226 AMERICAN SPYChristians, based solely on merit. Neither management nor employees ever
discuss politics, religion, or ethnicity. It ceases to be an issue. Our employees
work together beautifully (for the most part) for the sake of the company
and the customers. Issues and conflicts between employees certainly arise
but not because of religion or ethnicity. All of our employees bring some-
thing special to the table, and they work together as a team. We consider
ourselves a family. The younger Iraqi employees especially seem to thrive
in this “new” American-style environment. This phenomenon gives me
hope that over time, life will improve for the average Iraqi.
Outside our corporate environment, the employees continue to face
risks and unfair treatment at the hands of other, less-enlightened Iraqis.
For example, after our Arab employees from Baghdad completed a huge
project on behalf of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil,
the KRG expelled them from the Kurdistan region under threat of arrest.
Why? Because they were Arabs and not Kurds. We would have happily
hired Kurds to work on the project, but at that moment in history they
did not have the training or skills needed to do the job. Our Iraqi Arab
employees were dedicated and did a beautiful job on behalf of our xeno-
phobic Kurdish customer, but in the end, they were treated badly by those
they had faithfully served because of ethnicity and paranoia.
After we trained the Kurds and taught the KRG how to do what we
do, they also gave our company the boot, breaching a huge contract and
nearly destroying our business in the process. For years after the costly 2003
invasion, which gave the Kurds considerable freedom and autonomy, the
KRG also cheated many other foreign companies that invested in osten-
sibly more advanced Kurdistan. The KRG has its hands in every business
in Kurdistan. The most succinct way to describe KRG leadership in Erbil
is, “Like The Sopranos, but with bad food.”
The ethnic and religious differences of our employees impacted them
outside the office in humorous and deadly ways, sometimes simultaneously.
Our Shi’ite employees faced increased risks in Sunni sections of Iraq, and
vice versa. Baghdad itself is broken down into a multitude of Sunni and
Shi’ite areas. It is almost as difficult to be in a mixed marriage in Iraq
today as it was in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. These realities and the
never-ending insurgency did not prevent our dedicated and courageous
employees from venturing out to all parts of Iraq in order to take care