Is It Better to be Lucky?

Flopping Aces ^ | 03-11-11 | Randy Fritz

[Starman417]

One of my first meetings with Iraqis in early 2003 was at a town hall meeting in Al Dujayl. I was a medical service corps officer. As such, I wear a caduceus on my collar. We are sometimes mistaken for doctors by non-military types.

My interpreter and I were making our way through a crowd of Iraqis outside of the meeting hall. One man was very persistent. He actually took hold of my wrist and thrust a handful of papers in my face. I didn't want to be late for my first meeting. (At that time, I was on US time, not Iraqi time.) My interpreter carried on a fast paced conversation with the man. As he did, I looked at the papers. They were yellow legal sized with two columns of Arabic on both sides. There were 7 front and back pages.

My interpreter told me that this was a list of people missing when Saddam imprisoned and murdered hundreds of people in this farming community. I spoke to the man and through my interpreter told him to keep the papers. I assured him that when we helped a new government takeover, we would need him and his evidence. We shook hands and I went to my meeting.

The more time I spent in Iraq, the more I learned about the things that had never been printed in our western media. It seems that in 1982, Saddam was leaving Tikit to travel south. As he was getting into his limo, a woman ran up and placed her hand on the side window leaving a colored hand print. Saddam immediately got out and got into another car. The caravan then traveled south to Baghdad.

As the convoy approached the highway section between Dujayl and Balad, Iraqis ambushed it. The car with the hand print was destroyed, but Saddam survived to carry out his vengeance on Dujayl. The mature date groves were destroyed. Many of the houses were totally destroyed to bare ground. I had noticed that there seemed to be two parts of the town an east and west. What had happened was that whole section was destroyed. Many people were murdered and some were taken prisoner.

[fso301]

Being good and lucky is better

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Starman417.