A10 nationalpost.com NATIONAL POST, Wednesday, March 11, 2015 ‘ISIS has called the Yazidi infidels and targeted their people for death and destruction.’ issues &

Chloe Cushman / National post

Ge o f f r e y Cl a r f i e l d American English. This included all of the military acronyms, which are not part of normal English, but essential he Yazidi are an indigenous to American military life. I watched a Iraqi community of just under lot of American films and TV shows. one million people who have “I worked as a translator for the co- T lived in northern Iraq for thou- The Yazidis, alone alition for just under five years, day in sands of years. They are Kurdish- and and day out. I was loyal, trustworthy Arabic-speaking monotheists who and hard working. I put great hope in trace their descent from Adam. Be- A Canadian anthropologist tells the story of a brave the fact that the Kurdish government cause their priests and holy men have and their peshmerga militias were at- never publicly disclosed their secret, young man working to save his people from ISIS tempting to create a place where Ya- sacred texts (just like the Druze sect zidi and Iraq’s Christian minorities of the Mountains of Syria, Lebanon and worked together on a research ignored it. We were dedicated to mak- A moment later, we came under fire can, like them, live in freedom and se- and in Israel — where their religion is project about Iraq. His story is typ- ing things better. We put our faith in from snipers. I have never been so fo- curity. During my time as a translator, respected and where the Druze have ical of the scores of Yazidi men and the coalition forces and in particular, cused in all my life. I observed that the Yazidi were essen- full rights as citizens), neighbouring women who have risked their own in the United States of America. “I watched in awe as my com- tial partners of the coalition forces in Muslims have called them devil wor- and their family’s lives, to act as on- “I started work in February 2005, a rades returned fire, carefully, mind- northern Iraq. I do know that over the shippers and infidels, worthy of death site translators from Arabic and Kurd- day after I passed my test and inter- fully and aggressively. They were in last 10 years, many of our Yazidi trans- by holy war or “jihad.” ish into English and back again, for view. If people think that a translator the moment, in the flow, as I have lators were targeted and killed by rad- The Islamic State of Iraq and al- the coalition forces who, during the sits on the base and interviews local later learned to say from my study ical Islamists in Iraq. It is a tough job Sham (ISIS) have announced that the second Gulf War, did not have the im- people, while surrounded by heavy of the English language. Once in a and not for the faint-hearted. Yazidi are infidels and have targeted mediate, on the ground linguistic and guns and barbed-wire fences, they are while, one of them would laugh. I “When I finally reached America their people and villages for death cross-cultural expertise that is essen- in for a surprise. Most of a translator’s later learned the English expression, and became an American citizen, I and destruction. With their abundant tial for winning hearts and minds in work is carried out on the ground, ‘laughing in the face of death.’ I then realized that I now had the right to and up-to-date American weaponry, war zones like northern Iraq (Kurdi- among the people, in farms, villages, understand what it meant. lobby for the rights of the Yazidi, and recently looted from the Iraqi army, stan). This is because during the last towns and on patrol. It is as danger- “Their good humour and focus all of Iraq’s threatened minorities who ISIS terrorists usually surround a Yaz- 30 years, most North American aca- ous as being an active infantryman. calmed me down as I watched them are now being slaughtered by ISIS. I idi village and then violently threaten demic, anthropological and linguistic In some ways, it is more dangerous, return fire for some hours. As we am now a resident of the U.S., but I the villagers with conversion to Islam experts for these areas have declared for you go on patrol without the same headed back to the camp, I began to feel that my life’s work has just begun. at gunpoint, often beating and hu- that America’s interest in the Middle long-term training that they have re- understand, as a young man in my There is so much suffering there.” miliating elderly men and women at East is “imperialist.” Thus, during and ceived as professional soldiers. twenties, what a local show of military Alex is visiting Iraq. Last week, he forced public meetings, echoing the after the second Gulf war, the Yazidi, “On my first day of work, I was as- force really meant. These were brave sent me a telephone number where I Nazi tactics of occupied Europe dur- and the moderate Kurds and the Ar- signed to join combat soldiers who and patriotic Americans. could contact him. During our phone ing the Second World War. ab Muslims who worked with them, “On one occasion, we were guard- call, we caught up on each other’s If the villagers show hesitation, have provided this essential linguistic ing a section of the Iraqi border with news. He told me, “You know Geoffrey, they then slaughter the men and sell service. Syria. As our patrol approached you were born and raised in North the women in local slave markets. In Alex tells me, “In 2003, during the Many young men and the border area, all of a sudden, we America. America is a seductive place. the process, the women are usually second Gulf War, coalition forces vis- caught sight of a group of five men, The cities gleam, people get on with gang raped, physically abused and ited our village in northern Iraq. Soon women have recently all of whom were carrying AK-47s. My their lives, Americans take freedom for often threatened with death. Only after, my brother volunteered to work officers thought they might be smug- granted, and it is easy to forget where then do some of their captors contact for them as a Kurdish and Arabic joined the Yazidi glers. The officer yelled at them and you come from. I cannot do that. I am their families offering their freedom translator, as they slowly consolidated told them to immediately raise their haunted by the recent slaughter and for outrageous ransom payments. their authority over northern Iraq, self-defence force. hands or we would shoot them. the ongoing enslavement of the Yazidi. Then the cycle is repeated. ISIS has protecting the autonomous regional They have only a few “As they came into view, I im- I will not be quiet until someone de- killed thousands of Yazidis and raped Kurdish government of a federated mediately realized that they were feats ISIS. I will not and cannot forget and enslaved many, many more. They Iraq that was established after the thousand rifles, and rather undisciplined border police my people until they are as free as I, in will not stop until all Yazidi men are first Gulf War. and were on our side. ‘They are not Iraq or America.” dead and their women and children “My brother was the first man from even fewer bullets smugglers,’ I yelled out. Our soldiers Since last summer’s slaughter violated and enslaved. Canada has my village to take on such work. He held their fire. Hours later, I real- and siege of the Yazidi in Sinjar and now officially joined the war against was scared, but he was and is a brave were rooting out armed terrorists in a ized that I had probably saved these on the Nineveh plains by ISIS, these ISIS. ISIS must be defeated, soon. man. For the next two years, I heard nearby town. They provided me with young men’s lives by knowing how to peace-loving people have finally Yazidi refugees who have made it stories from him and other people in a complete military uniform and told spot the difference between ill-disci- taken up arms against their oppres- to our democratic shores are usually the area that he, and a growing num- me that we were going on a walking plined, poorly uniformed troops and sors. Many young men and women traumatized people without wealth ber of Yazidi translators, had won the patrol. This was to protect me from the kind of renegade soldiers who go have recently joined the Yazidi self- and power. At best, they have made trust of the coalition officers in the snipers who, if they saw a local civil- into armed smuggling. defence force. With a few thousand the case for their communities’ pro- north. I decided to join up. ian with the soldiers, would shoot me “My most dangerous mission at Kalashnikovs and even fewer bullets, tection to our political leaders here in “My mom was worried sick for my first, as a kind of message to the local first looked simple. I was working they stand ready to fight ISIS on the Canada and the United States, hoping safety. We knew that hostile local Mus- people. I was told that the terrorists with a team from the coalition forces. front lines of a war that our country that their appalling suffering will per- lims, who told people not to help the had decided to target translators so We were on a joint patrol with mem- has officially joined. haps motivate our governments to do Americans and their allies, regularly they could disrupt coalition com- bers of the newly constituted Iraqi Canada is now sending in its jets something to help, for humanitarian threatened Yazidi translators. By then, munications with local townspeople Army. Together, we were tasked with against ISIS in Iraq. Ordinary Can- reasons. In this light, the Yazidis are I wanted to do something to make the and villagers. finding places for new Iraqi army adians must demand that Prime Min- seen as unfortunate and innocent vic- situation better. I also wanted to try “The soldier in charge was an Amer- bases. As our patrol left a dirt road ister Harper and President Obama do tims of a conflict that is not of their and change false Muslim stereotypes ican sergeant. Out of consideration, he and approached the highway, a bomb something to protect and defend the making. They are treated as victims. about the Yazidi, that we were evil asked me to stay in the middle of the exploded, 20 feet away from me. Yazidi. The new coalition forces must This does them a great disservice. devil worshippers and infidels, un- team when we were walking in the Stones and metal fragments went fly- do everything they can to defend The truth is, North America, Eur- interested in the greater good. city, so that I would blend in with the ing everywhere and the air was filled them on the ground and help them ope and the rest of the free world, who “I presented myself at the appro- other soldiers. When we left our Hum- with dust. One fragment wounded to return to their ancestral homes, are again at war in Iraq with ISIS, owe priate military base, passed my trans- vees, we were immediately ordered me. Had I not been wearing my hel- now occupied by ISIS fighters. At the the Yazidis, for without them and the lator’s test, was interviewed and got to run as fast as we could, towards a met, I may not have survived. My same time, those in the displacement many other Muslim Kurds and Arabs the job. I started work the next day. I stone wall. Once we had reached that commanding officer was quite shak- camps in Iraq need our immediate that have worked with them, the co- knew very well that the Iraqi Islamists landmark, we began to walk. When- en. We pulled back immediately. humanitarian assistance. We must alition of the willing would not have hated the coalition and threatened ever we came to intersections or open “I did a lot of translation for and help the Yazidi in every way possible. won the second Gulf War. They were anyone with death for co-operating areas, we ran to avoid sniper fire. with the Iraqi Army and among Kurd- We owe it to them. They have always essential partners. with them. They would call us ‘spies’ “The sun had come up, it was easy ish and Arab tribal leaders. As I proved been our allies. and ‘traitors.’ Later on during my to see and we had all worked up a myself as a translator in the field, I was National Post Alex is not his real name. But he is a service, my family received a written sweat. Each minute felt like an hour. sometimes asked to stay on base and Yazidi who now lives somewhere in death threat demanding that I quit. I We carefully climbed up onto a stone translate documents. All the while, Geoffrey Clarfield is an the United States, where we first met discussed it with my brothers and we rooftop and suddenly it felt very cold. I worked at better understanding anthropologist at large.