by John Sprague

Created on: February 18, 2007   Last Updated: July 02, 2010

Think beyond the Violence

Mesopotamia has a wonderful past and may one day have a positive influence on the World again. Present day Iraq has a long way to go, though. Iraq is a victim of many years of mismanagement from long before the Americans got here. We came with noble thoughts of improving things here and not what has turned out so far. There is still a great deal of work to do and the US can not and will not do it all. The people of modern day Iraq will need to complete the necessary transformation. Until it is safe to operate here, other countries will be reluctant to get involved in this process.

When I arrived at Cedar, Iraq in the early spring of 2004, this southern part of Iraq was in the midst of the rainy season. Cedar has all dirt roads on the base there and had the joy of living in a tent. That prospect was alright with me for I had a partitioned 5ft x 6 ft section with a sleeping bag and mattress which was up off the floor. Most of the vehicles that were there had an inch or more of mud packed onto their exterior.

My sparklingly clean Suburban stood out in the parking lot. It didn't take long for it to be noticed by others. In fact, I wasn't there a whole day when I was approached by one of the medics. It seemed that their ambulance was gone for repairs and they wouldn't get it back from the shop for two weeks or more. Yes, they wanted to borrow my car and turn it into a temporary ambulance by taking the rear seats out. In exchange, I was afforded the use a dirty old Pinero SUV with a broken and spidered windshield. No problem I thought since I'd get it back in a couple of weeks and they really needed it a lot more than I did.

Cedar was usually a dustbowl with tons of incredible biting insects but now it had been transformed into puddles of water everywhere. The soil consistency there is a mix of sand, soil and clay. This particular blend has a tendency to adhere to everything it comes in contact with when wet. I was still able to do my work there with my new conveyance and the people who worked there, both soldiers and contractors were very nice and friendly as well as supportive.

On Palm Sunday, I decided to attend a church service since I hadn't been in quite a while. At the chapel on base, the Pastor had said to stay after the service because there was going to be a special movie showing that hadn't been previously announced. This is the place where I was fortunate to have seen my first showing of "The Passion" which was brand new at that

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