A Visit with Sheik Jaffar

I thought I would have more time and opportunity to post to this blog but our schedule has been very demanding and connections to the Internet have been hit or miss. There’s already so much to say and I feel as though I’ve already fallen a bit behind. This is the prevailing sentiment among the team so our schedule today has now afforded us an opportunity to catch up on laundry, reports, and email.

I suppose the best way to describe what we’ve been doing is to go through the general approach. Each morning, usually before 0700 we receive a briefing on the day’s schedule from a lieutenant or sergeant, often from a Patrol Base located in the area we will be visiting. Although we are staying at a FOB (forward operating base), the Patrol Bases are even more forward. Everything is meticulously planned, scheduled, and coordinated. After the briefings we gear up with body armor and helmet and climb into the back of an MRAP (mine-resistant ambush protectant), the successor to the humvee. Most of the soldiers don’t like them, but they do get the job done when it comes to protecting against most IEDs. We leave the base in a convoy of about 6 MRAPs and 3 or 4 humvees and proceed to the day’s destinations. When we arrive at a destination the soldiers in the platoon will deploy to form a bubble around our group.

At this point we do our work: asking farmers about their issues, talking with the leaders of local agricultural associations, mayors, and sheiks who are working with Coalition Forces (the term used here). The key relationships seem to be between army captains and local leaders. In many cases, they have formed strong bonds of friendship that appear to be genuine, although no doubt there is also a price for that friendship.

Again, there’s so much to write about and the experience has been extremely rich and fulfilling so far, even though I've been here less than a week. It has also been extremely demanding mentally and physically, especially with the intense heat (yesterday afternoon 118 F) and having to wear body armor while we are out. I’d like to tell you about Sheik Jaffar, who lives in the village of Khidr in Babil Province. We visited him in an area where AQI (Al Qaida in Iraq) had been extremely active for quite some time. They essentially destroyed his entire village and nearly all structures in the surrounding area. A Shiite shrine of some local reknown was just a pile of bricks. We heard stories of AQI’s brutality and how they were finally driven out of the area. With incredible perseverance and dedication, and with the financial assistance of Coalition Forces, Sheik Jaffar is rebuilding his community. We saw a primary school that was nearing completion and several residences were rebuilt to the point that they were inhabitable.

Sheik Jaffar gave us a tour through his village and hosted us in his house. We sat in chairs along the wall of a large room; our team, some U.S. army officers, Sheik Jaffar and several of his sons, and other local sheiks and leaders. Sheik Jaffar is the chairman of the 13-member Board of Directors of the Al Izdihar Agricultural and Fisheries Association, which has 1600 members. Among other things, Sheik Jaffar is a fish farmer. I was fortunate to have the chance to sit with him for awhile and ask him about his own operation and about the constraints facing aquaculture in Iraq more broadly. We spoke in broad general terms about aquaculture in Iraq and prospects for further development in the area, for which he is very optimistic.

The highlight of this visit was the incredible feast that was laid our for us. Several of the sheik’s sons came into the room with blue folding metal tables and opened them up in one long line. The table was covered with a plastic tablecloth. Next, working down both sides of the table, individual loaves of flatbread were laid out. Then came the main course, about a half-dozen heaping platters of saffron rice with raisins, topped with sheep stew. Smaller dishes with tomatoes and cucumbers and more with pieces of flatbread soaking in pan drippings followed. We all stood around the table and ate. We had the option to eat with our hands or with spoons. Although my hand eating technique was a bit rusty, I soon got the hang of it again and enjoyed the savory meal immensely. After some mutual expressions of gratitude between our time leader and Sheik Jaffar following after-dinner tchai (tea), we returned to base. And this was my first day in the field!!

I want to finish this post by talking about some of the support people who are making this possible. To me, the translators attached to our group are absolutely critical to any potential "success" that will come out of our being here. Not only are they translators, but much more than that they are intepreters, both of what we ask and what is said to us. They are extremely knowledgeable about agriculture and development. They are committed to building a new Iraq and to doing so in alliance with Coalition Forces. I have enjoyed getting to know Dr. Fouad, "Dave," Waleed, and Adid over these last few days. We’ve talked about many things, some serious and some frivolous. I think they enjoy our company too (although they are distracted with some high-level soccer matches going on right now).

The other group I want to talk about are the men and women of the Army that have sheltered us on their bases, transported us to where we need to go, provided for our physical protection, and most importantly have done the kind of community development work that has allowed what we are doing to happen. I have been extremely impressed by the skills and professionalism of our troops. Everyone in the U.S. should be half as proud as I am of these young men and women. It has been an honor and a privilege to engage with them as they work to stabilize their areas of operation. From all the conversations I’ve had, it appears that the corner was turned about 8 months ago. Although many hot spots remain, the areas where we have been working have been very quiet since then. No doubt there are a lot of reasons for this, but primary among them has been the diligence and dedication of our front-line military, especially the sergeants, lieutenants, and captains who are engaging particular Iraqi leaders in particular communities and establishing the kind of relationship that can lead to stability and development. There is much to do here, but the potential is enormous.