The Fakeness Of It All...

I despise many things about people’s characters but for now I am going to stick this one; I really dislike people that are phony, not genuine, false, fake, bogus an imitation of who they think people would like to see. I find it entertaining and sad that some people write emails, posts blogs or make comments on websites using words—incorrectly—they do not usually use in daily conversations because they want to pretend to be intelligent but failing miserable at it. Here in Iraq, dealing with this “army,” I am constantly reminded of the pretending game because the real advancement of this mission—as it was presented to me back in the U.S.—is far from being accomplished but some are still pretending that there is real progress being made. For the sake of my principles, I will adhere to write this post in the most colloquial idiom possible in an effort to assure my AUDIENCE—all one or two of you—the comprehension of the opinions contained in this entry….

HA HA HA! Did you like that?...Yeah, I might be trying to sound smarter. I have to take advantage of the occasion since my accent cannot ruin my pronunciation… 

Anyway, I have already started talking about the challenges that we faced here by attempting to establish some kind of standards within the Iraqi Army. Nevertheless, our efforts continue to be somewhat ignored by the people that we are trying to help. Here is the continuation of things that have changed my attitude tremendously.

• False Pretenses

As I stated above, I truly enjoy seeing things and people for who they are and what they are. The line between who people are and who they want to be is very blurred here. We are put in a position here where we do not really know who is friend and who is foe. Appearances are a constant here; there is no reality or accurate way to know and trust any of the people that we are working with. We could be teaching techniques to somebody that in turn will teach it to our enemies.

Still, in the grand scheme of this wartime political facade, once in while we get to see firsthand how important it is to be always on guard. We recently had to fired three of our interpreters; two of them for not passing their background check and another one for being borderline belligerent. In the aftermath of it all, the thought of “sleeping with the enemy”—literally—could not exit my thick skull. The most alarming factor is that those interpreters had been working with the other teams that preceded us but they somehow fell through the cracks. How did that happen? Another thing that caught my attention is the fallible perception the Iraqis have about their country, our Country and where their support money is coming from.

From time to time, I can see the other side of the Iraqis opinion. At times, they are fed up and their true colors come shining through like lighting. For example, it is customary for the Iraqis to ask continuously for things from the Americans. I have encountered situations in which I am uncomfortable because I have had to reject their petitions. The requests range from personal hygiene products from the PX—i.e. a shampoo or a deodorant—to Gerbers, electronics and Lord knows what else. I had to explain to the MAJ I work with that the U.S. government does not supply those things and we would have to pay for them out of our own pockets but they conveniently forget about that conversation by the next time they need something else.

So, although the Iraqi army gets funded by our tax dollars and receives money to buy what is necessary, their codependency has made that money unaccountable for—there goes that accountability word again—hence making us soldiers subject to request after request for anything and everything they deemed is necessary to them. On the other side though, if you ask any of the Iraqis, they are convinced that they are a rich country and that the U.S. is only giving them the money that we are getting off the oil exported from Iraq. Please, look it up and you will understand my frustration but the most important concept here is the phony pretense of their autonomy and our implicit—and apparently resentful—benefit from being their natural resources.

Those are the products of false pretenses…