Othello city official returns from Iraq

Six-month stay an arduous adventure for Ehman Sheldon

After six months helping build a democracy in Iraq, Othello city administrator Ehman Sheldon is back home.

"I am glad I went," Sheldon said. "Some of the people's conditions needed to be improved and I hope I helped them." Still, after half a year in the Mideast, Sheldon, who in September, 2003 was recruited by, and traveled as a consultant and instructor with a company outside his job in Othello, said there are certain goals that will not and cannot be reached.

"We are not going to win the hearts and minds of their people like we keep hearing about," he said. "It will never happen."

Despite this grim diagnostic, and amid threats, cabin fever and bad food, Sheldon relishes the opportunity he had to teach the people of Diwanayah, a city of 1.3 million located in south central Iraq, about different aspects of civic life.

These aspects included talking, with the help of a translator, about matters such as democracy, how to conduct an election, and how the electoral process works. All in a country divided into neighborhoods, districts and provinces that was making its first attempt at self-rule in decades.

"We installed 35 neighborhood councils," he recalled. "We created 10 city councils for the districts, and we had democracy trainings, to the point that we taught how to keep records and take minutes."

The work did not stop there, as two members from the districts, two from the neighborhoods, two businessmen, two religious leaders and two women attended the provincial councils. Each of the 18 provinces subsequently sent two people to help in the making of the national interim constitution.

"It was totally open," Sheldon said of the process that required him to travel of more than 30 of those neighborhoods. Sometimes openness led to sticky situations.

"In one neighborhood an argument ensued between literate people and the illiterate people. The literate people were telling me how stupid the illiterates were. It does not take much to get them excited."

The learning process would encounter some hurdles, as well, as when Sheldon dealt with the city's three banks, one of which had $12 million in a vault. When he asked why the money was not being used, the only answer he received was that people were waiting for authorization from Baghdad.

"I would say 'That system is gone! You don't have to wait for Baghdad,'" Sheldon said.

The biggest hurdle for Sheldon was not literacy or a passive attitude, but being a Westerner and teaching Middle Easterners about the inner workings of democracy.

"They would tell me, 'why are you telling us about democracy? Democracy started here, not in the U.S.," Sheldon said. "And I would tell them that it started in Greece." Sheldon was the only American in his staff.

Despite these misunderstandings, Sheldon said he realizes the Iraqi people are a people who had democratic rule prior to Saddam Hussein's regime. "So they know about democracy."

An example of this, he said, was the reaction of mayors of freely-elected neighborhood councils when confronted with district city councilmen, who had been appointed by the U.S. Marines.

"The mayors would say 'we are the only ones elected, so we are the district city councils," Sheldon said. "And in a raw, democratic sense, they were right."

Sheldon said that in that example, Americans were not practicing what they were preaching, supporting the appointed city councils while talking about the relevance of free elections. "There was a lot of dichotomy between how we applied the organizational structure and what we were saying."

A mistrust of Americans developed among part of the populace, Sheldon said. "Some people did not want us at all, while some others wanted us there."

Among the latter group, Sheldon recalls, there were many people who were ready to lend their support to anybody or anything that could make their life better.

"The majority was (saying) 'we will take all the help we can get," Sheldon said.

As strong a feeling as that was, Sheldon said, just as strong was the desire of a great number of Iraqis to take control of their own destiny. "They would not accept a puppet government," he said. "They said 'we make the decisions.'

Among the reasons for such outlook, Sheldon said, is the fact that Mideast nations have a, richer history than the U.S., with deeper, more ingrained beliefs in their system of life.

"We will never drive them to be little Americans," Sheldon said. "We can help them with the democratic process, but if it sticks, it will be because of them."

As far as the chances of such a process sticking in Iraq, Sheldon said they are similar to the chances of "nailing Jell-O to a tree."

He added that he does not see a cost-effective benefit to American presence in Iraq. "Right now, I have to say that it is a mistake for us to stay. Whenever we get out, the result is going to be factions of their culture governing."

Back in his Othello office since April 5, Sheldon looks back at his days in the Mideast with a mixture of relief, gladness and disappointment.

Relief at having the chance to walk the streets freely once again. "It was very confining," he said of his time in Iraq, noting that he spent the past five months inside a compound, eating nothing but honey, chicken, oatmeal and bananas. These conditions took a toll on Sheldon, who does not think he will ever go back to the Mideast. However, some of the people who worked with Sheldon had an even worse time of it.

"One of the guys walked off one day and they found him in another city in his underwear," Sheldon said. "He kind of lost it." On top of that, Sheldon's stay had to be cut a week short, given that his name appeared on a hit list reportedly belonging to close supporters of Shi'ite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Sheldon said he is happy about the process he helped create with the members of his staff. He feels proud of the pioneering characteristics of the first province-wide soccer tournament he helped put together, and the creation of a Diwanayah learning center.

Sheldon said that when he looks at the big picture, he can't help but feel disappointed, partly due to what happened after he left, and partly due to what he thinks will happen after the American forces leave.

"There is nothing left of what we did (in Diwanayah)," he said. "All our offices were taken over by Sadr." Sheldon's prognosis of Iraq's future is no sunnier.

"I predict that when we leave, a civil war of sorts will break out," he said,"and divide the country into the Shi'ites, the Kurds and the Sunnis. The bottom line is, theirs is a culture based primarily in religion. If we leave now, or next year or 10 years from now, they are going to go back to their traditions."