Culture expert paves way to Baghdad

By DENNIS ANDERSON
Valley Press Editor

CAMP ROBERTS — With the winds of war calming, but the entire Middle East a still dangerous cauldron of emotion and bullets, California National Guard troops preparing to head for Iraq listened earnestly to a briefing about how to conduct themselves in the Arab world.

Who better to teach them than a Kuwaiti-born regional expert? In this case, the expert was 1st Lt. Hatem Abdine, born of Syrian parents in Kuwait City.

About 300 National Guard troops, many of them from the Antelope Valley, listened and posed questions to the unquestioned expert, the man who is the second in command of their unit, the 1498th Transportation Company.

"You troops are gonna get a country briefing, and that doesn't mean fiddle-and-banjo kind of country," advised 1st Sgt. James Norris, the Tennessee-reared trucker who is the top-kick sergeant of the "BAT-C," the "Big Awesome Truck Company."

Abdine gathered the troops in the gymnasium at Camp Roberts, the National Guard training center in Central California that straddles the line dividing San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties.

Comfort, in gym clothes, was the order of the day, but the subject was serious, not easygoing. The subject was how to stay alive in the Middle East and how to avoid triggering a kill-or-be-killed international incident now that the United States is the temporary military master of an Arab country.

First, from Abdine, a quiz. The principal language of Iran? Persian, or Farsi. The year that Israel was formed? It was 1948. The location of the ancient city of Troy? Turkey.

Many of the troops gathered from across the state knew many of the answers. Abdine, their executive company officer, smiled.

"You did a lot better than one of the other lieutenants I gave this quiz to," he said.

Seated behind Abdine, Spc. Katie Avendano took down a list of questions from the troops about the Middle East.

"How do you avoid insulting people?"

"What are the tribal and cultural differences between groups?"

"How are women treated?" and "Why are they so dominated by men?"

"What is the food like?"

"Why has the area been in such an uproar for thousands of years?"

Lt. Abdine gave answers in many ways by explaining the circumstances of the birth of civilization in the Middle East, and of explaining the circumstances of his own life.

Before the religion of Islam, Mecca was the "House of Abraham," and Hagar was the mother of the child Ishmael. As the Bible related, "great things" also would become the legacy of the son of Abraham.

Mohammed, the Prophet, brought his people back to the worship of one god, "whose name is Allah," Abdine told his captivated audience.

Then, he told his story.

"For those of you who don't know me, I was born in 1968 in the newly built state-of-the-art birthing center in Kuwait City," the lieutenant said.

Kuwait, a country the size of Rhode Island, was settled by nomads who turned to fishing when drought swept all life out of the desert they wandered. To be a Kuwaiti citizen, one must be of native birth of a tribal affiliation native to that country.

"For everybody in the Middle East, your last name is the name of your clan," the lieutenant explained. "Your clan and your name stay with you. They don't change."

So, even though Abdine was born in Kuwait, because his parents were Syrian, he would not be among the participating citizens of that small nation bordering Iraq. Kuwait's boundaries were set by the British imperial army some time after World War I.

"I have no tribal connection in Kuwait. All my life in Kuwait, I lived as a foreigner," he recalled. "Every four years I had to renew my visa."

Of 1.5 million people in Kuwait, only 600,000 are Kuwaiti citizens. Of them, only 150,000 enjoy the first rank of citizenship, a ruling class. Of them, half are women and cannot vote, so about 75,000 men run the affairs of the small oil-rich nation on the Arabian Sea — known to Westerners as the Persian Gulf.

Abdine journeyed to America at age 21 to study business. That was in 1989, and not long after, Saddam Hussein's armies swept out of Iraq to plunder and pillage Kuwait.

"I never thought Kuwait would be liberated," Abdine recalled. "I was shocked and astounded when it happened."

America became the country to which Abdine, a Muslim, believed he owed his loyalty. Studying business to become a banking manager, he also enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private first class.

"I wanted to earn my citizenship, and I wanted to immerse myself in the American culture, and I believed the best channel to learn about America was in the Army. And if I was to do more for my new country, if I was going to stay in the Army, to do more, I had to become an officer."

So, the troops of 1498th Transport, a statewide unit of the California National Guard, are led by an officer whose country of birth was invaded by Saddam Hussein and who believes deeply in the tolerance and freedom that America offers.

"You see, these Osama bin Laden terrorists are zealots," he said. "They are fanatics who are doing what fanatics do with religion. They use it to impose their will on others to gain power."

Within Islam there are splits, as between the sects of Sunni and Shia Muslims. Abdine likens those to the difference that set Catholics and Protestants at war with one another across Europe.

As for clans, are not the Kennedy and Bush families something like clans unto themselves? the lieutenant wondered aloud.

What the British and French left as governing systems in the Middle East after World War I has been highly problematic, Abdine noted. If the British installed monarchies, there are entire classes of Middle Easterners who take issue with those ruling families. If the French installed republics, of the kind that govern Syria and, until recently, Iraq, the republics were weak so that they fell prey to power-hungry tyrants.

"It's not really stable," he said. "There has been one dictator after another."

As for Israel, it came into existence because, he noted, "the Jews became tired of persecution and being killed."

Moderate Middle Easterners of Arab descent may not hate those of Jewish faith, but oppose what they see as "Zionism," an Israel that uses its military power to expand its borders.

Some troops in the audience took issue with these accounts of the view from the Arab perspective.

"Why do people from Islam persecute Christians?" asked Sgt. Jeffrey Barkey of Riverside. "I came from Indonesia, and there, the Muslims persecuted Christians just for being Christians."

Abdine nodded his understanding, and said that zealotry has been the downfall of good government and peaceable nations for a long time.

Then, Sgt. 1st Class Martin Arreguy, top noncommissioned officer for second platoon, stood up and headed off questions posed by a number of soldiers who wanted to debate the divisions between Muslims and Christians.

"Wait a minute," Arreguy said. "This isn't a debate. This man is here to give you an explanation of how things are. He's not here to debate or argue with you. So, just hear him out. Listen, and learn. It could help save your life when you get over to "The Box.''" The questions about religious divisions abated.

"Even though I am Muslim," Abdine said, "I believe in live and let live."

With that, he gave the group a quick take on practices and gestures to avoid. Like, "Don't show anyone the bottom of your shoe."

People don't just go up and introduce themselves. Yes, friendships can be formed. But if you don't know someone, the appropriate practice is "to keep walking and pretend there is a wall." Eye contact for the casual stranger is not appropriate.

"It's not appropriate to smile and say, "Hello. How are you?''"

On the other hand, friendships will form, and they tend to be warm, with the intimacy of pressing the flesh and talking "close," a kind of friendly "in your face" dialogue.

"They will shake your hand, speak up close, and say "How are you?" And then, they will keep shaking your hand and ask, "How is your family? How is your mother?" Then, again, they will shake your hand and ask, "How are you really?" It's a 5-minute event."

Abdine smiled wistfully. "Just go with it. Get used to it. Deal with it. Remind yourself not to back away. That is an insult."

The treatment of women as second-class citizens will not change soon because of its entrenchment as custom over thousands of years. The customs vary, however, in more progressive countries. Ironically, Iraq, emerging from a facist-style tyranny, allows more equality of pay, status, dress and treatment for women.

"Don't stare," Abdine advised. "It's a hostile gesture."

To raise one's hand in greeting is OK. To take one's shoe off, "that is a hostile gesture."

Thus all the shoes piling up on the statuary heads of Saddam.

And when a foreigner is offered water, with coffee, do not, repeat, not wash the coffee down with water.

"That is an insult," he said. "It means "Your coffee sucks!" In the desert, everyone is thirsty, so you will be offered water. You drink the water first, then you drink the coffee."

Other good advice: Don't cuss to the locals, or believe they don't understand what you are saying.

"They have seen all your Hollywood movies. They know your culture pretty well, and if there is one word in your culture they do know, it's the "F" word."

So, will it be friendship or fighting? Inquiring minds want to know.

"Remember, as an American citizen, no one has an issue with you," Abdine said. "As an American soldier, you are seen as a representative of a government that is invading their country, so you have to be careful."

There was some discussion of music and of the role of laughter in melding friendship. Then, for the lieutenant who journeyed from the country of his birth, to the country he gave his soldier's oath of loyalty, there was applause.

© 2009 Antelope Valley Press, Palmdale, California (661) 273-2700