It started like most days, I had been hearing some low rumbling sounds every so often during the morning hours. They caught my attention as I was working on the computer. It turns out that someone was moving furniture upstairs. BTW, “Heard” in all of these instances involves listening with both my body and our ears.
Then, in the afternoon I heard something again. Everyone heard it. The difference was the lack of the scraping noise associated with the moving things around. Several people moved to the windows to look outside, but nothing was visible. The people on the sidewalk outside were looking over the river - towards an area I could not see. Another “something” again. A look around and could again see nothing. Then after a few minutes, a third boom. This one was louder than the rest. Outside the window I could see the cloud of dust and smoke rising across the river near the hotel.
This was my first visual witness to a bombing in Iraq. Over New Years Eve extremists launched some small explosive devises into the IZ (International Zone), but they were largely unsuccessful. On that day they accomplished the same as throwing a stone into a large pond with yours close and hoping to hit a small insect on a model boat out on the pond.
But this different. It was not directed at us. When things come into the base, I have safe areas to go. This attach was different in that it was targeted at civilians - not US forces or the Iraqi forces as has been done in the past.
... I have come to realize in my month here that violence is a way of life in the Middle East. But is a way of life in the same way crime and drug use are a way of life in the United States. Very few work to justify it (although some work to say it is OK that exists or that others are to blame), many accept it as an inevitable part of life and others work to actively rid society of it. In Iraq we are starting to bring others in to the last category, but there is a way to go.
To me this violence makes no sense. Dignity to all and treating people with respect make sense to me. Oh, I understand the thought process behind it (I have had enough psych classes and pastoral counseling to frame it in a way) and I can even relate to humanity’s sinful tendencies - knowing that in life and death, we are all one in Christ.
Yet, in the face of killing – of being so close to it - there is a deep wordless breath, which I can only feel. As it rises from the deepest parts it begins to form a question. It is a question that overwhelms the mind - making words fail. How does one respond? For me it is only in hope.
My military brothers and sisters are invested in a response a more concrete response. There is hope in the situation in that 2 of the bombs were actually prevented from reaching their intended targets - farther into the crowds. Less people died than the extremists hoped for because of the Iraq security forces. Security is becoming a reality. A tough hope to swallow since several hands full of people died, but it is still a hope non-the less.
At this time I am looking back two years and wondering about the hope of my military peers then. These are the same people who had held onto hope when security in Iraq was failing and 10 times as many people where dying per day then as are now. A time when my experience would not have taken a month to see. Today there are many cities and places with significantly higher death rates than Iraq. A hope fulfilled.
And then in the midst of this I am still struggling to somehow get internally deal with Haiti. I was part of the US efforts there I the early 1990's. Even before the earth quake, Haiti was a failed state. I would like to think that there is some word or action that could easily take it all a way. Those do not exist. Instead hope comes into the world a little at a time and only through the hard work of people.
Pray for all who work to make the world a better place. Pray that God guide their actions and bless their efforts.
Peace,
Chris Culver
Then, in the afternoon I heard something again. Everyone heard it. The difference was the lack of the scraping noise associated with the moving things around. Several people moved to the windows to look outside, but nothing was visible. The people on the sidewalk outside were looking over the river - towards an area I could not see. Another “something” again. A look around and could again see nothing. Then after a few minutes, a third boom. This one was louder than the rest. Outside the window I could see the cloud of dust and smoke rising across the river near the hotel.
This was my first visual witness to a bombing in Iraq. Over New Years Eve extremists launched some small explosive devises into the IZ (International Zone), but they were largely unsuccessful. On that day they accomplished the same as throwing a stone into a large pond with yours close and hoping to hit a small insect on a model boat out on the pond.
But this different. It was not directed at us. When things come into the base, I have safe areas to go. This attach was different in that it was targeted at civilians - not US forces or the Iraqi forces as has been done in the past.
... I have come to realize in my month here that violence is a way of life in the Middle East. But is a way of life in the same way crime and drug use are a way of life in the United States. Very few work to justify it (although some work to say it is OK that exists or that others are to blame), many accept it as an inevitable part of life and others work to actively rid society of it. In Iraq we are starting to bring others in to the last category, but there is a way to go.
To me this violence makes no sense. Dignity to all and treating people with respect make sense to me. Oh, I understand the thought process behind it (I have had enough psych classes and pastoral counseling to frame it in a way) and I can even relate to humanity’s sinful tendencies - knowing that in life and death, we are all one in Christ.
Yet, in the face of killing – of being so close to it - there is a deep wordless breath, which I can only feel. As it rises from the deepest parts it begins to form a question. It is a question that overwhelms the mind - making words fail. How does one respond? For me it is only in hope.
My military brothers and sisters are invested in a response a more concrete response. There is hope in the situation in that 2 of the bombs were actually prevented from reaching their intended targets - farther into the crowds. Less people died than the extremists hoped for because of the Iraq security forces. Security is becoming a reality. A tough hope to swallow since several hands full of people died, but it is still a hope non-the less.
At this time I am looking back two years and wondering about the hope of my military peers then. These are the same people who had held onto hope when security in Iraq was failing and 10 times as many people where dying per day then as are now. A time when my experience would not have taken a month to see. Today there are many cities and places with significantly higher death rates than Iraq. A hope fulfilled.
And then in the midst of this I am still struggling to somehow get internally deal with Haiti. I was part of the US efforts there I the early 1990's. Even before the earth quake, Haiti was a failed state. I would like to think that there is some word or action that could easily take it all a way. Those do not exist. Instead hope comes into the world a little at a time and only through the hard work of people.
Pray for all who work to make the world a better place. Pray that God guide their actions and bless their efforts.
Peace,
Chris Culver
