The Blankets

On CNN this week, I saw an army soldier interrogating an Iraqi vendor. The man owned a roadside stall located near a spot where a bomb had detonated. Through the interpreter, the soldier told the man to look him in the eyes and tell him if he had knowledge that the bomb was going to detonate. The man looked back at the soldier and shook his head. The soldier told the interpreter, “He’s lying.” I wondered, What’s the guy supposed to say? Yes I knew it would go off at 11am, but I didn’t think it was in my best interest to tell you? I hope the guy wasn’t taken off for gratuitous violence during questioning, but he easily could have been. In a NYT Magazine (10/23/05) piece about the war in Iraq, the writer described aggressive tactics the U.S. military uses when it wants information from a civilian. Our army might blow up a person’s house, torch crops, force people to do push ups while our soldiers laugh. When looking for weapons in a family’s home, soldiers tear the place up. One soldier stood out from the rest. Often “chided by his peers for the delicacy with which he searched Iraqi houses,” Ralph Logan would refold blankets after removing them from closets. This same guy refused to assist in the tossing of two Iraqi men into the Tigris because they were out past curfew driving plumbing supplies to Baghdad. One of the men died. One Iraqi civilian told the writer that he had supported the Americans at first, but their violent attempts to humiliate Iraqis changed his mind. This simple gesture of refolding the blankets stands out to me as strikingly heroic and so contrary to the norm. I wonder who his allies are.