Sunrise Over Fallujah: List 4

“They’re inspecting the sewer system for hidden weapons and bombs,” Captain Coles said. “As soon as they make sure they’re safe, and operative and secure, we can abandon the outdoor toilets.”

Harris was going on about how he had served a tour in Qatar after the first Gulf War. Jonesy asked him how he had liked South America.
“Qatar ain’t in no South America, fool!” Harris was incredulous at what he thought was Jonesy’s stupidity.

“As you know, sir, we’re sort of out there taking notes and observing to see how our CA Special Ops might need tinkering,” Major Sessions said.

“Well, I have a great deal of hope for the Civil Affairs operations in this war,” said Colonel Opdyke. His voice was raspy and I wondered if he worked to make it sound that way.

“I was one of the planners that suggested sending a CA unit up front early in the campaign. Give us a head start on the last phase of the overall operation, building a democracy. We build the right democracy and we’re going to stabilize the whole Middle East. That’s going to end the terrorism, end the violence, maybe even be an end to war.”

The colonel went on: “We’ve got a little situation between An Nasiriyah and Tallil Air Base. Just south of there. They’re Shiites, and that’s good, but apparently the air force sent over some A-10s on a Close Air Support mission and they took out a school. Killed some civilians. A few children. This is a war and collateral damage happens. That’s a fact of war and a reflection of what is known as the ‘fog of war.’"

“The thing is,” Miller went on, “is that we don’t need to compromise. Maybe somewhere, somebody has to compromise, but we don’t. If we’re supposed to be putting a human face on this war, then we need to seriously figure out what that means. We can’t make it right by giving these people a smiley face.”

I wished I knew what the guy was saying. He was very calm as he spoke, very deliberate with his words. He didn’t gesture with his hands but kept pushing the coins around the table. Ahmed spoke once in a while, and his voice was low, matching the Iraqi shopkeeper’s.

Ahmed said he didn’t understand what they were saying, that they had switched to a dialect he didn’t know.

I didn’t know how much money we gave them. It looked like a couple of thousand dollars. I didn’t feel good about it. Everything the Iraqis were saying was right. We couldn’t buy an end to their grieving, or an end to their missing their kids.

“Let’s get the hell out of here!”
Ahmed got back into the Humvee. He threw the two RPGs into the back and held up several vials of something.
“There’s a dead guy in the ambulance,” he said.
Jonesy got back on the middle of the road and pushed the Humvee as fast as it would go.

“You think that was an ambush? Something they planned because they knew we were coming?” she asked me.

Pendleton from Third Squad asked what had happened at the school. Jonesy stammered as he tried to tell him.

Iraqi trucks careened off the road when they saw us coming toward them.

The Iraqis never seemed all that anxious for a direct confrontation.

The area we were in didn’t have that many buildings. It was away from the small cluster of two-story houses, and I knew it could have been an ambush. There was a small grove of trees off to my right.

When my eyes became accustomed to the darkness I saw that there were mats lined up along the floor. There were a few women on them, but most of the bodies lying side by side were children.

“They’re guerrilla fighters,” Ahmed said. “They don’t have rules. No uniforms. They use any kind of weapons they find and just kill whoever is their enemy.”

Captain Miller had bandaged the side of her face and I could see the girl wince as her mouth moved.

There was good and there was bad and the clear distances between the two held their own comforts. But as those distances narrowed, as they came within the range of smell and the feeling of warmth as a shell hit a target or the gentle shaking of the ground beneath you that stirred the constant fear within, the clarity disappeared.