Another Voice / Congressional campaign
Humanitarian efforts in Iraq needed more security
Updated: 08/12/08 7:45 AM
In the Aug. 5 story about congressional candidate Jon Powers’ work with War Kids Relief in Baghdad, Powers’ efforts in Iraq are incorrectly painted by his opponents as an “undisclosed” failure. If I didn’t know Jon, if I didn’t know the place he served in Iraq and if I didn’t know some of the guys who didn’t come home, I might just shake my head in disgust as Jon’s opponents try to “Swift Boat” him. But knowing him, I refuse to see his humanitarian efforts slandered as “inflation” of his resume.
For Jon and dozens of other Iraq vets of all political persuasions, Iraq is not just an issue, it’s a place where they invested sweat and blood and continue to be engaged despite many obstacles.
I’ve known Jon since 2003, when I filmed his unit in the volatile Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad. The first time I saw Jon he was at an orphanage where his unit brought not only toys and clothing donated by folks at home (including, I believe, Clarence) but also much-needed fuel for generators.
After Jon got out of the Army in 2004, I asked him to travel with me around the country to talk about the war with the press and audiences. Jon quickly found his voice and soon was compelled to work to support veterans and to provide programs for Iraqi orphans and youth.
War Kids Relief was born in the spring of 2005. When Jon went to Baghdad in 2005, getting around as a civilian wasn’t easy and the city was tense. It was impossible to move without your own security detail or a military escort, but Jon managed to secure meetings with key officials and commanders who were keen to see his program succeed.
Which brings us back to the article and the claim that War Kids “fell far short of its goal” and the assertion from a spokesman for rival Democratic candidate Jack Davis that “the bottom line is that Powers ran War Kids Relief off a cliff.”
Who ran what off a cliff? We are six years into a war where even with the recent improvements in security in Baghdad, there are still 2 million refugees, little if any substantial aid is getting to the people and most international groups are sitting on their hands in Amman and Erbil waiting for the green light to come back. Simply, the humanitarian situation ran off a cliff a long time ago.
In my estimation, the major reason federal funds were not secured was because it was impossible for the military to provide security in Iraq for humanitarian efforts after 2006.
The Jon Powers I know today is the same guy I met in Baghdad, who, like thousands of other service members, saw people in need and figured out ways to help them, often in the face of bureaucratic indifference.
In a country where $9 billion in U. S. reconstruction money can’t be accounted for, it doesn’t take much imagination to see what these troops and people like Powers have been up against. For them, Iraq isn’t a place on a map, it’s the place that defined them.
Michael Tucker is a New York-based producer of three Iraq-themed films.
