A different type of war story – What it’s like not to write about death and oil

I have recently accomplished something in my goal of becoming a better journalist – I have worked on a long and detailed feature, one with international roots and one of the more exciting stories I have worked on. It all started with a student returning from Iraq. The story has led me to several long distance phone calls, some to Washington, D.C. and even more to various military departments in Iraq.

Maybe this doesn’t seem too big a deal to the average person, but as a young, energetic and eager college newspaper reporter and editor, I was thrilled to take on this task and it has been my most exciting journalistic adventure so far. I’ve spent the past week e-mailing and calling high ranking military officials and I also worked on getting an interview with an Ambassador in Iraq – which didn’t end up happening, as I found a civilian that was involved with the reconstruction efforts and works for the Department of State (also a friend of Sgt. Irwin).

So, why would I be making so many calls to our nation’s capital and Iraq? Well, I think this story had surpassed my expectations by miles.

Originally, I was going to run a profile on a student, who had just come back from Iraq. I was mainly going to talk about his transition from soldier to student and his getting used to hauling around books instead of his M4 Carbine assault rifle. I knew ahead of time that he had done some civil affairs work over there, so I would ask him about it, but I was unsure of what exactly he had been doing.

After speaking with Sgt. Christopher Irwin of the U.S. Army Reserve for about an hour, and then double-checking my notes afterward, I knew this story could go further, much further than just a profile. He mentioned he had given away over $1 million in aid to Iraqi people – and that was just him. So how much is the entire U.S. Army spending on these efforts? I needed to know, and thought the public should as well.

For once, I thought, there could be something different written about Iraq, a story void of suicide bombers, dead American soldiers and oil. This story could shed some good light and perhaps a positive attitude toward the U.S. military service members.

Then again, some people might get pissed. I had a feeling that the total amount of taxpayer dollars spent in Iraq on these humanitarian efforts was well within the hundreds of millions, but my suspicions were quite low – the numbers came in and they turned out to be in the billions.

With the American economy in the dumps, unemployed families, starving college students and an aggressive health care debate, many people might see this figure of over $9 billion and think of spending it in better ways.

Furthermore, I fully understand the corruption and lies the government and military has been a part of in the past and I assume they still partake in such actions, using us media figures to spread their deceit. However, I am young, hungry for big stories and trying to make a name for myself, a key to my success, I thought, would be this story.

I also truly believe that a lot of good does come out of these efforts; for example, Sgt. Irwin seemed like a grade-A fellow, fresh from the desert and all grown up at the ripe age of 21. The army will be paying his tuition and living expenses and will undoubtedly call him back to action once things in Afghanistan get shakier. But, that is another matter, the things this man did, the aid he provided to the Iraqi people, I think, can truly shape a young mind and inspire many more. He said himself that he is now more mature and more patriotic. One could wonder that perhaps, seeing all the poverty, hardship and death within our world would indeed make a soldier much more grateful of our glorious American Dream.

And to support that American dream, the United States Army decided it would be a good idea to give the Iraqi people some good old American made water purification systems. This was when my faith in the military – the higher ups, not the ground soldiers (who just do what they’re told) – had begun to dwindle.

Small Iraqi villages are now getting over a thousand gallons of clean water per day – more than they have seen in a lifetime I’m sure – but what happens when this magical gadget runs out of filters (they are given 2-3 years worth, courtesy of Uncle Sam), or worse, the solar panel breaks?  I’ll tell you, plain and simple – they’re fucked.

Right now, the American military is providing money, reconstruction efforts, clean water, sewage, electricity and much more to these unfortunate and  poverty stricken people. It looks great from a diplomatic standpoint and may even clear the conscience of some high-ranking officials. But a few years down the road, when our Civil Affairs battalions go elsewhere (it would be wrong of me to say ‘when the military leaves,’ because let’s face it – we are never leaving Iraq so long as oil is buried in that wasteland), what happens to these villages, towns and cities?

They will be forgotten. The water systems will rust, break and become another useless piece of trash in an already garbage ridden landscape. And the U.S. military won’t give a damn less.

I don’t see this happening anytime soon, and maybe I’m just being ridiculous, but there are times when my faith in the government runs extremely low. But, what working on this story has done for me is re-boot my faith in people, just when I was starting to think this country was full of selfish, heartless bastards, along came an average guy like Sgt. Irwin, who joined the Army to fill a void of adventure and accomplishment.

Irwin and few others like him can go to Iraq and provide an astonishing amount of support to a nation – and its people in desperate need of a helping hand. Hopefully, more like Irwin will enlist, funding will continue and maybe, just maybe, in the near future, Iraq will find peace.

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