CHAPTER 23
C aptain Donald Crawshaw waited until he saw Colonel Wassenberg drive into the car park at 0555 hours. Crawshaw could set his watch by it and he had quickly learned to be in the office before the Colonel arrived, even if it did mean getting up at 0330 hours. The Colonel had pulled some strings in the Pentagon and somehow managed to have USAMRIID’s normal staff car replaced with a camouflaged four-wheel drive Marine Corps Humvee, complete with machine gun mounts and a massive fuel consumption of less than 4 miles per gallon. ‘In this war on terror, you have to be ready, Crawshaw. You never know when these little Muslim bastards will appear next!’ the Colonel had reminded him.
‘Yessir! USAMRIID Sir!’ Captain Crawshaw had replied. It wasn’t always easy but Crawshaw had learned to think before speaking and, if he did venture a comment, he tried to make sure it was one that the Colonel would agree with. He ducked through the Colonel’s sandbagged doorway to check that he’d turned the coffee percolator on – ‘I take my coffee heavy-duty, boy, black and strong’ – and that the morning papers were neatly folded and laid out in a fan on the right-hand side of the Colonel’s desk; The New York Times on the left, overlaying The Washington Post, overlaying USA Today. Satisfied, he checked his running uniform in the Colonel’s mirror. His white T-shirt was starched as were the creases on his camouflage trousers and his boots gleamed in the half-light of the early morning. Timing his exit Captain Crawshaw jogged out of the main entrance doors as the Colonel switched off the huge V8 diesel.
‘Morning Sir! USAMRIID Sir!’ Crawshaw shouted as he saluted on the run.
‘No pain, no gain, Crawshaw!’ Colonel Wassenberg yelled, feeling back in control for once, towering over the world in his Humvee.
‘Yessir! USAMRIID Sir!’
Colonel Wassenberg strode in through the main entrance and down the corridor that led to his office. He checked that his combat gear was ready on the hooks just inside the sandbagged door and placed his black briefcase with its heavy brass locks on the rack he’d had made for it. He poured coffee into his mug embossed with the Marine Corps seal and then eased himself into his large leather chair behind his sandbagged desk; Colonel Wassenberg always took great care not to disturb the creases in his uniform. He picked up the New York Times; the news from Iraq dominated the front page. October had been the worst month for the US forces since the invasion over three years before, with the bodies of over a hundred young men and women shipped back to the States in body bags, bringing the total close to the 3000 mark. Nearly 300 Coalition soldiers had been maimed and wounded, bringing that total to well over 20,000. Another 1200 Iraqi civilians had been killed at an average of forty a day as the country sank deeper into civil war and the Shia and Sunni death squads took control of Baghdad and the provinces. If only he could get back into a real combat command, he thought wistfully, he would turn this war around. Kick ass and bring in the B-52s and flatten the goddamn place. By the time he’d finished with them there wouldn’t be a Muslim terrorist or a stinking camel train within a hundred miles of the borders.
Colonel Wassenberg had always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his hero, General Patton, and Wassenberg imagined the headlines as he pictured himself as General Walter C. Wassenberg III, a four star general in command of the entire operation. ‘General Wassenberg Declares Victory in Iraq – Mission Accomplished’ would be splashed over the front pages of newspapers around the world. He could see the headlines that would follow, almost on a daily basis. ‘General Wassenberg Establishes Military Government In Iraq – Democracy For Iraqis On Track’, ‘Wassenberg Brings Oil Supplies Back On Line – SUV Sales Surge’, ‘Wassenberg Declares Muslim Threat Over’. He closed his eyes and saw himself in Baghdad, shaking hands with the Reverend Jerry Buffett as American democracy and the true faith of Christianity took hold in the once pagan, but now liberated country of Iraq. In a reversal of the invasion of Constantinople by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror on 29 May 1453, when he converted one of the greatest Christian cathedrals in the world, Hagia Sophia, to a grand Mosque, Wassenberg would have Iraq’s mosques converted into Christian churches. He opened his eyes and, as he often did when he was alone, he raised his chin slightly and looked towards the ceiling, seeing himself at the White House with the cameras of the world’s press flashing incessantly. ‘A Grateful Nation Awards Wassenberg the Congressional Medal of Honor’; it was something he had prayed for often.
Colonel Wassenberg finished devouring the news and turned to the opinion page. A prominent headline caught his attention. The sub-editor had headlined the article ‘The Fear of Difference’ but the opinion piece was signed by Professor Imran Sayed. Wassenberg’s face reddened and he gripped the edge of his desk as he read the article. As the war on terror continues around the globe, a dangerous divide is opening between Islam and the West. We in the West are consumed by a fear of difference. It is a fear that is fuelled by the media’s incessant references to men and women of Middle Eastern appearance and an insistence on describing terrorists as Muslim. Fear in the community is fuelled by prominent Christian leaders in this country and other Western countries who misinterpret the Bible as the only revelation from God, and who themselves fear that Christianity is threatened by Islam. In the United States, the Reverend Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, has described Islam as a ‘very evil and wicked religion’, the Reverend Jerry Vines has described Muhammad as a ‘demon-obsessed paedophile’ and the Reverend Pat Robertson has described Muslims as ‘worse than Nazis’, prompting other influential Christian leaders like the Reverend Jerry Buffett to follow suit. This is causing anger and frustration in much of the Islamic world. One can only imagine the reaction here if an Imam were to interpret Christ’s fondness for women as devious or describe the Christian Saviour as ‘the Womanising Christ’.
Colonel Wassenberg tightened his grip on the desk. Professor Sayed’s even-handed criticism of his own faith of Islam that followed did nothing to restore the blood flow to Wassenberg’s white knuckles. On the other side of the fence, the Islamists continually misinterpret another of God’s revelations, the Qu’ran. Like their Christian counterparts many Imams claim that Islam is the only true religion, denouncing those who are not Muslims as infidels, and they ignore the Prophet’s command in the verses of the Spider Sura, to treat the ‘other people of the book – the Jews and the Christians’ well. Jihad is dangerously misinterpreted by both sides. Both sides fear differences in dress. Here in the United States and in Britain and Australia, two of our staunchest allies in this war on terror, Muslim women are criticised for covering their bodies with the veil and the hijab, the head scarf; but Christians think nothing of wearing a gold cross around their neck and brook no criticism of nuns wearing habits. The Jews would be appalled if anyone suggested banning the yarmulke or the ringlets and broad black hats of their more conservative cousins.
Wassenberg was approaching meltdown. Although the Professor had not disclosed his appointment as a scientist at USAMRIID in the article, there would be many in the Surgeon General’s office who would know him. Not only was this Muslim scientist profoundly wrong in his thinking, for which Wassenberg had already decided he would be disciplined severely, but to have this sort of open criticism of the West by a member of his own staff might put that elusive first star even further out of reach. With his blood pressure rising to a dangerous level, he continued to read Imran Sayed’s final paragraphs. Religion is an accident of birth, and if you were born in Pakistan, as I was, you were taught from a very young age to believe in Muhammad’s ascension into heaven from the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. If you were born in this country and you are a Christian, you are taught to believe in Christ’s ascension a short distance away, from his tomb near Calvary over which the Church of the Holy Sepulchre now stands. Muhammad and Christ, peace be upon them both, had much in common. Both called for justice, equity and compassion. Instead of fearing difference moderates on both sides need to embrace it, and celebrate the diversity of culture we have inherited. Unless the growing influence of Islamic, Christian and Jewish fundamentalists is marginalised, along with their differing but unshakeable beliefs that they alone have the only answer to our salvation, our future as a species is bleak.