Dynamics and Condolences

Condolence Ceremony

Today was a Condolence Ceremony (I will post some pics in a few days) where the Coalition Forces make Condolence Payments to Iraqi civilians that have been affected by Coalition Force action. It is an interesting process where we work with the Iraqi National Police to allow civilians to make claims for damages - - their car was blown up during an airstrike, their house was damaged when we blew up an IED on the street, a member of their family was wounded or killed as a result of Coalition Forces action.

I was kind of expecting a lot of loud, angry emotion, but that was not the case. Most of the civilians were grateful that the Coalition Forces were around and understood that sometimes in conflicts like this accidents and mistakes happen. I was trying to imagine how this process would happen in the US - - it would probably involve lawyers, TV News and a lot of teeth gnashing and wailing, here in Iraq a father who's child was wounded by US mortar fire actually thanked the US for the action that took place and told us that he understood why the US was firing mortars. His final comment was he hoped that the insurgents were killed in the action and was happy his town was freed from terror. All in all there were 4 claims paid for today - - the wounded child, a car that was damaged, a husband that was killed and a gentleman that had his leg amputated. For the amputation and wounded child, the US evacuated the casualties to a US hospital for treatment. The wounded child was actually sent further back to Germany for specialized treatment.

Dynamics

This is something that has amazed me in Iraq, just the dynamics of getting something done here would overwhelm most folks. At the bottom of the dynamic heap is the family, in the US families are normally who is living in your house or apartment, maybe the kinfolk that are close to you. Here in Iraq the family is huge and members of the family remember what happened to that family 5, 10, 100, 1000 years ago and which family caused that event. One step above the family is the tribe. Each tribe is represented by a hierarchy of sheiks, some tribes are huge - 200,000 people, some are only a hundred or so. Some families may have members in different tribes.

The Tribal Support Council works out issues between tribes - - member of tribe A killed a member of tribe B, so some sort of reconciliation has to happen, that normally involves money. In a case like that there is an independent mediator agreed upon by the Tribal council who mediates the settlement. In Iraq families and tribes are old and are used to having the power to solve problems and the sheiks are the ones that have the power concentrated in their hands.

With the introduction of a representative government, the families and tribes are a little confused about who has the power. In the old days, the tribe would figure out how to get electricity to the village, now the government does that. Instead of the sheik giving his people a new road, it is the government that puts in the new road. There are also several layers of government - - Nahia (county), Beladia (city), regional and national government.

When you throw in religious affiliation (Sunni and Shia) it gets pretty frustrating. There are Shia and Sunni families, tribes and the government of an area will normally be dominated by one of the religious sects. So, if a Sunni Tribe isn't getting electricity from the Shia town council there will be a sharp discussion at a city council meeting. The idea of reconciliation is starting to sink in, but not real fast. So the Shia Town Council may just smirk at the Sunni Tribe leader and say " . . . Well, when your people were in charge, we were getting hosed, now it is your turn to get hosed." (That exact exchange happened at the Center City Town Coucil Meeting two weeks ago, Sheik Q brought up a road project that didn't extend out to one of his villages and the Town Council had no sympathy for him because the Sunni were in charge a few years ago). The theory is that after a certain amount of reconciliation, things will improve.

It will take a few years to figure out how all of the dynamics are working, until then there will be some minor frustrations and challenges, but nothing that can't be worked out.

Fantasy Football Update:

Team Fritz made out good last week, but Marion Barber was injured. I am not sure if Team Wade has him or not. I need Drew Brees and David Garrard to throw the ball to the right team this week and things should work out ok.