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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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I don't have to leave? the man said again, and then, as his shaking subsided, and his rush of words slowed, his family emerged from the shack. Child after child. An old woman. More children. And finally, a young woman, very pregnant, who stood in the doorway, trying to push her dirty hair off her dirty face with her dirty hands as she looked at the soldiers, at first breathing nervously, then easing into a slight smile as she heard the man saying thank you for saving them from the terrorists, for enclosing them in a wall, for allowing them to stay.
"You're welcome. And thank you for allowing us in," Cummings said, and soon after that, with the gratitude of a living Iraqi as fixed in his mind now as the horror of one who had been tortured and killed, his visit to see Bob ended.
There is such decency in the country, he said, back in his office. That was why, more than ever, he wanted Bob removed and given some kind of proper burial. "I would hope someone would do the same for my body. And for any human being," he said. "Otherwise, we're not human."
That was Monday.
And then came Tuesday, and a phone call in the morning from Jager, who had received a call from the factory owner's brother, who had received a call from someone who lived near the factory.
Cummings hung up.
"The spaghetti factory has been blown up," he said.
It was only a first report, he cautioned, but the report said that there were a dozen men, and they were armed, and they wore masks, and the explosion was huge.
"Gone."
Throughout the day, there were attempts to verify this, but even in Iraq some days are harder than others. The wind was up, so much so that most helicopters were grounded, as was most aerial surveillance, other than a fighter jet, circling high, whose pilot reported that some of the factory appeared to have been destroyed.
How extensive was the damage?
As of Tuesday night, no one was able to say for sure.
