Marine Major Beau Higgins discusses cultural differences in Please Help Us Help You — If Allah Is Willing:
Most Americans share an optimistic outlook and believe that, like us, everyone is planning for the future. In Iraq, it became obvious that we were naive about what common people had been going through in recent decades. This cultural divide led to many problems that still affect operations in Iraq.Those differences can be very frustrating for the U.S. military. We went into Iraq believing that we really could fix the problems. I spoke with many Marines eager to help the Iraqis achieve a new future. But it appeared that the Iraqis didn’t seem to care as much about Iraq as we did.
We had problems getting Iraqis to show up on time for work. We would provide Iraqi leaders with upfront payments for projects, but the work would not get done. We had Iraqis complaining about myriad problems, but few seemed interested in fixing them.
I remember thinking how easy this all should be. We don’t really want to be here. You don’t want us here. If you stop shooting at us, we’ll be happy to leave shortly. The line from the movie “Jerry Maguire” — “Help me help you” — became a daily lament for many of us. I think we all believed that we could fix everything in Iraq in six months to a year.
These issues are intimately tied to Iraqi cultural issues that the coalition often failed to understand.
Take timeliness, a sticking point for Americans. Most Iraqis have a sense of religious fatalism best summed up by the word inshallah, which means “God willing.” For example, when we asked about details involving a job, we typically heard, “Yes, I will have 40 men there tomorrow at 0800 to begin the work, inshallah.”
Unfortunately, we found out the hard way that God wasn’t always willing.