Baghdad, Iraq
John Farrell
Voices in The Wilderness

Here in Iraq there is so much to learn that I feel overwhelmed. There are so many things that I do not understand about this place, which is just one reminder to me of how much the United States government does not understand about this place and about ordinary Iraqis. I read that Donald Rumsfeld was in Iraq today, telling US troops that their work here, while difficult, is succeeding and will continue to succeed. From where I sit, looking out at Karrada Dakhil street from this Internet Cafe in the cool of the evening (that is, when the cool of temperature below 100 degrees)it could very well be the case that everyone is happy and content here. The Iraqis that I have met are very resilient and are used to enduring great calamity and hardship, not to mention corrupt government officials. However, when you talk with people and more importantly when you listen to people, then you get a different opinion of what’s going on here under US occupation.

So here’s my suggestion to Donald Rumsfeld while he is here in Iraq. Mr. Donald, leave the comfort of the former Republican Palace, where Iraqis were not allowed to go freely under Saddam and where they still are not allowed to go freely under the Coalition Provisional Authority (unless accompanied by a foreigner), and take a ride around Baghdad in a taxi cab. Hail one of the rickety cabs, the ones painted white and orange, not the cabs that someone at a hotel would call for you. Take an interpreter with you, and introduce yourself as someone from the United States. Don’t tell them that you are Donald Rumsfeld. For the full effect, take a cab during the hottest part of the day, anytime from 10 am to 5 pm, when temperatures inside these tin boxes on wheels can easily reach a stuffy 130 degrees Fahrenheit. I guarantee you that you will get a different view of the situation than you are getting from the safety of your squadron of helicopters, cruising overhead.

These cabbies have been a wealth of information for me. Many people say that barbers and cabbies are the pulse of any city, and since I’m spending as little time as possible in barber shops here–I’m trying not to look like a clean-cut US soldier–I’ve been thankful for the conversations that I’ve had with cabbies. Sometimes they speak to me through interpreters and sometimes in whatever English that they are able to speak (which is always a lot better than my Arabic), but they have always spoken to me from the heart. Crammed behind steering wheels, breathing burning-hot, dusty air, and constantly struggling against the insane traffic here in Baghdad, which is made more frustrating these months by the lack of electricity (no traffic lights), the lack of well-trained traffic police (there are at least a few on the streets now) and the unpredictability of roadblocks and checkpoints set up by the US military, these cabbies do not hold back telling me what they really think.

A number of cabbies have told me that they are sick and tired of being called “Ali Babas” by US soldiers. This is a term made up by US soldiers and it means thief or looter. A big media event here which led to the proliferation of that nickname was the capturing by US troops of three looters in Baghdad a while back. These looters where stripped of their shirts in the square (itself a form of public embarrassment in Middle Eastern culture) and then paraded around by US troops with the word “Ali Baba” written in marker on their chests. Since then, cabbies claim, the majority of US troops have taken to calling almost every young Iraqi man that they meet an “Ali Baba.” This derogatory term has taken its toll on taxi drivers, who often encounter soldiers at checkpoints. One day, a cabbie named Saif was spending an inordinate amount of time checking me out in the rear view mirror. When the other passengers in the car noticed this, they looked at them and he told them in Arabic what he had been wanted to ask me but didn’t have the words. He said, “Please don’t think that all Iraqis are Ali Babas. We are good people and we are not all looters and thieves.” I was touched by his desire to make friends with me and to show me a brighter, more honest side of Iraqis.

Another cabbie that I spoke with a few days ago, a tall, thin man with a stressed expression on his face, told me that he was convinced now that the United States was doing bad things to his country on purpose. Why would they want to do this you might ask? He explained, to foment the state of chaos so that people are kept busy worrying about the electricity and water and security rather than getting busy with opposing the occupation. This is a sobering thought that has unfortunately been expressed to me more than once by people from all walks of life here in Iraq, even the people who really wanted the United States to invade Iraq and who thought that the US was sincerely interested in liberating their country and rebuilding it.

People are frustrated with the continued chaos here and the seeming lack of response by the US to address the rifts that exist among ethnic groups and to fix the humanitarian and economic crises that are plaguing this country. When I mentioned to this cabbie that the problem as I saw it was that the US came here without any specific plan for the country, he rejected these words in favor of the stronger analysis which I am sometimes hesistant to say out loud because it is so hard to swallow. He cited the facts that this war plan for the takeover of Iraq was in the works long before it happened and long before September 11th, and when I come face to face with this I know it to be true. Ask any seasoned expert on this issue and he or she will give you the same analysis. Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the other architects of the “New American Century” have been planning this war for a while, which makes it all the more concerning that the situation in Iraq remains so terrible for the majority of people here. If they were planning for this, then was this chaos part of the plan?

Many cabbies here have expressed similar concerns. What is the plan? When will we get the sort of liberation that the United States promised us? What’s the real difference between the regime now and the regime under Saddam, besides the fact that you can now talk freely about the injustices of the regime without fear of the Muhabarat? Unfortunately, maybe talking freely isn’t even all that possible. There are thousands of people who have been detained since the war whose families know nothing of their whereabouts and well-being. One of those people is a cousin of another cabbie that I rode with whose name was Mazen. When I got in the cab with Mazen, a young man sporting an impeccably groomed beard while driving a tiny, clunky sedan, he immediately wanted to know what country I was from. After he made a few guesses, a friend in the car who speaks Arabic helped me translate to him that I was from the United States.

Gesturing with his hand at the city surrounding us, Mazen said to me, “The US? The US has completely defeated us.” At first, with the tone that he said those words I thought that he sounded truly impressed and perhaps even OK with this, but I soon found out that he was not.

Mazen identified himself as a Shi’a from Sadr City (formerly Saddam City) where some of the most terrible abuses of Saddam occurred. Mazen, therefore, had no love for the former regime. He said that Saddam would not even allow him to marry, a story which corresponds with others who have told me that Saddam required you to get a very difficult security clearance before getting married. Failure to get this clearance might result in a prison sentence.

Mazen continued, “Saddam ruled us by keeping us in fear. It was very bad. But the new occupation is doing the same thing. They are ruling us by fear. It is the same system only with different leaders.”

This was a difficult statement to swallow, and I had nothing to say to Mazen about this. I wanted to believe differently, that however bad the US occupation was it was at least a step up from Saddam Hussein. Mazen would probably agree with that statement as well, but would still make the connection that there really has been no difference in the everyday life of people in Iraq, at least in Sadr City. Mazen was another one who had an account of being verbally assaulted by a US soldier at a checkpoint and being called an Ali Baba as a form of insult.

The biggest challenge for cabbies now though, as for many people here, is with security. Very few people feel safe travelling alone these days, and cabbies are no exception. Raad, another taxi driver that I met recently, an older, strapping man, said that he doesn’t even pick up fares if they are two or more men now. There is too much danger of being mugged, having your car stolen, or worse. A cousin of one of the young men who works with us at Voices was recently was killed by acquaintances of his, just so they could steal his car. It’s a chaotic scene out there, and if the cabbies are the pulse of the city, then this city is putting out a heartbeat that is frustrated and tired of the failures of the US occupation. Perhaps this message would get back to the United States more readily if Mr. Donald would take the one piece of advice that I’ve ever offered him. Just hail a cab and be prepared to listen.