Adventures on the road
We're the road to Arbil, passing through Kirkuk. Pishtewan is in the car with Travis, Anas, and myself. You may recall some of Pishtewan's earlier adventures.
As we approach an Iraqi Police checkpoint, he animatedly tells us these are his "friends", the ones he fought with a few weeks back. Then he moves over to the near window and begins rolling it down and yelling to attract their attention. Immediately Travis and I start yelling "No, Pishtewan! Bad!" in Arabic and English, while my left hand hits the child-safety window lock and rolls his window back up before one of them gets the idea to stop us. In my head, I hear "The Dukes of Hazzard" theme song, and imagine Pishtewan in another gun battle. Hijinks ensue.
Beats all you never saw, been in trouble with the law since the day they was born ...
Meanwhile, Omar had a much less pleasant encounter on the road back from Nasiriya (to the south, in the Najaf/Karbala area). The historical figure Omar is hated among Shia, and therefore only Sunni Muslims give this name to their children. The Najaf/Karbala area is a Shia stronghold, these being the 2nd and 3rd most holy cities to Shias. In his car were Saied, Abu Gheith, and Samir. Of this group, only Saied is Shia, but he is a quiet and very devout one. The rest, like most of the staff, are Sunni.
They were stopped on the road by a mob of 30 or 40 of Al-Sadr's "Mahdi army". The team quickly removed their new ID badges, which we intentionally designed to closely resemble those used by Coalition forces (and which are very effective at getting us through checkpoints unmolested). They were also wearing new company polo shirts, and so were pulled from the car.
People in the mob told them they work for Americans, and that they will kill any Americans they find. My company isn't American, and I am the only American employee. But we do use a lot of western business practices, such as the badges and polo shirts. They pulled their shirts off them and threatened to beat them until one of the attackers found a picture of Ali, "Saint of God" to the Shia, on the dashboard. It is Saied's car, and he, like many Muslims, keeps small images of the most revered Islamic saints on display.
So they let them go. Even gave them the shirts back. Because Saied was Shia.
Whatever Al Sadr may say, remember where his power base comes from: Shia religious fanatics. This wasn't about west versus east, or America versus Iraq. This was about Shia Iraqis versus everyone else.
Because of the current situation in the south and in Faluja, we have suspended all operations south and west of Baghdad. We've also established new security policies for travelling to the south when we do resume. Rule 1: no company shirts.
As we approach an Iraqi Police checkpoint, he animatedly tells us these are his "friends", the ones he fought with a few weeks back. Then he moves over to the near window and begins rolling it down and yelling to attract their attention. Immediately Travis and I start yelling "No, Pishtewan! Bad!" in Arabic and English, while my left hand hits the child-safety window lock and rolls his window back up before one of them gets the idea to stop us. In my head, I hear "The Dukes of Hazzard" theme song, and imagine Pishtewan in another gun battle. Hijinks ensue.
Beats all you never saw, been in trouble with the law since the day they was born ...
Meanwhile, Omar had a much less pleasant encounter on the road back from Nasiriya (to the south, in the Najaf/Karbala area). The historical figure Omar is hated among Shia, and therefore only Sunni Muslims give this name to their children. The Najaf/Karbala area is a Shia stronghold, these being the 2nd and 3rd most holy cities to Shias. In his car were Saied, Abu Gheith, and Samir. Of this group, only Saied is Shia, but he is a quiet and very devout one. The rest, like most of the staff, are Sunni.
They were stopped on the road by a mob of 30 or 40 of Al-Sadr's "Mahdi army". The team quickly removed their new ID badges, which we intentionally designed to closely resemble those used by Coalition forces (and which are very effective at getting us through checkpoints unmolested). They were also wearing new company polo shirts, and so were pulled from the car.
People in the mob told them they work for Americans, and that they will kill any Americans they find. My company isn't American, and I am the only American employee. But we do use a lot of western business practices, such as the badges and polo shirts. They pulled their shirts off them and threatened to beat them until one of the attackers found a picture of Ali, "Saint of God" to the Shia, on the dashboard. It is Saied's car, and he, like many Muslims, keeps small images of the most revered Islamic saints on display.
So they let them go. Even gave them the shirts back. Because Saied was Shia.
Whatever Al Sadr may say, remember where his power base comes from: Shia religious fanatics. This wasn't about west versus east, or America versus Iraq. This was about Shia Iraqis versus everyone else.
Because of the current situation in the south and in Faluja, we have suspended all operations south and west of Baghdad. We've also established new security policies for travelling to the south when we do resume. Rule 1: no company shirts.