Like me, he was 20 or 21 when the Gulf War broke out only he was conscripted into the Iraqi Army. He ended up being on of those guys we all saw on TV surrendering to tanks and helicopters after having the living shit pounded out of them by artillery strikes and B52 runs on the southern-most forces of Iraq.
When the American Army realized he was just some "average Ahmed" who could speak English, he was attached to a division and became an interpreter for 7 years. At the end of his time with the Army, he was given citizenship, taught to be a barber and given a choice where he wanted to move. He chose Seattle because it is cool and green. Apparently, he never wanted to see a desert again.
Once in a while you meet someone who's been in combat and survived the wraith of the God of War - and often, these people are easy going about most everything because they've seen the absolute limit of terror and hatred. My dad, who was a Marine F4 close air support pilot in Vietnam, and many of his friends are like that and so was my barber. That's not to say emotion is dead in them but the scope of things that will piss them off is made very narrow by the conditioning of overwhelming fear and perspective they experience in combat - once you've seen the mutilated bodies of women and children, or mowed down a line of enemies, or watched your friends get blown apart - for months at a time, day to day irritations like broken windows and scratched cars just don't set you off.
But even in the context of how easy going this guy was, his hatred of Arabic culture was unmistakable and absolute (the only care he had for his homeland was for his sister, the rest of the Middle-East could go to hell as far as he was concerned). One of the things that constantly confused him - which this author is touching on - is how a society can function when it's not based on hatred and displays of raw power. In 2000 my barber had the opportunity to vote for the first time and he literally couldn't wrap his mind around it: he'd grown up in a world where leaders were the people who "had the most guns and were willing to use them". The idea that you could openly criticize a mayor, and then vote the mayor out of office made as much sense to him as breathing on the moon without a space suit.
And this from a guy who was acclimated to Western Culture.
I have to wonder how long it's going to take to turn some of the more radical parts of the Middle-East around. Places like Egypt and "Palestine" where irrational hatred is woven directly into the foundation of the culture and is reinforced on a day to day basis. Iraq has been relatively "easy" because of how many people have been killed and murdered there in the last 30 years. It's not often mentioned but the Iran-Iraq war sucked a lot of the systemic hatred out of Iraqi culture.
It saddens me to no end but I don't think the Middle East culture of hatred problem is going to be solvable without a few million people being killed. I know for certain it's not going to be corrected in any of our lifetimes.
Interesting post, and thread, ping.
That's a very interesting story. Just remember, there are always people like your barber.
Hubby went to an Egyptian barber here in Bayonne, he said he was a little afraid the guy might chop his head off. The next time he went there, I went with him. There where Christian symbols all over the place. I said to hubby "how could you not realize he was a Christian, there are Saint's pictures and a picture of the Nativity all over?" Hubby said "I guess I missed those since I'm a presbyterian". He stills goes to that shop, loves that barber. I don't tag along anymore, because all stuff to read is in Arabic!
Thanks for your comment 46. It showed good insights and gave me something to think about.
The fact is, Islamic societies don't function very well. The "glories of Islam" in the Middle Ages were sheer parasitism on the Jewish and Christian societies they'd conquered. Once the parasite killed the host, the parasite died too. You can't name an Islamic society of today that really functions well.
The only somewhat-Islamic society that functions half-way well is Turkey. That's largely because they've adopted Western ways, at least to a certain extent. I've taught in a Turkish university. What I taught (statistics and engineering) had no roots whatsoever in Islamic culture. They were entirely Western. Even today, Islam is a parasite on Western culture.