Baghdad Dresden Coventry Hiroshima New York City Vietnam ...
Weather: 14 Degrees. Grey. Drizzle. I miss those big Texas thunderstorms, where the dogs start running around and the kids start running around and you can feel the excitement running through the breeze and can smell the anticipation of a deluge.
CD: The Shins - Chutes too Narrow (I can't get it out of my head)
A number of events conspired against me last night, eventually driving me to the local döner stand for a very late dinner. I walked into Nemrut sometime around 10.00 and grabbed a Sterni (the cheapest beer - always my favorite) and a dürüm after sharing the usual friendly greetings with the döner men. For whatever reason, this one guy insists on speaking Italian to me. He originally thought I came from Italy and I guess the custom just kinda stuck. I don't come from Italy and my Italian is a bit rusty to say the least. I'm from Texas. And he's from... Iraq.
Yeah, it was a bit awkward for me that first time as well. We laughed it off however, begging the coincidences of a small world, and we've always been pretty friendly towards each other since.
Last night the ancy-ness of waiting out that last hour of work was obviously straining the guys behind the counter. Pacing. Looking at the clock. Doing anything to pass the time, which soon involved me. We conversed very superficially, both obviously wanting to talk about the politics of war but neither bringing the topic to the forefront out of respect and politeness towards the other.
I took a swig from my Sterni and broke the ice. "Do you think the war was a good thing in Iraq?" I asked. I hadn't even finished the question before he interrupted "No, No, No! Never is war a good thing. Never. For all the bad things that Saddam Hussein did, war will always be worse than those". I let him talk, offering no opinions, no knowledge, only wanting to hear what he had to say. Yes, parts of life are better now than they were two years ago, he said. But now you don't trust anybody. You don't trust the police. You don't leave your house. The "mafia" now rules the streets. A knock at the door goes unattended. Even if these people claim to be the police, you don't trust them. He felt anger towards the continued U.S. presence in Iraq. "They bring nothing but trouble now. They should leave and let Iraq be Iraq". However after I originally told him I came from America, he responded with "Ahh... America. America for me is like a dream". This double-edged emotion seems to be a very popular one around the world. I asked him what should happen next then. He's Kurdish. He spoke of the horrible conditions the Kurds have been forced to endure, not only in Iraq but also in Turkey and other parts of the Middle-East. He doesn't want this representational government in Iraq. He doesn't want to have to cooperate amongst the Sunnis and Shiites. He, like many others, wants a unified, sovereign state for the Kurdish people, incorporating the areas in which the Kurds currently live.
I have my opinions on the matter but find it prudent to leave everything here as is. It's his story. And what does some 23, I mean, 24 year old American kid know about that.