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The Good German

Mocking Germans is like shooting sausage in a butcher’s shop.  As dear old Auntie Helen used to say, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

So let’s praise one German who stepped up.  Der Spiegel with a fascinating portrait. If only there were more like him. Say, 82 million.  

Berlin-born Jeffrey Jamaleldine wanted to do something about terrorism in the world and so he joined the US Army to fight in Iraq. Now he’s back in Bavaria, his face nearly destroyed by a bullet — but he’s still convinced that it is his calling to fight for peace.

Long before Jeffrey Jamaleldine was hit in the face by a bullet during a nighttime ambush just outside the central Iraqi city of Ramadi, he was just another German kid, roaming through West Berlin and dreaming of becoming a professional soccer player.

He played on plenty of local teams, and he often won games for his side. He usually played in goal, but he was also good at scoring goals and passing balls. He had the eye, and he had the strength and discipline. Given his talents, life could have gone in a completely different direction for Jamaleldine.

…

When he talks, it is clear he is a native Berliner. He was born and raised in the city’s Spandau neighborhood, went to elementary school in the Birkenhain neighborhood and later graduated from the Martin Buber High School. He looks like his German mother, Dagmar, but bears little resemblance to his father Bashir, who is originally from Gambia.

Jamaleldine doesn’t even crack a smile when he talks about how, in 1991, he joined in anti-American protests on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm boulevard during Operation Desert Storm. “That was the way it was back then,” he says. He was 15 and “America was simply the enemy.”

It took a full 14 years before Jamaleldine finally — and radically — changed his views on the Americans. It was on June 6, 2005, in the middle of the Iraq war, when he showed up at the US Army recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas, to enlist. His father Bashir told him at the time: “Son, this won’t be a picnic.”

The whole thing.

A few weak points. The Spiegel article can’t help but get in a gratitous racism knock on American soldiers.

He was not one of those soldiers who make disparaging remarks about the Iraqis and call them “sand niggers.” Instead, he felt in Ramadi that he was there to help the country and its people. 

Number of Americans killed to help Iraq and its people? Pushing 4,000. Number of German KIAs? Unknown. Thanks, Spiegel. Oddly, the article limits itself to a mild euphemism for what some white Germans would call Jamaleldine, his father and his mother, and talks about his upbringing more in terms of multi-culturalism, with only passing reference to the alienation. It’s all about global citizenship. 

The ending could be interpreted to suggest there is something wrong with his choices, but maybe is just about ironies of life and the combat veteran’s war and peace struggle.

Jamaleldine, on sick leave until further notice, is interested in going to Afghanistan as a sniper. But perhaps he will keep his promise after all and apply for a desk job. He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know what the right thing to do is. He says, almost in passing: “Damn it, I actually wanted to be a soccer player.” But this Jeff, the young boy who once lived in Spandau, no longer exists, and he knows it.

The war is always there between him and that other life. It often takes the form of an argument: with his father, his wife, his friends. At other times, it manifests itself as silence, as he sits there, his jaw wired shut, in silent disagreement with Zuhaira.

He has built a house in Opferbaum, not far from the village square, just around the corner from the war memorial. They’ll be moving in soon, Zuhaira, Jeff and their children. Perhaps he’ll find calm there. Perhaps he’ll find his way back to a more peaceful life.

Peace doesn’t sound like what Jamaleldine wants, per se. He wants to kill Islamic terrorists. So we can have peace. But OK.

The article also refers to “Scout Platoon, 19-Delta, part of the First Battalion of the 77th Tank Division,” references obviously a little screwed up in translation or in the reporter’s understanding. It later correctly refers to the 77th Regt. Here’s Global Security on the “Steel Tigers,” 1/77 Armor, 1st ID. Cav scout attached to an armor battalion in an infantry division works. The article includes a lot of names, detail and a highly identifiable incident, and is in the main not an America-bashing piece, written by a reputable reporter with extensive Iraq experience. 

Blackfive goes back with Jamaleldine.

The above weaknesses notwithstanding, you’ll remember Ullrich Fittner from his prior good work re Iraq.  You may also remember Donkey Island.

Not-so-subtle historic ironies abound in the photo above, by the way. German-born, half (British) African, naturalized American citizen whose name and wife’s name suggest strong Muslim heritage, in a Cav Stetson, WIA in Iraq, eager to kill more Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan. Note coalbucket-topped Wehrmacht soldat on the pedestal at stage left. I don’t believe that statue memorializes anyone who died fighting for “Afro-Spandauer” Jamaleldine’s freedom. Not that there is anything wrong with any nation memorializing its war dead. Perhaps the photog simply wanted a vaguely military background for this portrait. Maybe Jamaleldine himself feels an affinity with forgotten soldiers whose wretched sacrifice is not historically respected. Maybe the photog couldn’t help but try to draw a not so subtle link between olive drab and feldgrau. Whatever the case, this story and accompanying photo illustrate the immense complexities of this conflict, and very much underscore the G in GWOT.

Topics: Iraq, military, Germans

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:26 am on Thursday, March 6, 2008

7 Responses to “The Good German”

1. Don Surber » Blog Archive » The Good German Says:
   March 6th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

   […] Spec. 4 Jeffrey Jamaleldine, home from Iraq. Jules Crittenden has the details. […]

2. BLACKFIVE Says:
   March 6th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

   The German Who Fought for America

   And what are you doing so that we can have peace? How much longer do you think you’d be sitting around drinking coffee in fancy Berlin cafés if people like me didn’t exist? If there was nobody to make sure

3. The_Real_JeffS Says:
   March 6th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

   A good man, regardless of his nationality. And he would be wasted in the Bundeswehr.

4. Vanguard of the Commentariat Says:
   March 6th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

   Well, now he’s in the best Army in the world. One with a decent cause to boot. Good on ya Spec 4.

   But I’m still glad old Herr Vanguard got on that boat oh so many years ago, otherwise I would have had my choice of militant socialism or whimp socialism.

5. RebeccaH Says:
   March 6th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

   Ironic that he is posed with that statue, since his half-African heritage might well have earned him a trip to the nearest concentration camp during that particular war.

6. Ben Says:
   March 6th, 2008 at 11:49 pm

   Nice to see the Cav in an article. Those spurs look good.

7. saltydog Says:
   March 7th, 2008 at 1:52 am

   Spec. 4 Jamalaldine: There are those who appreciate your work and thank you. I’m one.

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