Back to the Iraqi Future

To start, although unrelated to today's blog, please join Sandy, Cooper and I in praying for friends in our church who are waiting to hear word from Haiti. A  father and very talented videographer, David Hames, is missing while filming video in Haiti for Compassion International. If you feel prompted to pray for Haiti, please remember this family and pray for David's safety, welfare and return.

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The other day as I stepped out of Annex 2 here at the Embassy, I looked up and saw two single-engine planes going overhead. Now, that is unusual here in Baghdad. I turned to a couple of Iraqi expatriates, now US citizens, that I work with, and said "Your Iraqi Air Force...," with a smile.

I took a couple of steps then spun back around to them as I realized that was their Iraqi Air Force, not quite all of it but close enough. "No, really, I think that is the Iraqi Air Force." It had occured to me that they were rehearsing for the Iraqi Army Day ( Iraqi Army Day article). The Iraqi Air Force has received T-6 trainers and opened the Iraqi Air Force College ("Iraqi Air Force College Opens in Tikrit" article) in late December. 

One of the Iraq expats said, "I remember the day when we had 4000 fighter jets and 4000 tanks" (the fighter numbers are a bit exaggerated). I told him that I had seen that Army in Desert Storm in "The Mother of All Battles"; he responded that he had been there too. After the ground war was over, in early March, he and I been on opposite sides of the highway between Basra and Baghdad. We were building road blockades along the highways to keep any Iraqi force from attacking from the north into Kuwait. He told me he was in Basra, where they would have defended against any attack. A proud Iraqi, he told me "The US would never have beaten us but we wouldn't fight for that bastard Saddam."


Now, he and I have returned to Iraq, both citizens of the United States hoping for a better Iraq. There remains no doubt in my mind that we did the right thing (although the rationale might have been a bit off...) and I think my Iraqi friend would agree. Ridding Iraq of Saddam has come at, and will continue to extract, an incredible cost in blood and resources. The future looks pretty bright here; that is, when it doesn't look dim.


Grace & peace.