Chris,
Thanks for all of your insights and great discussions!! Good food for
thought. I, too, agree that this soldier's note is a very small piece of
the whole puzzle.......BUT......I, personally, still conclude (not based
solely on his email but on many other learned factors) that Iraq is a more
"open" society than it was. Do I think it's a great, safe place to live?
Definitely not but at least their society, as a whole, is headed in a better
direction. As HO says, the Iraqi's now have an opportunity to take the
future into their own hands. It is a "fact" that they did not have that
opportunity a few years ago.
Judy
I don't have any great answers for the questions you have at the end of your
message...that's what I'm learning from all of you.
Thanks again for your intriguing words.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Corrigan" <chris.corri...@gmail.com>
To: <osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 1:36 AM
Subject: Re: Word from a US soldier
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
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