Listening To the Land

War comes in waves and cycles. First, there’s a little apprehension and a lot of excitement about the unknown future. There’s bonding, adventure, hardship and growth. After a while, even though the pace is still rapid and new occurrences are born daily, monotony sneaks up on you. You’re always alert, sensitive to the sounds around you, but the nuances can become muted. You have to be a good listener.

Native Americans would put their ears to the ground to hear or feel vibrations of, say, a train coming, or a cavalry of soldiers on horseback. Out here we have intelligence analysts with their collective ears to the ground. They listen to the Americans fighting in Iraq and to the people of Iraq. They help us understand the sounds of the land. They spend their days poring over intelligence reports about things like the disposition of the Iraqis and enemy tactics. The intelligence flows from the battlefield, all the way up the chain of command. It is continuous, like a tide.

Some intelligence may be bad, or from an unreliable source. But some can be very helpful. Here’s an example: A few months back, a soldier noticed a hand print on the side of a house in the Al Anbar Province. For some reason, the soldier thought the hand print looked out of place amid all the dirt and cracks on the house, so he reported this small detail to his intelligence analyst. We finally realized that this symbol was being used in the area to let terrorists know that the house was “friendly” to them. If you were an insurgent who had just fired a mortar or a rocket-propelled grenade at an American base, this hand print designated the home as a place you could seek shelter.

We have many interpreters, or “terps” as we call them, who help us immensely. These are Iraqi men and women who appreciate what we’re doing for their country and want to help us. We give them fake names to hide their identity. I’ve worked with one terp quite a bit. I call him Steve. He’s a little guy who is quick with a smile. He is 26 years old, soft -spoken and well educated. He had three uncles: two were killed by Saddam Hussein’s regime and one fled to Australia 10 years ago. He himself spent time in prison while he was in college.

The first time Steve was jailed after having tea with a friend who was Shiite. The second time was about a year later when an American reporter asked him what he thought about the possibility of the United States going to war with Iraq. Steve said, “I do not think the Americans want war. They would rather have peace than war.” He was arrested by Saddam’s Ministry of Intelligence.

Recently, Steve was watching Saddam’s trial on television. He commented on the dictator’s complaints about not being fed or treated well. He laughed cynically, shaking his head, saying how hypocritical it was for him to complain after all the killing and violence he had ordered. Steve is one Iraqi who is very appreciative of our efforts and is willing to risk his own life to assist us on countless missions, and there are many more like him. I am glad to know him, and appreciate his help.

Each tribal area and city in Iraq has a mosque, and each mosque has a sheik or imam associated with it. Beneath him is a sort of chain of command of respected elders and tribal leaders. Muslims pray five times a day, and Friday is their holy day. At night, they sometimes give daily prayers or speeches over loudspeakers from the mosques. I know this because for 10 months now I have listened to them. I can hear them while standing outside my office. I can hear them when I’m taking a shower.

It reminds me of a Native American chant – a guttural, singing vibrato voice sometimes droning, sometimes emphatic. Our analysts use terps like Steve to translate the speeches. Like I said, a war requires good listening skills. I enjoy reading the translations from the mosques. With some exceptions, the messages usually focus on peace and working together.

Here are some examples from the mosque that I can hear right now:

The imam starts his speech by telling the people about the religious history of Mohammed and the beginning of Islam. He tells them that God will make their religion strong, that God will save their country and their people, and that God will forgive them and direct them in the right way. “Sisters and brothers, we must not wait to build our future,” he says, “we must depend on our ability and our power to create a community that lives in peace and prosperity. God will help us, and will be with us when we unite our powers, and we will overcome all the difficulties or obstacles that we may face.”

He then talks about how brothers and neighbors shouldn’t kill each other because of a difference in ideas. He says to forget the backwardness. “We must all come together depending on God, and we have to fully obey our leaders that lead us the right way to reconstructing our community and to recover our previous injuries.”

“God bless our country and people,” he says. “God bless Iraq and Iraqis.”

I am not a very religious man. I haven’t been to church in years. But I pray every day, and I appreciate what the imam said. And I’d like to add: God bless America and the American way of life I know and love. In the meantime, we’ll keep listening.