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A Grisly Problem, Grateful Iraqis and a Grim Outlook
An Iraqi who thought he would have to leave his modest home, next to an old factory that U.S. troops want to use as an outpost, turned thankful when told that he and his family could stay.
(By David Finkel -- The Washington Post)
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Days passed. The need for the soldiers in Kamaliya increased. Bob floated on. One day the skull sank from view. Another day a local Iraqi speculated that there might be more bodies in the septic tank, that Bob might simply be the one on top.
Finally, with no easy solution in sight, Cummings decided to go see Bob for himself.
How easy is anything in Iraq, such as a short drive to a spaghetti factory? A combat plan was drawn up, just in case. A convoy of five Humvees was assembled. Body armor was strapped on. Earplugs were pushed in. Protective eyeglasses were lowered into place. Off the convoy went, slowly, never exceeding 15 mph, because slow and steady is the best way to find a roadside bomb before it explodes, unless it is a bomb with a particular kind of trigger that is best defeated by flying pedal to metal. Yard by yard, decision by decision, the convoy advanced, past trash bags that might be hiding bombs, along dirt roads under which might be buried bombs, and now past something unseen that, just after the last Humvee in the convoy passed by, exploded.
No damage. No injuries. Just some noise and smoke in the air. The convoy kept going, now past a dead water buffalo, on its back, grossly swollen, one more thing in this part of Baghdad on the verge of exploding, and now the Humvees stopped against a high wall, on the other side of which was a yellowish building topped by a torn tin roof banging around in the wind.
"The spaghetti factory," Cummings announced. Soon he and Capt. Jeff Jager, commander of the company that would be moving to the factory, were staring into the septic tank, and suddenly Cummings had an idea.
"Lye and bleach and sanitize and cover it up," he said. "We bring our chaplain here, and we'll say some words and mark it."
Easy. Done.
Jager shook his head. "I think you gotta clean it out," he said. "I mean we're gonna have some heartache moving into a building that's got a dead body in a sewage septic tank."
"Yeah," Cummings said, realizing Jager was right. "We want to do right."
"Arabic culture, you know?" Jager said. "They bury their dead in 24 hours."
"I mean someone has disgraced him as bad as you can possibly disgrace a human being," Cummings said. "And there's not a playbook that we can go to that says when you open it up: Here's how you remove a body from a septic tank."
"The one contractor I brought up here, he was willing to do everything here, but he wanted nothing to do with that," Jager said. "I asked him how much it would take for him to get that out of there, and he said, 'You couldn't pay me enough.' "
