http://globalspecops.com/view.htmlPREFACE
Last Wednesday night, I attended a lecture by Judge Don Walters,
a federal judge from Shreveport, LA., who was asked to serve as
part of a 12 man team in Iraq to evaluate their justice system.
It was most interesting, and afterwards, I asked if he had a
book or a recording of any of his lectures. Since he did not,
he was generous enough to give me his notes from the evening.
For those of you interested, I will give you a slightly abridged
version of his lecture which I found difficult to cut down due to
its wealth of information.
THE LECTURE:
I really am not into public speaking as I am sure you are about
to find out. But my adventures in Iraq taught me something that
I would very much like to share with you. I have been fortunate
over the past 5 or 6 years to get to such exotic places as Bosnia,
Jakarta, Indonesia, and Morocco. But, Iraq is my swan song. First,
I am too old for such adventures, and second, Charlotte (my wife)
won't let me. In mid-April, I got a call from DoJ asking if I
would be willing to go to Iraq for up to 3 months to evaluate the
justice system and make recommendations. When I went home,
Charlotte said without a pause, "how could I possibly tell you, no?"
Let me begin with a disclaimer, I was in Iraq for fewer than 40 days,
I was in Baghdad for a little over three weeks and in the three
provinces of the far south for two weeks. I am limited in what I saw
and heard. Needless to say, the opinions are my own. I want to make
it clear that, initially, I vehemently opposed the war.
The team of 12 that went to Iraq was to access the judiciary and to
make recommendations for the future. We were sent too soon and without
sufficient planning and forethought. Accordingly we were forced to
play our part by ear. Ultimately, we were successful. No thanks to
the civil authorities in Washington or Iraq.
We were divided into 4 teams. We were the southern team: Mike Farhang,
an AUSA from Los Angeles, Harvard Summa Undergraduate, Harvard Law
Review, Linguist, 5 languages including Arabic; Rich Coughlin, Federal
Public Defender from New Jersey, who abandoned his wife and 23 month
old daughter to volunteer for this; and me. We were accompanied by an
interpreter and protected by what I called our "minders," four Iraqis
well-armed with 9mm hand guns and AK47's.
During the first two weeks, we talked to a few hundred Iraqis and
interviewed about 60 judges. Our help came from our Danish colleagues
and the First Armored Division (UK), not from the civil authorities -
OPCA, Office of the Provisional Coalition Authority,
(formerly ORHA), Ambassador Brenner's group.
Despite my initial opposition to the war, I am now convinced, whether
we find any weapons of mass destruction or prove Saddam sheltered and
financed terrorists, absolutely, we should have overthrown the Baathists,
indeed, we should have done it sooner.
What changed my mind?
When we left mid June, 57 mass graves had been found, one with the bodies
of 1200 children. There have been credible reports of murder, brutality
and torture of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Iraqi citizens. There is
poverty on a monumental scale and fear on a larger one. That fear is
still palpable.
I have seen the machines and places of torture. I will tell you one story
told to me by the Chief of Pediatrics at the Medical College in Basra. It
was one of the most shocking to me, but I heard worse. One of Saddam's
security agents was sent to question a Shiite in his home. The
interrogation took place in the living room in the presence of the man's
wife, who held their three month old child. A question was asked and the
thug did not like the answer; he asked it again, same answer. He grabbed
the baby from its mother and plucked its eye out. And then repeated his
question. Worse things happened with the knowledge, indeed with the
participation, of Saddam, his family and the Baathist regime.
Thousands suffered while we were messing about with France and Russia and
Germany and the UN. Every one of them knew what was going on there, but
France and the UN were making millions administering the food for oil
program. We cannot, I know, remake the world, nor do I believe we should.
We cannot stamp out evil, I know. But this time we were morally right
and our economic and strategic interests were involved. I submit that just
because we can't do everything doesn't mean that we should do nothing.
We must have the moral courage to see this through, to do whatever it
takes to secure responsible government for the Iraqi people. Having
decided to topple Saddam, we cannot abandon those who trust us. I fear we
will quit as the horrors of war come into our living rooms. Look at the
stories you are getting from the media today. The steady drip, drip, drip
of bad news may destroy our will to fulfill the obligations we have assumed.
WE ARE NOT GETTING THE WHOLE TRUTH FROM THE NEWS MEDIA. The news you watch,
listen to and read is highly selective. Good news doesn't sell. 90% of the
damage you see on tv was caused by Iraqis, not by US. All the damage you
see to schools, hospitals, power generation facilities, refineries,
pipelines and water supplies, as well as shops, museums, and semi-public
buildings (like hotels) was caused either by the Iraqi army in its death
throes or Iraqi civilians looting and rioting.
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