What Really Really Happens in Iraq?
Written by Corinna Hasofferett
Published August 13, 2004

1.
We know so little - we grab each piece of direct information.

CBFTW was an anonymous soldier in Iraq. Still alive, hopefully, yet no more anonymus.
You might have read his "My War" blog.

I've read him for the first time only today, following a link for An Interview with an Iraqi Man.

He says he was not armed when he interviewed him.
And the Iraqi man? Full of praises for the US army and goverment he is indeed.

2.

Once I had a Palestinian plumber working some in my house here in Tel Aviv.
He promised to come on a certain date.
When I finally got hold of him and asked why had he promised since he knew he won't be able to make it, he said:
"I didn't want to insult you."

Reading that interview I assumed the Iraqi volunteer did not want to insult our soldier, so he told him what he knew was expected of him to say. Then CBFTW did not feel like insulting his readers, so he told us what he seemed to perceive as most pleasing to the ear of the uninitiated.

Not an easy position for both of them, not a happy one for all of us involved in this tragic existence nowadays.

3.
Reading further into the blog, I was perplexed, since the guy was all along writing from his guts, with much courage, intelligence, sensitivity and a great natural talent.

4.
Then I came upon the previous post:

In this episode CBFTW is called to order by his officer. They won't censor him, but he should show his post to his commander, prior to publication.

5.
Why now? The guy was blogging for two months already.
A few posts down, the answer stares you in the face:
A most graphic, detailed report from the scene of war led entirely by USA troops such as our blogger- in stark contradiction to the CNN reporting of "Clashes between police and insurgents".

6.
CBFTW, why do I decipher in the last three letters of your name the acronym for "F. The War"?

Or is it "Cool Brother Forsake True War"?

Unknown Territory This is one of the more unusual books to have been published recently in Israel. It's also a book that's hard to categorize. It's not a standard novel, not really a book of memoirs, not actually a work of history - but it is a book that offers a different, surprising take on Israel's first years. A loving and painful take, to resort to a cliche. Corinna Hasofferett, embarked on this literary journey in the wake of two friends who were with her in a youth movement and were killed in Israel's cross-border reprisal raids. For years she collected testimonies of people who knew them, taping and editing. She interweaves the testimonies, almost without intervention on her part. The result is a narrative flow that revives the period without any prettification or mythologizing. She jokingly describes the book, "B'Eretz Lo Yadati" ("Unknown Territory," in English), as a Fighters Talk - referring to the famous book ("Siah Lohamim") in which soldiers described their experiences in the 1967 Six-Day War - but with no censorship. There are a few interesting revelations in the book, apart from the story of Yehuda Kan Dror. For example, confessions about the killing of captives, or a surprising confession from a member of Unit 101 - the precursor of the Paratroops, Unit 101 was established by Ariel Sharon in the early 1950s - that the unit did not have any fatalities because it operated almost exclusively against civilian targets. But concentrating on these aspects of the book could be misleading. It offers a far broader picture of a society that was still licking its wounds from the War of Independence, the picture of a country in which the signs of the previous Palestinian inhabitants were still visible, a picture of people whose memory of the Holocaust is not something they learned in school. This is Corinna's sixth book, and she has published it herself - both for economic reasons and also to avoid having an outside eye that might cut sensitive passages. So it's not easy to find the book in bookstores. But it's worth making the effort. Corinna's books, in Hebrew, are available for purchase directly from her Hebrew blog: http://www.notes.co.il/corinna/1823.asp
Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!
What Really Really Happens in Iraq?
Published: August 13, 2004
Type:
Section: Politics
Filed Under: Culture: Humor and Satire, Culture: Media
Writer: Corinna Hasofferett
Corinna Hasofferett's BC Writer page
Corinna Hasofferett's personal site
Spread the Word
Like this article?
Email this
Submit to del.icio.us Save to del.icio.us
RSS Feeds
All RSS Feeds (240+)
Comments on this article
BC articles by Corinna Hasofferett
Culture: Humor and Satire
Culture: Media
All Politics Articles
All BC articles
All BC Comments

Comments

#1 — August 13, 2004 @ 11:12AM — Hal Pawluk [URL]

Interesting, Corinna. Today's post on the blog is reader mail, and the top one is from a New Zealander saying:

Hi. This is just to say "Thanks" and "Bye" Your blog was great, but the last two posts seem to have lost the spontaneity and reality that your previous posts had before the army "discovered" you. I'm not sure whether this is because of pressure from people who have your career in your their hands peering over your shoulder, or because someone else is actually writing your blog now ...
Another one questions but doesn't get a a response to the picture:

I was there, in 90 and 91, the first war and was with 2nd Light Armored Infantry...
First off, the picture is not you and not from this decade. It's a nam pic and suggests you're some nam hero. Perhaps a real one would do. Secondly, no one sleeps through a 20 minute mortar attack. Thirdly, since when is there Internet Cafe's in a war zone ...


This one is supposed to be from an Iraqi and the blogger's response is to focus on the movie reference:

How iraqis feel
Dear sir, I discovered your blog today and I read some of your letters. I'm an Iraqi living in Baghdad. Every time I walk or pass by army troops I wonder how do they feel? Are they convinced that they should be here? Do they hate us? Blame us? Have they expected what is happening here or have they imaged something different when they came a year ago? For me, I thought at the beginning that things would be better, there would be peace, and we would be able to look for a better future. I thought that we would be able to forget the 24years of wars and try to benefit from our money to rebuild the country instead of buying weapons, but all these were just illusions.

I want to explain something for you: Most of Iraqis are against violence and we believe that most terrorists, or who are called resistance, are either not Iraqis or gangsters who want to benefit from the situation here in the name of resistance. I don't believe resistance means killing innocent people or exploding a car near a police station or a church. All what those terrorists want is pushing Iraq to a civil war.

I think many countries are willing to put Iraq in this situation so they can go on with their plans and this is all part of a big game in which you and me are just players. I do not even drop the possibility that American politicians are behind some of the events happening. They said their war is against terrorists, but they brought the terrorists to our country to fight them here. I believe they opened our borders for them to fight them here, and now we and you are paying hard for it. There is even a possibility that Al Qaida is a fake and it is really a tool for the Americans being used to help in controling the whole world (if you have seen the movie �Wag the Dog� starring Dustin Huffman, you will understand what I mean).

I blame the USA for what it have done in Iraq. It had made a lot of mistakes here which they could have simply solved if they knew little about our community and people's traditions. We are a combination of educated, ignorant, and tribunals people in addition to different religions. I do not support you for what you have done to us because till now we have not seen any good from you. I am not against you either because I know that with out your help we could not have got rid of Saddam Hussain.


Hard to tell what's really going on.

#2 — August 13, 2004 @ 12:45PM — Corinna Hasofferett [URL]

Thanks Hal,

I am under the impression that he's real although there is a discrepancy between the portrayal of a somehow delinquent child when he was at school and the high level of literary knowledge he shows in his quotes and allusions. He might be a soldier who listens and collects fighters' stories and brings them together under one persona. (I hope so for his own sake).

Still, it's a war. Maybe the first one in history to go on after victory has been announced...

I really pray you'll choose well in the coming elections. It might somehow reflect on us here in Israel and throughout the Middle East.

I've read somewhere that politics is about Hope.

Want comments emailed to you? No spam, promise! Address:

Add your comment, speak your mind

(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/18611)

Personal attacks are not allowed. Please read our comment policy.





Remember Name/URL?

Please preview your comment!

Fresh
Articles
Fresh
Comments