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Also in this section:
Bureaucracy and Death In Postwar
Baghdad
The New York Post
I am the soldier Jonathan Foreman referred to in the piece regarding the Iraqi woman's daughter with the brain tumor and NGOs in Iraq ("The Real Scandal of Iraqi Relief," Opinion, May 11).
While I pull security at the Iraqi railroad, my interpreter and I interact with the local populace. This is one of the ways we get a handle on the population's opinion of us. One day, I was approached by a woman who said her daughter was dying of a brain tumor. The daughter was already blind from it and suffering other complications, but she asked if there was anything else we could do.
Always looking to improve our image or "win the hearts and minds," I told our public health team, and they started to run with the idea. The first stop, they said, was the daily NGO meeting. After being introduced by a lieutenant colonel on the public health team, I stated the facts and pleaded for their help. As Foreman said, the room was heartbreakingly silent.
A week later, the daughter was dead.
Was there something that would have saved her life? Probably not. But if there is one thing that the coalition forces are trying to accomplish here, it is instilling hope.
This daughter received the same treatment from the NGOs that she did with Saddam Hussein - nothing. But the woman saw that the coalition was trying. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I couldn't find an NGO that cared.
Our team sought conventional and unconventional means to try to have the daughter transported out of Baghdad and receive medical care. We thought that we could at least ease her suffering. Before the bureaucracy could even start, her life was over.
I still go to the railroad every day. I still try to help these people every day. So far I have seen NGOs come to the railroad once, to sightsee. -- Sgt. Matthew C. Binko, Baghdad