."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-07-14-iraqi-primeminister_N.htm
Get ready for a bloodbath on a Yugoslavian scale when we leave Iraq.
Lance Culpepper
