January 12, 2010

"What will you tell people in America about us?"

A middle-aged man with the build of a wrestler, who had begun our work together staring skeptically at me for long periods of time, posed this question as the sun set on the dusty streets of this Iraqi town.

Moments like this seem rare in daily life back home, but are commonplace here, where the immediacy of the situation dictates a quickened pace for a relationship. There is trust, or there is not, and it is known quickly.

This group of Iraqis had decided to engage in the democratic political process. Many of them had lost family members, or been injured themselves, in the Saddam Hussein-era or in the chaos that engulfed parts of this nation soon thereafter.  You would learn this not in the first day together, but by listening to praise from colleagues for the lost family of their friends.

"I will tell my friends in America of your courage in the face of violence and in the wake of great personal loss. I will tell your stories to my son and remember you to the end of my days," I said in our last moments together before they were to head off to their homes and continue their campaign in the upcoming elections here.

Words that might sound melodramatic in the quiet of my Connecticut home, felt right and rang very true to me.

Editor's note: Scott Bates is the vice president of the Center for National Policy and is currently in Iraq and Afghanistan, working with candidates for Parliament in Iraq and assessing the political parties in Afghanistan.