The Amherst Wire

Ask Sol Black the most important issue the United States faces today, he’ll say, “The war in Iraq.” Ask him how the government should handle it and he‘ll say, “Get out, ASAP.”

Black insists the outcome America desires in the Middle East no longer remains obtainable, an alarming assessment given the approximate $340 million Americans spend each day funding the conflict. With obvious frustration he explains the evolution of the American prerogative in Iraq and the challenges of facing an ambiguous enemy.

“First it was weapons of mass destruction, then liberating the Iraqi people, now it’s fighting terrorism…what next, what justification is there at this point?”

“It’s not a winnable war, this is not a uniformed enemy that we’re beating. Terrorism is a transnational phenomenon – it’s not a country, you can’t invade terrorism … by being over there we are urging fundamentalists to migrate [to Iraq].”

Those are the words of a two-tour veteran of the Iraq War.

THE MARINES
“I did not want to go to college. I hated high school with a passion, and I hated teachers and I hated school work.”

Black says he wanted something new, something different from the day-to-day monotony of academia. So in late 2000, after high school, he enlisted in the Marines.

On September 11, 2001 Black was in boot camp. Marines weren’t allowed televisions, radios, or Internet access. He heard rumors of planes crashing into the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. He heard the Towers fell. He didn’t believe it.

Hours later, his superiors confirmed the rumors as fact and offered some advice: “Take your training seriously because there’s a good chance we’re going to go invade a couple countries because of this.”

Black was first deployed as part of a Marine Expeditionary Force in the Mediterranean. He stayed on the Greek island of Crete before spending one and a half months in northern Iraq, where he says the level of violence was “really light.”

“Nothing too serious, for the most part everyone liked to have us there, it was before the insurgency had begun. This was before people realized the magnitude of the damage we had done to the infrastructure there,” he said.

Next it was off to Liberia and then Djibouti. He says it was exciting to travel, an opportunity to experience what he had been searching for, something new and something different. His first tour ended without losing a platoon member or a friend. He spent nine months home in Massachusetts, before returning to Iraq for a second tour.

This time Black was in the Anbar Province in western Iraq. He wanted to return, not because of an overwhelming sense of patriotism, but because of a sense of obligation to his fellow soldiers.

“I knew I wasn’t going over there to democratize Iraq, I’m not stupid. More than anything you go over for the guys you fight with, you go over there because you want to bring all your guys home alive.”

While in Fallujah, Black was part of a combat operation known as Operation Phantom Fury, a mission Black says was “the most intense urban combat and the most liberal rules of engagement since Vietnam.”

During the second tour a platoon member died after an Army vehicle rolled, a close friend was killed by enemy fire, another shot seven times.

Black admits the second tour changed him, changed his perspective on life, and taught him to approach any conflict from both sides. He talks about the average Iraqi view of America, and believes some of their gripes with the U.S. are warranted.

“We are employing American civilians over there, [they’re] getting disgusting contract payments, but we’re not employing the Iraqis.”

The Iraq government estimates unemployment at 20 percent, down from past years but still four times that of the United States, whose economy is lagging. Iraqi civilians often find themselves without electricity for a majority of the day. Life in Iraq, according to Black, is not easy.

He hopes the people of the United States appreciate just how fortunate they are. “After hearing bullets whiz by your head, seeing friends die, and living through roadside bomb attacks, [this] ain’t that bad.”

His advice?

“Enjoy life, enjoy what you have, treasure every breathing moment.”

BACK HOME
Thousands of miles from Iraq, Sol Black sits at a desk in his office. He’s an employee of the Veterans Services Department and a student at UMass. And that kid who hated schoolwork now frequents the campus library to get ahead on assignments.

Ask Black who his candidate is in the upcoming election and he’ll say, “Barack.”

Since Sen. Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton have such similar stances on Iraq, how did he choose? Black sees Obama as a fresh new face in American politics and his possible nomination as a step forward for the nation. Maybe, according to Black, it’s time for America to try something new and something different.