Iraqis

When I took Omar to the Sorbonne today, I heard a man unsuccessfully trying to get a French girl to tell him where to find a good classroom.

"Where can find teacher... lecture... for photo?"

She blinked at him. Omar and I were several steps beyond, and I slowed down the pace.

"Do you think I should intervene?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"You can find some good ones this way," I called out, motioning to him to follow us.

He quickly abandoned the conversation with the Frenchie and called his friend along, "Come Monsieur, c'mon. This way. Thank you! Thank you!" he said.

We led him to a beautiful room with very ornate walls. I learned later that this is where French people go in front of the jury for their doctorate. Great minds have passed through. We just wanted to help these guys take a picture.

"Where are you from?" he asked us, in what was better English than he had been using in the hallway.

"We're American," I answered.

"Oh! American. An interesting country. Our country has 130,000 Americans in it now. Can you guess where we are from?"

...

"IRAQ!" he said, and his friend nodded his head. They weren't kidding.

So we spent the next ten minutes talking about the war, taking pictures of Sammi and Carlosh (no idea if those are spelled right). Carlosh took a picture with Omar at the podium in the center of the amphitheater, shaking her hand and declaring "To the end of the occupation!"

Interestingly, they were both happy that the Americans had come in. In sum, they felt that it was great Saddam was gone, but that Americans had since made some poor decisions. Still, they are glad to see change in their country and are looking forward to the day when full control will be handed over. They asked what Americans think about the war, and without getting into details, Omar wisely responded, "They're worried."

They nodded solemnly in agreement. "Yes, it's very difficult. But Iraqis were glad to see the Americans arrive. They just don't want them to stay."

It was surreal. What were we doing - two Americans and two Iraqis - discussing the war in one of France's greatest intellectual landmarks? I actually felt better about what is going on there, now that I have spoken to them. Granted, the two of them are obviously rather elite: they speak great English and are away in France on holiday. Perhaps the opinion of the "war" would be different elsewhere. But still, it was interesting to get their perspective, and I was glad I had decided to give them a hand. Plus, they were really, really nice guys. They're going to send copies of the pictures via email.