Faith Amidst the Battle

In the early stages of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we were accused of failing to make an effort to understand the religious culture of the native populations. Is there a strong effort now to understand the Iraqis and the Afghans religiously?

Some people naturally absorb the culture around them. It's in their nature. Then there's a large group that is not as proactive or outgoing when it comes to learning about other cultures. I speak fluent German, and when I was stationed in Germany I spent a lot of time with German friends. Some Americans did the same. Then there were many who never left the base. It's the same here.

In the United States media, especially in the early part of the Iraq war, there was the meme that we understood nothing about Iraqi culture. "Look at these guys wearing sunglasses!" they would say. "It's very offensive to the Iraqis!" For a long time, the pundits went on and on about sunglasses. Yet when I went to Iraq, everyone there wanted to steal my sunglasses. They wear sunglasses more than Americans do. Wearing sunglasses is about the same for Iraqis as it is for us: in some cases it would be considered rude (in an office, for example), but if you're outside in the bright sun, they don't care anymore than we do.

A lot of people don't seem to understand that the Iraqis and many Afghans actually have met a lot of foreigners. These are not tribesmen in the jungles of Borneo. These are people who have seen a lot of cultures come through their cities, and it's not as though they lack the capacity to understand that other cultures do things differently. As long as you are respectful of their culture, and make an effort to understand them, you get a lot of leeway if you do something that breaks from their norm.

Jalalabad was a major crossroads for the Silk Road. I'm looking at it right now. As I'm talking with you on the phone, I'm looking at what used to be the Silk Road. Across the river, I'm looking at caves that have been around for centuries. They were described by a Chinese traveler 600 years ago (seems like wherever I go, that guy's been there before me!). So, these people have seen a lot of cultures come and go through Jalalabad and Baghdad. The people may be primitive once you get out into the villages, but in the cities they're pretty sophisticated about other cultures.

Support for the war has waxed and waned. Do soldiers now feel supported? Are there ways that churches can do a better job of supporting our men and women in uniform?

The morale is still good right now, but not in the sense that everyone is rah-rah motivated to finish this war. We are already into the ninth year of the war in Afghanistan, if you can believe that, and the conflict is only increasing. So the soldiers are starting to question why they're here. They're not yet moping around with their heads held low; they might get to that point, but they're not there yet.

Any support from back home is helpful. Sending emails and post cards is always helpful. But when people back home send goods and packages, it can actually be a serious pain for the troops to retrieve those goods.

If they are on a major base, it can be easy. But a huge number of troops are at remote outposts or other places where transporting packages places a significant stress on our logistics -- on the helicopters, for instance, that transport the goods out there. If someone sends me a package, for instance, it can take me half a day, or even an entire day, to pick it up. One time I had a package come in; I thought it was camera gear. I spent the better part of the day getting it, and it turned out that it was a box of cigars. I was really thankful that someone had thought to send me cigars, but I don't smoke and it took me the better part of a day to get the package.

The best way to help with packages is to work through organizations that are set up for that, like Soldier's Angels or the faith-based groups that understand how to help without stressing the system.

In movies and television shows, it seems that every character who emerges from the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Do you have a sense of how much PTSD is a problem in-theater?

I'm not a psychologist, but I can say that I see signs of stress in an increasing number of soldiers. You can definitely see it. A 25-year-old soldier may be on his third or fourth or fifth combat tour. I just got an email from a soldier on his sixth combat tour. A lot of these guys have really fought over hill and dale.

Some people seem almost immune to the stress. They keep right on going. Others are not immune. I can't explain it, but I certainly do see signs of stress in many soldiers.

That's also something that people at home should bear in mind when we're deciding as a nation whether to pick up our guns and shoot somebody. It's not like you can simply turn it off. The war will play in these peoples' minds over and over again for the rest of their lives. Much of what happens out there is really intense. So we should always ask whether this is something we truly have to do, or whether we're eager to fight just because we haven't done it in a while.

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