David James Hartman and 2,947 Pakistanis
The News February 16th, 2010http://www.mosharrafzaidi.com/2010/02/16/david-james-hartman-and-2947-pakistanis/
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=224530
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
by Mosharraf Zaidi
Since 2003 there have been 2,947 Pakistani soldiers that have embraced shahadat fighting the menace of terrorism. I do not know and cannot recall, offhand, the name of a single one of those 2,947 Pakistani heroes. One name that I do know, and will be able to recall for a long time to come is David James Hartman.
David James Hartman was twenty-seven years old. His son Mikey is only a year old. His wife Cherise is pregnant with their second child. The Hartmans first met at Kadena High School at the US Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. David signed up for the US army almost immediately after graduating high school, and served several tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cherise has endured multiple tours of duty and moving cross-country to be in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where David’s team within the US army — the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne), 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) — is based.
David Hartman was one of the three US army service members that died in Lower Dir near the opening of a girls’ school where an explosive device killed three Pakistani girls and one Pakistani soldier on February 3, 2010.
Just what were Sergeant First Class David Hartman and 35-year-old Sergeant First Class Matthew Sluss-Tiller both of the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion doing at the opening of a girls’ school in Dir? And just what was their American comrade, 39-year-old Staff Sergeant Mark Stets of the 8th Psychological Operations Battalion (Airborne), doing there with them?
In the first few minutes after the attack nearly two weeks ago, all kinds of speculation spewed itself across the ether. There were rumours that a group of foreign journalists had been killed in a terrorist attack near Swat. Then more rumours that the foreigners killed were not journalists but belonged to an NGO. Other rumours suggested that the deceased were part of the USAID mission to Pakistan. As media organisations and a range of official spokespersons, from the Pakistani military’s ISPR to the US embassy, kept clutching at straws trying to figure out exactly who had been killed, the rumour machine began to generate speculation about the possible links of the dead soldiers to Blackwater.
Luckily for Blackwater (and for the Pakistanis that lubricate its presence in Pakistan), rumours about the Lower Dir attack’s links to the company died a relatively quick death. On February 5, rather than dealing with the crisis in the desperately inadequate manner in which the Anne Paterson era has handled crises in Pakistan, the Special Operations Command (SOC) of the US military realised the need for damage control. It swiftly released the names and affiliations of the three US army soldiers that were killed. The soldiers’ commander, Col Michael Warmack, spoke very highly of his fallen comrades, and in the SOC press release, said that both soldiers had volunteered to be part of special operations and to be posted in the arena they died in.
While there’s no reason to doubt Col Warmack, Sergeant First Class David James Hartman’s regular status updates on Facebook suggested that life in Pakistan was no breeze for him.
Hartman spoke of leaving his son Mikey in November 2009 back home in North Carolina as, “One of the most difficult moments of my life”. On Christmas Day, Hartman is decidedly melancholy about not being home for Christmas, saying “Christmas is not the same when you can’t spend it with your family. But God is in control. So Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a great day.”
On December 30, Hartman came down with a bad tummy after having downed a Big Mac, Chicken McNuggets and fries from McDonalds. He is emphatic in advising Facebook friends, “I don’t recommend eating McDonalds in a 3rd world country. Never do that.” On January 14, in a conversation with a friend, he complains about the load-shedding, and then when reminded by a friend about Pakistan’s nuclear power, says “Supposedly, the only developed thing about this place”. After a couple of clearly bad weeks, Hartman announces he will “have Pizza Hut” on January 21.
All indications suggest that Hartman was a practising Christian, with a strong and abiding faith. Hartman’s father is Pastor Greg Hartman, and leads the Freedom Worship & Education Centre in California. His mother, Mikail Bacon, who lives in Wisconsin, told local NBC affiliate news team that “she just talked to him a few days ago. He told her he was delivering food to poor people in the area, so she says he died doing what he loved: helping others.”
Why have I dug into Hartman and his family’s Facebook profiles, and scanned the newspapers of the areas in which these families live in the US? I wanted to humanise the lifeless bodies of the three American soldiers killed in my country. David James Hartman’s beautiful young bride and his adorable three-year-old son are scarred with the death of the most important person in their lives. Hartman’s unborn child will never know what it is like to be held by his or her father.
The dangers to which US soldiers are exposed in Pakistan are a product of the same vile hatred that makes Lahore’s markets, Karachi’s streets and Pindi’s mosques a target of terrorists. But the degree of risk to US soldiers’ lives is quite clearly and indisputably exacerbated and accentuated by an ugly — and for warmongers in Washington DC and in Islamabad — an inconvenient truth. When those boots hit the ground in Pakistan, they are stepping in a country whose people simply do not want them there.
The FC and other Pakistani instruments of defence against terror are technically inadequate. But are Civil Affairs and Psy-Ops Special Forces from the American heartland the only instruments available to address those inadequacies? Could the ambient level of training for the FC not be improved by skill injections from Turkish soldiers, or Malaysian trainers? Those kinds of alternatives would be dramatically less combustible.
Of course, Americans will solve America’s problem in Afghanistan, and in part in Pakistan. Ultimately, American democracy, warts and all, will generate an Afghan war equivalent of Cindy Sheehan. Sheehan is the anti-war activist who shot to fame for her famous protest against the Iraq war, after her son was killed in action in that misguided American war. Cherise Hartman may be that Afghan war equivalent — despite the irony of her husband having been killed in Pakistan. But it may also be one of the family members of the nearly 1,000 US soldiers that have died serving their country’s fuzzy and conflicted goals in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama and his administration will eventually have to be accountable for sustaining a war and putting in harm’s way thousands of young Americans needlessly and aimlessly.
The real question for Pakistanis in the meantime is not about what American soldiers are doing in Pakistan. That is an important but secondary question.
The real question is where is Pakistan’s Cindy Sheehan? Since 2003 there have been 2,947 Pakistani soldiers that have embraced shahadat fighting the menace of terrorism. In the less than two months of 2010 alone, 71 young Pakistani heroes have fallen while fighting terror. How many young Pakistani widows like Cherise Hartman are out there? Will Fauji Foundation and Askari Welfare Trust support them all adequately? But most importantly, when will a mature and balanced discussion emerge, about the costs and benefits of perpetual war in an already military-dominated Pakistani culture?
February 16th, 2010 at 7:39 am
A touching elegy to commemorate a killed US soldier D J Hartman in Dir. Irrespective to his ambition in our side, the death of a man whose young widow and a chubby son will be all tears. The death of a man is the death of every one. One recalls Hemingway’s famous novel titled ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. The great American writer terms the death of a Republican and the death of a Fascist of same meaningless gravity. But Mr Mosharraf declares the Iraq expedition as ‘misguided American war’. One wonders if it was ‘misguided’. No, sir, you should have second thought coming. American oil extracting companies are gushing Iraqi oil at less than two dollars a barrels. They are getting cheap oil to control global economy. What are we harnessed for? Only to be bombed either by drones or by suicide bomber with full devote heart to kill as many non-believers (Pakistanis) as possible.
Hamza Arshad
Lahore
February 16th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
In one of his best poems, Ahmed Faraz asks his readers what loss they are mourning for. He questions them about the loss in these words:
Unn noha-garo’n ka jinho’n ne hamein khud qatl kia, khud rotey hain?
Aisey bhi kahi’n dam-saaz huey, aisey jallad bhi hote hain?
Uss Maryam ka jiss ki izzat lut’ti hai bharey bazaro’n mein?
Uss Isa ka jo qatil hai, aur shamil hai gham-kharo’n mein?
Very touching article.
Here is what Charles Ferndale had to say about the victims of the AF-Pak war — which include both whites and non-whites. http://www.thenews.com.pk/editorial_detail.asp?id=224303
February 16th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
[...] This cup of tea was served by: Mosharraf Zaidi [...]
February 17th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Agreed with Hamza Arshad where it says “The death of a man is the death of every one”. Indeed a very touching article and serves an eye-opener. Irrelevant of religious faith someone belongs to, we need to condemn EVERY act of violence in our society. This could happen to our loved ones also. The question of the day is not about the activities of a foreign personal in Pakistan but the trauma his family and friends will go through.
February 20th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
i think what u write has made me feel a bit of shame full but have inculcated in me a hell of anger for you. your’s article was a slap on the face of all the shuhadaa and you think their name not to be even worth remembered. I wish they had not fought and died for us and sorry to say but it goes in general for us and in particular for you.
February 21st, 2010 at 11:22 am
@azam azim khan: if i didn’t think their names were worth remembering, i would not have written the article. i am disappointed that you did not at all comprehend this article. instead, you have entirely missed the point. why would i call these soldiers shaheed, if their memory was not worth honouring?
February 24th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Your point is obvious and elegantly made. However, at the end of the article as a Pakistani, saddened I wondered whether something could have been said to highlight how our soldiers remain nameless in this so called war.
April 1st, 2010 at 8:40 pm
as a personal friend of davids i would like to thank you for humanizing as you said his death. it still seams as though it has not happened and he is still just deployed. thank you for everyones support and know that david did die doing what he loved. he died protecting his family and friends and the great country in which he lived for.
May 29th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
All I can say from the “Boot on the ground” level is that in horrific acts like that many mourn the loss of all. Not the the U.S. Soldiers but those children and Soldiers of PK as well. When an adult human being destroys children while on the path to destroy another adult human being; all of humanity is destoryed.