I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to pick up a few things I needed. Weather has been wet and messy most of the week and I have not been out of the studio much except to make service calls on clients. I parked beside the store and went inside. Out of habit I cast a glance toward the pot belly stove where Mister Johnson could often be found sitting with that old piece of pine he was always carving on. The chair Mister Johnson always used was empty. No one has sat in that chair since Mister Johnson died. Before his death, no one thought anything about using that chair if Mister Johnson was not in, but since his death it had remained unused out of respect for a man we had all loved. Hermann Spencer was standing over with his back to the stove and a cup of coffee in his hand. His son, Dwayne, was sitting on a nail keg. Hurshel Ledbedder was there and a young man in military uniform I did not recognize.

Jake asked me if I wanted some coffee as I walked past. It seems Jake has recently put in a coffee pot for his customers. Jake doesn’t drink much coffee, but his daughter, Chrissy, suggested on her visit Christmas it would be a good idea to have coffee available and Jake decided to try it. I thought about Jake’s offer and decided I’d take a cup. I’m not much for coffee, but the weather cold and damp outside had me thinking something hot might go down real good. Jake poured a cup and dumped in a spoon of sugar at my request. The coffee tasted pretty good. I asked Jake about the military kid and Jake said he was one of Dwayne’s friends in from Iraq on leave because of a family emergency. He was shipping back in a few days.

I thanked Jake for the coffee and wandered over toward the stove. As I walked up, Hermann greeted me and introduced the soldier as Wade Higginbotham. He has been in Iraq for the past year and will be going back for another six months. He stuck out his hand and I said I was pleased to meet him. Hurshel told Wade I am a writer with a weekly commentary in the Corinthian and the military guy grinned and said he supposed that meant anything he said would be used against him. I responded I was not hostile, but I did have a few questions, if he would not mind answering. We generally get two versions of the war from our sources in this country. The press mostly counts up the negatives of the invasion of Iraq and insists invading Iraq was a bad idea based on falsified intelligence. The Bush Administration keeps insisting the invasion is the beginning of a new world order in the Middle East. I thought it would be interesting to have the opinion of a man who has been there.

I asked how the Iraqi people actually feel about the Americans in Iraq. Wade could not speak for every person in Iraq, of course, bit those he had met were happy to have the Americans there to do the hard and dangerous work but, once the job is finished, the Iraqis want the Americans out. Wade feels most of the Iraqi people are lazy. They are willing to work, but they would rather have the Americans do for them what they should do for themselves. When I suggested the conventional wisdom insists Saddam Hussein had such a strong grip on the country there was no chance for the Iraqi people to take him out themselves, Wade said there is no dictator who can hold a country against a people with sufficient determination to get rid of him. If Saddam Hussein remained in power, it was because there was not sufficient will of the Iraqi people to remove him.

My next question was if Wade felt there is a chance for success of the American mission in Iraq or if he feels the case is hopeless and doomed to failure. Wade is certain the Americans will do whatever is necessary to succeed in Iraq, but he believes the Iraqi people are of the sort that they will fall under the heel of the first powerful force to arise after the Americans leave and that they will eventually be right back where they were before the invasion. They will be under the heel of another brutal dictator or “president” and will be waiting for someone to come and take out the new oppressor. Wade also believes the Iraqi forces the Americans are training now will be the troops we will have to fight when we are required to go back into Iraq. Wade thinks the mission in Iraq can succeed eventually, but the success will require a lot of sustained effort over the long haul. When I asked about the recent Iraqi elections, Wade thought the way the elections came off with some seventy percent of the Iraqis turning out to vote was a hopeful sign. We will just have to wait to see the eventual consequences of the voting. One election does not make a successful country.

I asked how the other Americans Wade has talked with feel about the war. Do they believe the invasion of Iraq was a good thing or do they feel the mission is a dead end? Wade has not talked with that many soldiers about their opinions of the war, but the ones he has talked with believe it was the right thing to do. But, now that Saddam Hussein is out of power and in jail, a lot of Americans believe it is time to get out, especially as the casualties keep mounting. Wade understands the feeling, but casualties are the down side of any war. Any intelligent person living in the real world knows people are going to die going in to a war and Wade insists this is war, just a different kind of war.

I took some notes and thanked Wade for answering my questions. It is refreshing to talk with someone who has been there first hand rather than getting the news filtered through a news organization with an antiadministration agenda or an administration flack with a program to push. I picked up some soup and had Jake carve up some of his thick slices of cheese for sandwiches. I picked up a gallon of milk and paid Jake. I told him his coffee was good and went back out into the cold rain and drove home.

END