In my February 18 column, The Soul of Iraq, I discussed the work of journalist Steven Vincent. His book, In the Red Zone, has been lauded as "the best English language understanding of Iraq available." Vincent described Iraq as a "land of humiliated pride, grandiose fantasies, and conspiracy theories." He wrote of "the debilitating effect of the Arab's centuries-long slumber in the bejeweled cavern of tribal Islam...." He reported on anti-American attitudes in Iraq, and on pro-American attitudes. He described the brutality of Iraq's political and religious criminals. According to Vincent, "No one - neither supporter nor critic of U.S. policy - can understand the full dimensions of this conflict without peering into the moral abyss that is Saddam." He further explained, "Just as no one who does not comprehend the trauma inflicted by that man upon an entire nation can grasp the relief, joy, and gratitude that many Iraqis ... express toward coalition armies." Typical of his human approach, Vincent was moved to tears when an Iraq woman told him, "I consider every American and British soldier who died freeing us from Saddam [as] a martyr in heaven."
Vincent was a writer on the front lines, courageously (some would say foolishly) mingling with Iraqis, struggling to befriend them, trying to understand and relay a sense of that country to American readers. Vincent was special. His work was special, and anyone in America who forms an opinion about Iraq without reading Vincent's book has done the issue a disservice. There are few books worth admiring on any subject because few books are written with that combination of intelligence, sensitivity, humanity and truthfulness that Vincent possessed to a rare degree. I was affected by his book, and grateful for insights that were acquired at great personal risk. This aspect of Vincent's work was no exaggeration. Iraq is a dangerous place to hunt for the truth. Almost three months ago, while working on a second book, Vincent was snatched off a Basra street along with his translator. He was shot in the head and torso. His body was left beside a highway. It was probably the work of corrupt Iraqi policemen in the pay of religious extremists: people who objected to Vincent's writings and the presence, at his side, of a beautiful Iraqi translator who once told a British counterintelligence officer that the policy of Iraq's liberators effectively abandoned the country to violent extremists. "We have no laws, no courts," she pleaded, "judges are afraid to rule against criminals or the religious parties. You are leaving us to the ignorant men!" The translator, whose name is Nour Weidi, was "seriously wounded" during the abduction.
There is a further story behind this tragedy, as reported by Lincoln Anderson, whose attention-grabbing headline reads as follows: "Writer planned to convert to Islam, marry interpreter." Nour Weidi was a university educated Muslim women who wanted to write poetry. In fact, her murdered fiancé had been "a famous Iraqi poet." Nour told Vincent, "I will never love another man again." In his book, Vincent explained, "Short of destroying my marriage, I thought, I would do anything to help this woman." In response to a professor who alleged a romantic affair between Vincent and Nour, Lisa Ramaci-Vincent (Vincent's wife) wrote of her husband's motives. "Steven and Nour were not 'romantically involved,'" she explained, "This is not to say that Steven did not love Nour - he did. And he was quite upfront about it to me. But it was not sexual love - he loved her for her courage, her bravery, her indomitable spirit in the face of the Muslim thugs who have oppressed their women for years." According to Vincent's wife, "he was planning to convert to Islam and marry Nour, but only to take her out of the country to England." Nour's position in Iraqi society had become precarious. Her life "was essentially going to be worthless" after Vincent returned to the United States. Lisa Ramaci-Vincent suggested a plan to her husband: "I told him to get her [Nour] out of the country and bring her here to New York. However, the only way she could have left Iraq was with a family member or husband. Since her family had no intention of going anywhere, Steven was her only recourse, and it would have been perfectly legal for him to convert, marry her, then take her out of Iraq to give her a chance at a real life."
On Aug. 4, two days after Vincent's death, his wife received a bouquet of flowers. As Lisa sadly explained, "the card said he was sorry to miss my birthday, but the flowers would stand in his stead until he made it home. They are drying now in the kitchen, the final gift from my soulmate." Vincent planned to return to his wife. He was, as she said, "on the front lines, risking all, in an attempt to call attention to the growing storm threatening to overwhelm a fragile and fledgling experiment in democracy, trying to get the world to see that all was not right in Iraq."
And yes, things are not going according to plan. The liberators of Iraq have been timid, politically correct, and afraid to offend the religious sensibilities of the Shiites. As a result of this weakness, religious gangsterism has already subverted Iraq's emerging democratic structures. The battle for the soul of Iraq is messy business. As Vincent noted in his book, the Iraqis are not a tribe of "latent Jeffersonians, yearning for freedom and democracy." The people of Iraq are partly confused, partly despairing, and not to be regarded as an extension of ourselves. "Much depends on the willingness of the American people to 'stay the course,'" wrote Vincent. "And this, in turn, depends in large part on our recognition and appreciation of those we fight and what they stand for." The Iraqi insurgents, he insisted, are not freedom fighters. "They represent something evil unleashed on the world. If we allow them to regain power in Iraq, they will drag that nation and whatever countries they next control into the darkness of killing fields, mass graves, public executions, and other forms of spirit-breaking tyranny the likes of which Americans have little conception."
In a seemingly endless process, President Bush gropes his way forward. The sure path remains to be seen. In the October 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs, Daniel Yankelovich analyzed "what Americans really think" about Bush's Iraq policy. The country, he says, is sharply divided. In his judgment, President Bush has only a year to turn the Iraq situation around before American public opinion reaches "a tipping point." According to Yankelovich, "the public's impatience is mounting...."
After journeying into the soul of Iraq, Steven Vincent admitted that his hopes for Iraqi democracy had been "eroded" by direct contact with "the malignant influence of 'tribal Islam.'" Sadly, that malignant influence proved fatal to Vincent's life - as it has to thousands of American servicemen, and to the victims of 9/11. In closing, I would like to quote from a president's letter: "The purport of it is that ... the administration is failing, because the war is unsuccessful; and that I must not flatter myself that I am not justly to blame for it. I certainly know that if the war fails, the administration fails, and that I will be blamed for it, whether I deserve it or not. And I ought to be blamed, if I could do better." The author of this note was Abraham Lincoln. After more than two years of desperate fighting and countless deaths, Lincoln's administration prevailed. "George Bush is not Lincoln," wrote Steven Vincent. "But if the U.S. remains in Iraq ... we may yet see victory pulled back from the brink of apparent disaster."
Thank you, Steven, for your courage and your words.
