CPTnet
July 16, 2004
Re-construction: Iraq, 2004
by Anne Montgomery

It is difficult, sometimes, to name reality in Iraq. Recently the
director of a small, severely bomb-damaged college in Baquba reviewed
his request for compensation with the U.S. soldier charged with local
educational projects. The soldier listened carefully, explained the
rules, the step-by-step process in monitoring the contractor, and
prioritized the rebuilding for a September 1st completion date.

Sounds good. Someone in the army of occupation actually cares and
knows what he is doing in a volatile and fluid situation, open to
corruption as well as violence. This story offers a gleam of hope
and would play well in U.S. newspapers.

Early in the morning, on June 24th, a small group of militants fired
in the street, perhaps at army vehicles, and then ran into the empty,
one-storey college building for refuge but later they were nowhere to
be found, dead or alive. According to those interviewed, the army
attacked with helicopters and fighter planes, firing missiles and
perhaps dropping a large bomb, judging from the wreckage in the heart
of the college where the newly-equipped chemical and pharmaceutical
labs were located. Then the soldiers invaded, refused the offer of
keys, and broke down the doors of all classrooms left standing.

Imagine a scene in New York City at the smallest city college. A
drug gang has a gunfight in the street, runs into the student center
and then escapes through back entrances. Police helicopters and
emergency forces arrive, as well as college administrators. How do
the police immediately handle the situation? By bombing in a city
neighborhood? By immediately invading and breaking down doors? Or
do they surround the building, consult with college officials, send
for a negotiator, and patrol neighboring streets to find the
perpetrators and interview witnesses?

Another question: in a land of long memory, of the birth of cities
and the first code of laws, but also of wars, colonization, and
occupation, what does this "incident" mean to a young law student
whose goal is to work in the newly constituted Ministry of Justice?
Or to her peers with similar hopes for the future? Does rebuilding
with bricks and mortar restore trust and hope -- not to speak of
building friendship? The director pleaded with the soldier for just
this: to think beyond the rules and structures of occupation and
construction in order to rebuild bonds of friendship between two
nations.

Finally, in this year of 2004 there are echoes everywhere of Orwell's
1984. Is the "Ministry of Truth" persuading us that we must destroy
in order to build? That war is peacemaking? That occupation is
freedom? The representative of another occupation in first century
Palestine gave his own answer: "What is truth?" The occupied demand
the answer he avoided: only the search for truth, for an
understanding of what makes us human together, can make us free.

Christian Peacemaker Teams is a program of Brethren, Quaker and Mennonite
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