Lunch with the Col

I was invited to eat lunch on Sunday with the Iraqi Colonel I work with. He is a very gracious man and very generous host. It was absolutely AWESOME.

The food is placed on a metal plate that is about 2 feet across. It is a portion of meat called kabob that takes up the center of the plate. Then around the meat are cooked tomatoes, diced cucumbers, noodles, pickles, peppers and green leafy vegetables. Some trays also have olives, hummus, chick peas, and other vegetables or meats. Then as a side there was what looked like a rotisserie chicken. Flat bread was our utensil and another main staple of the meal.

We each took a piece of flat bread, tore it off and used it to pick up the food, straight off the plate. We really did, literally, break bread together and eat off the same plate. It was great!

Although this is not the first time I have eaten like this, this was the first time I have had a social lunch with the Colonel. Come to find out, he likes John McCain (and so that means all his men like him too...).

He told me he had 5 daughters, and 1 son. He then asked me why I had so few kids (only 3). He is proud of his big family.

The topic quickly turned to politics; why America came to war with his country; why Paul Bremmer dismantled the civil infrastructure; why the candidates in America make the promises they have made (and he named specific ones).

He wanted to talk about the politics of the Kurds and Turkey and how interesting it was that America found themselves in such a pickle up there trying to be culturally sensitive. He thinks we should start acting like Saddam. He said the people of Iraq don't know what to do with freedoms, but NEED a strong hand "of leadership." (you'll never guess which flag was on his desk... yup, had three stars in the middle section).

It was very interesting that he would bring up such subjects that we are constantly told to avoid. We are instructed to not discuss politics, family or religion as we don't want to offend our hosts. I did the best I could not to discuss these topics, but he brought them up and not answering would have probably offended him more at this point. Further, if you don't talk about politics, family or religion, what else do you talk about... the weather... Ohio State football....

Sure, we disagreed on some points, but he was expecting that and the conversation made our relationship stronger. Luckily we were all so intently eating that the conversation was between bites and that made it light and enjoyable.

Semper Fi,
m