Another kind of truth
He went by the name of JJ.
"I've got a very common Iraqi name," he told me, "but I still don't want to take the chance that someone will find out who I am and come after my family."
He was almost apologetic about the job he was doing in Iraq, interpreting for a U.S. Army combat unit. He struggled with the idea that he might be betraying his own people. And though the soldiers he served believed his work was invaluable, he degraded the worth of his services.
"You shouldn't believe what interpreters tell you," he said.
Because they won't translate exactly?
"No no. I'll tell you what people say. But they won't say what they mean. In Iraq, we often say what we believe people want to hear. It's another kind of truth."
I thought about JJ and his different kind of truth this morning as I read an Associated Press article about a recent poll that concluded that about 6-in-10 Iraqis approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces. Slightly more want the U.S. out of their war-torn nation within a year.
Polling in Iraq is a difficult and dangerous business. You just can't walk around Baghdad with a clipboard and a lab coat. So pollsters hire locals -- mainly college students -- to do their field work.
Did the Iraqis being polled -- fearful of repercussions for giving the wrong answer, eager to provide the answer fellow Iraqis want to hear -- give different answers to their fellow countrymen than they would to an American pollster? Undoubtedly.
But does that make the results of the survey less true? That's harder to say.
At very least, the results shouldn't be derided and set aside -- as they undoubtedly will be by this nation's stay-the-coursers. Nor should they be taken as gospel -- as they will by the get-the-heck-outers.
Responding to the survey results, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said such numbers are contrary to what he has learned about Iraq.
"What I hear from government representatives and other anecdotal evidence that you hear from Iraqis that is collected by embassy personnel and military personnel is that Iraqis do appreciate our
presence there," he told the AP. "They do understand the reasons for it, they do understand that we don't want to or we don't intend to be there indefinitely."
I wonder, when I hear such statements, whether men like McCormack realize that in Iraq there are many kinds of truth.
"I've got a very common Iraqi name," he told me, "but I still don't want to take the chance that someone will find out who I am and come after my family."
He was almost apologetic about the job he was doing in Iraq, interpreting for a U.S. Army combat unit. He struggled with the idea that he might be betraying his own people. And though the soldiers he served believed his work was invaluable, he degraded the worth of his services.
"You shouldn't believe what interpreters tell you," he said.
Because they won't translate exactly?
"No no. I'll tell you what people say. But they won't say what they mean. In Iraq, we often say what we believe people want to hear. It's another kind of truth."
I thought about JJ and his different kind of truth this morning as I read an Associated Press article about a recent poll that concluded that about 6-in-10 Iraqis approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces. Slightly more want the U.S. out of their war-torn nation within a year.
Polling in Iraq is a difficult and dangerous business. You just can't walk around Baghdad with a clipboard and a lab coat. So pollsters hire locals -- mainly college students -- to do their field work.
Did the Iraqis being polled -- fearful of repercussions for giving the wrong answer, eager to provide the answer fellow Iraqis want to hear -- give different answers to their fellow countrymen than they would to an American pollster? Undoubtedly.
But does that make the results of the survey less true? That's harder to say.
At very least, the results shouldn't be derided and set aside -- as they undoubtedly will be by this nation's stay-the-coursers. Nor should they be taken as gospel -- as they will by the get-the-heck-outers.
Responding to the survey results, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said such numbers are contrary to what he has learned about Iraq.
"What I hear from government representatives and other anecdotal evidence that you hear from Iraqis that is collected by embassy personnel and military personnel is that Iraqis do appreciate our
presence there," he told the AP. "They do understand the reasons for it, they do understand that we don't want to or we don't intend to be there indefinitely."
I wonder, when I hear such statements, whether men like McCormack realize that in Iraq there are many kinds of truth.
10:45 AM
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