The Iraq Story

Colonial rule is tough, and U.S. Army Reserve Lt Col Debra Harrison knows all about it. Colonial occupation breeds moral and ethical challenges, like those described in the prose of George Orwell's first novel detailing British colonial practices in Burmese Days. Harrison has a cameo in our very own Orwellian novella, Iraqi Days. Lt Col Debra Harrison, pictured here as a victim of glass shards during her 17-month deployment to the Green Zone in Baghdad, is in the news for something Orwell, and perhaps Tony Soprano, would understand well. She was arrested this month back home in New Jersey, charged with various aspects of bribery, money laundering and fraud.

Life is hard in the Green Zone, so much unaccountable money, so little time. The Iraqis just don't appreciate what we do for them, I say. The Iraqi elections, with all the purple fingers, the "made in the USA" candidates, and heavily promoted polling stations in Washington, D.C. and Tehran, as the riverbendblogger in Baghdad points out, may be a fever that as bad as it is, remains preferable to death. Lt Col Debra Harrison and hundreds, if not thousands, of other Americans appear to be directly involved in illegal, immoral and despicable acts of disrespect, abuse, and corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan. I hope that these examples of debasement are only a symptom an American moral fever, that while horrible, won't permanently destroy our country's soul.