The Truth about Iraq
with photo galleries
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Photos by Chaplain Misarski and Victor Goltz. Gallery 1 Mostly critters |
Gallery 20 Scenes Back to Travel Photos |
Still to come: buildings, the Army, Gospel concerts, more of the monastery, Mosul city scenes.
Please note: I have just received additional pictures, and captions for most of the pictures in this set of galleries. I will be putting captions on as soon as I can. The new pictures are very exciting! The Cultural Concert is the first gallery from this new collection.
Back to Terrorism page
Thoughts Before the Election Now that the election is over, I have put the thoughts that were on this page, on a separate page. They are preserved for people who are interested.
This account has been significantly updated as of October 11, 2004.
The purpose of this page is twofold. The first is to share with you what is really going on in Iraq as related by an eyewitness, and the other is to present you with photos of Iraq as it has been since the cessation of major fighting. I will also present some commentary and some conclusions.
Our youngest son, Victor, enlisted in the Army Reserves. He was activated and served in Iraq for eleven months. He arrived in Iraq at about the time President Bush declared the major hostilities and fighting to be at an end. He is a chaplain's assistant. His duties are to protect the life of the chaplain (who is not allowed to carry a gun) and to assist the chaplain in his normal activities. In Iraq, Victor served with Chaplain Major Steve Misarski, who took some of the pictures on this site. Others were taken by Victor. While in Iraq, Victor held the rank of Specialist. He is due for another promotion soon.
Victor served primarily in Mosul (al Mawsil). Here is a map of Iraq. You can see Mosul at the top of the country, more or less centrally located east-west. Victor was in Mosul when Saddam's two sons were killed. I asked him what it was like being in Mosul that day, and he said that everyone not involved in the mission was in lockdown, to protect them. Since effectively he is a noncombatant, he was involved in the lockdown.
I asked Victor what it was like being there all those months. Was it peaceful? He said there were nearly nightly incidents of people trying to get into the area where they were, to commit violence, but that they were always stopped and either captured or killed. They had a small detention center. Other than that, people went about their business. In the galleries, you will see photos of the display for memorial services for three soldiers. At this time, I do not know the story behind those, or if there were other soldiers honored as well. Victor served with the 101st Airborne, and he arrived well before the current crop of terrorism started. You can place the time of these memorial services by observing the date on the photos. The photos in this section are in chronological order. As you can see, both services took place before the current rash of terrorist attacks. There were quite a few memorial services, but nobody Victor knew personally was killed.
Victor had significant contact with the Iraqis (as the photos show). One of the things he brought back with him was a rather detailed knowledge of Iraqi cuisine. We had the privilege of eating with him in a restaurant owned and run by a Kurd. As shown above, Mosul is in northern Iraq, in the Kurdish region. Victor told us in detail in what ways the food was different from what he was getting in Iraq. In particular, the tea was different. The tea in Iraq was very, very strong. It was also heavily sweetened. The tea served in the restaurant was considerably weaker. He had developed a taste for such strong tea. He also talked about the different dishes, telling us which ones were unavailable where he was, and how those that were available were different. Victor loves Iraqi food. Given the fact that he is also a good cook, I suspect he will add Iraqi cuisine to his repertoire (hint, hint!)
While they were in country, Victor and the chaplain handled mainly the coordination of rebuilding efforts. They were involved also in renovating a chapel for the troops. Victor said that the rebuilding efforts were extensive and very successful. They rebuilt primarily schools and churches. They also rebuilt a sports complex. I do not yet have photos of that. For more information on this, click on the up arrow on this page to go to my terrorism page. There are links to information about what is really happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as information on the election and other related information.
There are several galleries of pictures of troops worshipping. On Easter Sunday, a number of people were baptized.
There was an interesting contrast in terms of wealth and poverty. Quite a few people own a small squalid house with a satellite dish on the roof, and a BMW parked in front. Most people who had cars drove cheaper cars like Opals, but a BMW only costs about $10,000 US. Victor told us that Saddam and his sons had hundreds of cars. One of the cars Saddam had was worth tens of millions of dollars. It had been custom built for a prince, and it was an antique.
There were not a lot of animals in the land. There are a few photos of them in the galleries here. They mostly saw lizards and scorpions (which were quite large and dark). Victor never personally saw a camel spider, although he knew what they look like. Their bite is nasty. Their bodies are about the size of a man's hand. There were also snakes, but Victor didn't see any. He did see colonies of bats. One photo I have (unfortunately not clear enough for display) shows a swarm of bats flying at dusk.
One of the things that surprised me the most (mostly because I hadn't thought about it, I guess) was what he said about the Iraqi women. You should take note of this, because it refutes a good many claims being made by the media in this country. Victor said that a few of the troops were taking advantage of the women. I asked him why, and he said that the reason was that the women were harassing the troops. I asked him why that caused the men to take advantage of them. And he answered that it was because the harassment was of the nature of seeking a sexual involvement. He said he had forgotten how many times a 10 year old boy had tried to sell him his 12 year old sister. I asked him if it was always the same 10 year old boy, and he said no, it was always someone different. I asked him why they were doing this, and he responded that they need the money. Victor said that hostility toward the troops among Iraqis was virtually nonexistent. He did have one incident with a belligerant man, whom he ordered to leave, and eventually the man did because Victor had the gun. Victor was invited into Iraqi homes many times, but he wasn't supposed to go, so he only went a couple of times. You should be aware that when a person receives an invitation into a home which he accepts, the host is then culturally obligated to protect the visitor for as long as he is on the premises. (Americans are usually not aware that people who harbored Saddam had that same responsibility, whether he was initially welcome or not.)
Victor was awarded two ribbons while he was there, one for being deployed to Iraq, and the other was the Army Achievement Medal, for his work in rebuilding Iraq. He was also awarded several coins. The Army Achievement Medal is normally only awarded in peacetime situations, but Victor received the award for exceptional service.
He did say that he has observed some spiritual things that we would find truly astonishing. Oh, and he got to visit various historical sites that are mentioned in the Bible, and he visited Assyrian Christian churches. You will see some of these in the photo galleries.
Even though Victor did tell us quite a bit, he was unwilling to give us an extensive account. He said that he really didn't want to talk about it. I have been told that I should not expect him to be willing to talk about it much. It would seem that the horrors of having to deal with the need to be constantly on one's guard with the possibility of having to kill another human being without warning means that most men don't want to discuss it much, and another veteran told me those of us who stayed here while they went over there need to respect that, including wives of their husbands. But regardless of this, I was able to learn enough to substantiate my suspicions about what we are being told.
Victor has now safely returned stateside, and will be serving as a chaplain's assistant here for the foreseeable future. Chaplain Misarski has been deactivated.
For more information about the situation with Christians in Mosul, please see this link. The article says that violence took place in September, but didn't tell us which year. Victor was in country in September, 2003. I know that he did have some contact with the Assyrian Christians there, and that apparently he personally witnessed no violence, or the aftermath of violence, against Christians. Please read this web site with caution, because I have not verified its reliability.
Recently, I had a chance to meet Chaplain Misarski. I will write about that soon.
More photos coming soon, within days. Please check back. I will be adding captions to them soon.
Links