from the rivers of Babylon

Nothing so focuses the mind in the evening as the knowlege that one isflying into Iraq in the morning. Greetings from Kuwait, from where I havebeen flying over the Rivers of Babylon. Once again I am on contract withAirserv International, this time to fly postwar disaster relief personnelinto Iraq. I had not written anything about this beforehand as I wanted tomake sure it was really happening. After ferrying two King Airs from pointsin Africa to Amman, Jordan, and Kuwait City, Kuwait, we waited for herethree weeks. Finally the authorization came to fly from Kuwait into Baghdadon May 1 and May 5. Mark Vanonen and I piloted the first two civilianrelief related postwar flights into Iraq. Our first passengers were fromSave the Children and Physicians for Human Rights. It was the same aircraftwe had flown together from Georgetown, Texas, to Conakry, Guinea over twoyears ago, and from Abidjan, Ivory Coast to Entebbe over one year ago. Itappears we are destined to fly this airplane from one disaster to anothertogether.We became very busy flying almost daily until a setback at the Erbil runwayin Iraqi Kurdestan. Our Amman plane was on the ground being refueled when aRussian-made Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft used too much power to turnaround on the apron and sent a blast of gravel at our King Air. This pittedthe windows of our aircraft and a considerable amount of the gravel wentinto the turbine intakes, rendering the aircraft useless until the turbinescould be opened and cleaned. The fueling truck had its windshield blownout. Fortunately no one was hurt. The Ilyushin was registered inUzbekistan and the passengers were guys of the type who prefer not toidentify themselves, but they had American accents and civilian clothes.Centrally intelligent people should hire airplanes with pilots who know howto turn around on the ground without causing a lot a damage.Our Kuwait based airplane was sent to Amman until the grounded one could beflown out of Erbil. So I have the free time to write and let everyone on my"dispatch" list know that I am safe and sound before resuming flightsshortly. Most of you are on my list at your request or because I know youwell enough to put you on it. If you are receiving this in error let meknow and I'll get you off the list. I respect the fact that in-boxes areoverflowing with stuff. Feel free to forward. There are no secrets. Afterthis one I hope to write something about what I did in the prelude to ouroperations, some notes about remarkable people I have met, some analysis andcommentary on the situation and even techniques for improving Hummous, BabaGhanouj, and lemonade. Please write with specific questions and I'll do mybest to answer.Flying over the Rivers of Babylon - the Tigris and the Euphrates and theirtributaries - gives one a chance to reflect on history and all that thisland has contributed to mythology, legend, and religion. Starting out fromKuwait I can look down at Ur of the Chaldees, where the wheel was inventedand from where Abraham set forth to be a "stranger in a strange land" and bea blessing. We even pass near the reputed location of the Garden of Edenwhere locals claim they still have Adam's original tree of temptation. Howwe truly have fallen from Grace again here. We fly over Babylon itselfwhere the palaces and banquet halls of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and otherancient emperors were rebuilt by Saddam on the foundations of the originals.It was here that Belshazzar saw the "hand writing on the wall." The prophetDaniel interpreted it for him to mean "You have been weighed and foundwanting in the balance." Babylon was about to be captured by the Persians.And not far from Erbil is a mosque in the village of Ninevah which has whatthey say is the jawbone of Jonah's whale. The very same one indeed. Theyclaim he brought it there after his detour in its belly.What a privilege to be flying here but how sad the circumstances. Mostmembers of the international relief and development community were facedwith an ethical dilemma as they made their decisions to prepare for postwaroperations. If we prepare in advance to help pick up the pieces afterwards,to what extent are we enabling the execution of a war we oppose - be it thisone or any other. We are left with what seems a choice between allowing thesuffering to suffer if we do nothing on the one hand or facilitating amilitary assault by being ready to assist with dealing with the negativeconsequences on the other. The problem is complicated by the fact that manyof the relief organizations involved have traditionally received funding forprojects in African war zones from the governments who are now belligerentsin the current conflict in Iraq. It is as if a fire brigade was beingoffered precious water by the arsonist himself. Oxfam and Medicins sanFrontiers chose not to accept funding from the British or Americangovernments. Ultimately everyone has had to collude to some extent to getinto the country and move about and the occupying forces appear happy tocooperate with anyone, including opponents of the war, who will help dealwith the postwar mess. A curious phenomenon has been that even civiliansworking for the US government have been having these dilemmas and have madea great issue out of being under State Department rather than militaryauthority. There have been many layers of bureaucracy at variousadministrative distances from the fighting forces, each of which haspreferred to see itself as unique and somewhat more innocent. Roughlydescribed, the military itself has its Civil Affairs Units, and then thereis the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance which is a teamof assorted spooks and civilians sort of under military control in aconfused sort of way, then the Disaster Assistance Response Teams who arecivilians working directly for the State Department Office of ForeignDisaster Assistance, then various civilians on government contract, thennon-governmental organisations working on their own but with governmentsubsidies, and finally non-governmental organisations who do not acceptstate funding. The discussions are endless about who wears what clothes,who can attend which meetings in which buildings, who rides in whichvehicles, and do we accept protection from military forces or other armedguards. Ethical purity aside there is the questions of which associations,affectations and accoutrements are more likely to get one shot. One of ourcivilian passengers going in to work on water treatment and sanitation hadbeen issued a helmet and bulletproof vest. The things we use to protectourselves can attract danger sometimes. I told her she'd be less likely toget shot at if she wore a headscarf and modest clothing instead. But if shedid get shot the helmet and jacket would be nice. The choices we face arenot easy.I once chided Jonathan Kuttab, a Palestinian friend a dozen years ago aboutthe fact that as part of the peace process the Palestinian Authority wasaccepting US government funding. "This is the same government that hasfunded your destruction," I said. "It is one octupus. How can you takeanything from it?" His answer was that he had been observing that octupusfor years and saw that some of its tentacles were benign, some were harmful,some didn't like each other, and most didn't seem to know what the otherswere doing. That is indeed the case here, most clearly manifested by theearly departure of Jake Garner - the first American proconsul - and histeam. The American machine was very efficient and organized aboutconducting the war but is most bewildered about what to do now. This istrue about most warriors and artisans of death who forget how much simplerit is to destroy than to create. I understand that Iraq is no longer themain news in America. It should be, as things are just starting to getinteresting.I opposed this war, though there was nothing unique in that for me as Ioppose all of them. In all corners of the world I have heard every excuseimaginable for this sad behaviour. There is unfortunately no lack of peoplewilling to lend their logic and energy to these orgies of destruction. Noneof them need my support. Meanwhile I have chosen to fly with an operationwhich is on a US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance contract. (Iattended my last peace rally in Austin on March 22 and departed for thisprogram the next day). Some of the passengers are relief personnel workingfor the government and others are from non-governmental organizations. Nonewill be armed. We land at airports in Iraq controlled and guarded by theoccupying armies. I greet and am warm to armed US soldiers as I greeted andwas friendly to assorted armed militiamen who controlled runways in Africa.These soldiers are our sons and daughters, none of them as sinister as theadvisors to our President who sent them here.I will do my best do be useful on the field of this catastophe and hope thatI will be harmless. To questions about George and Saddam the best answer inArabic is "Istaghfir Allah lii wa lahum. - I call on God's forgiveness forme and for them."When we are weighed may we not be found wanting in the balance.