The other day I stopped at the local Walmart in Germantown, Tennessee to get some garden supplies. I was listening to the radio and Colin Powell, the secretary of state, was speaking at a press conference in Europe.
Just as he was being asked a question about the roles of the US and the UN in postwar Iraq, I noticed a woman strolling into the garden shop at Walmart. She was dressed in black and wearing the hijab and I wondered what she must be thinking. Obviously, her most immediate concern was supplies for her garden somewhere in Germantown.
I was tempted to ask her what she thought about the war in Iraq, but I felt it wouldn’t have been appropriate. Then I remembered a comment from a local area soldier about the war that I had recently read in the newspaper.
The soldier had said that he was from a small town of about 2500 people in the neighboring state of Arkansas. He said that he had been part of the American forces which had crossed into Iraq from Kuwait at the beginning of the war. He went on to say that he had traveled through many Iraqi towns and villages much bigger than his hometown in Arkansas.
But, he stated, to his surprise, he hadn’t seen “one shopping mall or one McDonalds” in any of these Iraqi towns. Is that what this war is all about? I hope not.
Therein lies the gap between the typical mainstream American perception of the war and the political rhetoric of Secretary of State Powell. Most Americans are confused by, but supportive of, the war. When the American invasion began, I happened to be in a shopping mall and I saw the beginning of the war on one of the many demo-TVs in a store in the mall. Many others were also watching and I commented on the war to some of them.
Typical replies were “It’s either us or them,” “We have to do this for our own safety” or “They hate us and our way of life.” Others also said “Look at what Saddam and the Iraqis did to us on 9/11.”
This is all sad but it is also reality. The justification of this war is in. It is “Us against Them.”
We Americans care deeply about our safety and our way of life. We don’t always understand what is happening, but we trust that our leadership will “do the right thing.” What has caused us to get to this point? What is the “truth”? Would our leadership be doing this if it were not good for America?
These and many other questions are on the minds of the American public. Whose “truths” will prevail in our minds? I sat in my car and watched the woman in black as she walked through the screened garden shop, choosing out plants and equipment. What is on her mind? What is she thinking? Does her American opinion count in this battle for the hearts and minds of the American public?
Finally, I got out of my car and walked into the garden shop. I bought my supplies and headed back to my own garden. What would my concerns — and those of the woman in black — be by the time we could harvest our first vegetables and smell the flowers that we had planted? Time alone will tell.
Arab News Features 7 April 2003
