Last night

In six hours, I hop a shuttle to Kuwait City International Airport. I must say, I'm a little ambivalent about leaving. Part of me wants to keep going and see more, with "more" being the life outside the barriers and concertina wire. That's where the most important stories are.

 

Surely, the soldier I met when I left Baghdad on my way to Q-West is a story. Agitated and certainly a future candidate for counseling, he talked about life in Ramadi, where gunfire and mortars come regularly. Imagine the tension. It's one thing to walk into a certain gunfight, but it's another to spend your time waiting, knowing that the fire is going to come but not knowing when or if it will be your turn the next time.

 

And the contractor I also met on my way north is a story. But that's a story for another time and another audience. A contract worker with Kellogg, Brown & Root, he was prohited from talking to the media. Well, American freedom is, after all, only relative.

 

Another story is Reibar, the Kurdish gentleman who runs an Internet/phone "shack" at Q-West. For some strange reason, he pulled me aside and told me that he dreams of making a flag with a golden star as a symbol of Iraqi gratitude and taking it on a goodwill tour to Britain and the United States.

 

But my mind is on the life orbiting the U.S. bases here. Even if they are right who say the basis for this occupation is political/economic, in the end, it is about the people of this country. Whether whatever's going on here works or not, no matter how heated the political debate becomes in Congress or the Iraqi parliament, it is the people of Iraq who will matter the most.

 

And no matter how many generals or politicians or pseudo-intellectuals weigh in on the subject, the truth is in those dusty villages I saw and those children chasing military convoys and tossed candy. And while I sit here at Ali Al Salem -- and the DJ is playing in the tent next door, the ping-pong and pool tables are full, and a basketball game is on the big-screen television -- I can't help but wonder what's happening out there.