Sunday, November 23, 2003

Pizza in Iraq

I finally found it. Just outside the North gate of the green zone, down and across the street, I found a real honest to goodness pizza place. They even have a real brick oven, which is heated by burning a special kind of wood. In the midst of a really rundown area of Baghdad, surrounded by unkempt, dirty buildings, with broken windows and poverty, there it is the “Italiano Pizza Place�.

I had my first taste today of their pizza, not bad at all. It was actually really quite good, of course my tastes have been somewhat altered by months of eating unseasoned tasteless army food, served the same way day after day. I was just telling myself that if I had to eat another bite of that food I was going to throw up (ok, not really, I was just getting tired of the same spice less food).

I need exciting food, which makes my taste buds jump for joy. I want passion in my food, something that makes eating an exhilarating experience. Food needs to be part of a lively life, full of tasty delights that create emotion with every bite. Yes, that is what I want!

Ok, I will take my medication and settle back down into my mundane reality.

I have had some really great Iraqi food that starts to bring all the flavors together in a medley of excitement, but nothing like the variety of tastes that Korean food has to offer. I really miss the exhilarating spices and seasonings of a full Korean dinner extravaganza, with a virtual buffet of flavor that just grabs the taste buds and spins them around.

Give me some good old Kimchi in a bowl of hot rice with sesame seed oil and a little soy sauce, with a fried egg mixed in, now there you have the start of something. Even better yet, take that and mix in some red pepper paste to give it a little kick, yea baby.

One of the true joys of life in America is the broad range of authentic cuisines that are available to us at any given time. Along with America being the melting pot of all cultures, comes each and every cuisine imaginable, which offers us the largest variety off authentic things to eat anywhere on earth.

We have definitely been spoiled by the extent to which we have been exposed to the largest menu of variety on the planet and also been able to freely travel anywhere that might suite our fancy. (I personally have traveled extensively throughout the U.S. tasting a portion of what America has to offer).

This discussion brings up a very interesting topic regarding what is America.

The American Spirit

After being here in the Middle East for the last nine months of my life, I have had many opportunities to contemplate the essence of what America is. I have come to several conclusions, which I might have touched on before, but feel at this time inclined to discuss again.

Let me first begin by stating the obvious, yes we are involved in conflicts all over the globe, in more countries than most care to admit. Yes, we have military bases in more countries than we can count. Yes, we do function as the world police in many cases, being perhaps the only super power capable of interceding in many difficult situations, trying to add stability to a world order, that otherwise might be on the verge of collapse. Yes, we do at times have our own agenda mixed in with the more politically correct motives behind our ever-broadening involvement. We candidly admit to all of this, unequivocally.

But, America stands for so much more than just a nation of free people. America is a frame of mind, a spirit, even a consciousness that involves the freedom of all mankind, all created equally, all the children of a loving Father in Heaven. As such we all have the inalienable right to pursue individual happiness, as free souls, free to think, believe and worship even that same God anyway we want. We are free to speak, to live and to act with that freedom without limitations as long as it does not infringe upon the rights of others.

As free individuals we understand the relationship between freedom and the law, knowing full well that one cannot exist without the other.

We believe in this the American spirit and desire that all mankind have the same opportunity to choose for themselves these same freedoms. We firmly believe in fairness, in equality, and in the rights of free agency. We firmly desire all humans to be happy, sharing in the bounty of a peaceful coexistence, in a world that all benefit from a stable, harmonious, world economy.

As many of you have shown through your kindness and many of more have proven it by making the ultimate sacrifice of their life, we sincerely desire all men to be happy and free from any form of bondage. We are willing to go to the extremes to make this possible, not in every case, but in many.

We are not perfect in this endeavor, nor do we pursue every situation with the same zeal or commitment but we do have the desire to do so. We do at least make an effort and we do care sincerely about the people we are interacting with in the pursuit of this goal. We do make every effort wherever possible to respect the rights of the people we are engaging.

One need but look around over here to see the plethora of examples of caring Americans at work, going the extra mile to bring a small piece of the American spirit to these deprived individuals. We do care in so many ways, beyond the normal call of our duty. There is no shortage of caring people willing to do whatever it takes to insure that others feel the essence of the American spirit.

People leave their homelands, under all types of conditions, making enormous sacrifices to capture the American dream, to be free, to pursue happiness anyway they chose. The world does have a promised land for all to share, one place where men and women of all races can live as equals, sharing the very spirit that we now wish to give to all that desire it.

Others might chose to prevent this from happing, desiring to maintain a hold on their position, putting them in control of another human being. Evildoers would chose to control others in order to personally gain from a relationship of servant and master, of bondage, preventing freedom in any form.

Freedom is the desire of all humans and that desire will insure our success.

Thanks for listening.