Finding myself witnessing this exchange, and using it to practice asking some questions:..
> I agree with you that force was used to open the space which is obviously > not an OST principle (but I don't think that means that the space can't be > 're-opened'). I disagree that it started with lies but that's a political > debate and not one of open space, so I won't go there. As for 'US style > Democracy' being the only choice, who's making the decisions as to how Iraq > will operate in the future?...the Iraqi's. I think their space is open to > let the majority of the Iraqi people decide...that's why the voting turnout > was so good. I believe the U.S. will eventually "let go" of the outcome so > this doesn't just 'close the space' in my eyes. Again, this difference of > opinion can be another political debate and I don't intend to do that in > this forum...but will gladly have a constructive debate one-on-one, if you'd > like. > The question for me always in working with a community is not "is the space open or not?" Space is always open, even a little. The bigger question is "how can we open more space here?" If you have a situation where there is violent conflict, you need more space. Iraq is not a peaceful place at the moment. That tells me that space wants to be cleaved open even further. If it is your feeling that the United States should not leave Iraq for a while, then we might ask "what is the most space we can open here together?" If you think that Iraq should be able to do fine on its own, then, as an American you might ask "where can we let go some more?" But if, in this situation, I really wanted to open space, I might ask "what if we had peace now and what if together we created that? What would we have to do to stop the violence and sustain a peaceful civil society in Iraq? What might our roles be here on the ground to bring peace to life?" Something like that. For sure I would encourage talking rather than fighting. I believe that most people would choose even banal constitutional conferences to killing one another. So if we are still killing one another, what is the space that we can open to be bigger than the killing impulse? > Thanks for your kind words about this soldier. I only wanted to share the > story to those interested in seeing it from an angle that isn't always easy > to get. An even more interesting thing is that this soldier admits that he > had doubts about the war before arriving in Iraq. Here's a blurb from > another message from him: > "When I was first coming over here I had my own inner personal doubts > about the war, but after being over here and seeing, hearing, experiencing > what I have, it's changed. They never tell you on the media about the > nearly 400,000 up-to-date immunizations that children now have, or a > continually improving and > much needed sewage system, or the fact that school books don't portray > Saddam as a God anymore and that girls are now allowed in schools. They > don't tell you that the US Army is paying for any damages to civil areas > we cause AND the ones the insurgents cause. They only show US soldiers > geting > killed and beating up prisoners." > Sounds more open to me than it was when Saddam was in power....it's no > longer a country that has "no choices"... > Judy He's one voice. That's his story. It's great but it's hardly enough to give us a picture of life in Iraq. I find that in North America, we are often guilty of judging an entire complex situation with a sound bite. This type of debate is very common, and supported by our culture of punditry, where the goal is to talk and listen to debate and win a point rather than to incur deeper understanding of one another's positions and interests. And so pundits invoke sound bites like this and draw wild conclusions about a situation based on a small fact. Whether that sound bite comes through TV or through a forwarded email of a soldier, it's just a small small small piece of story. I can't judge the health of civil society in Iraq based on what he said. This report tells me that there are 400,000 immunized children, new sewers, new text books AND much damage to civil areas and death and beaten up prisoners. That sounds complex, messy, full of guesses, rounding errors and assmuptions. I can't possibly read that and draw conclusions about how open Iraqi society is now compared to three years ago. And, I assume, as this soldier showed up in Iraq only after the war started, I'd be surprised if he could make an accurate comparison either. He can share his story though, and that's fine, for what it's worth. I think it's not easy to say whether THIS Iraq has more or less choices than THAT Iraq. Perhaps you have gained the right to vote, but you have lost a constant power supply. Perhaps you have immunized kids but no husband any more. Maybe you no longer live in fear of the secret police, but you are now afraid of being accidentally shot or bombed to death. I don't know. I don't believe one man, even if he is in the middle of this, can really know how Iraqis feel. I would bet that it's not as simple as "it's more open." Given this report and this curious email exchange on the OSLIST how can we practice holding open judgement and suspending conslusions? As Open Space facilitators what is our responsibility with respect to witnessing this situation? It's a complex world and these are complex questions. Chris ------------------------- CHRIS CORRIGAN Consultation - Facilitation Open Space Technology Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist