Haji

I have learned several new words here in Iraq, and not all of them are things I can repeat on a blog. Many American soldiers call Iraqi workers "Haji." When I first arrived I asked what the term meant and lots of folks in my unit told me it was what the Iraqis wanted to be called. I wasn't to sure about that so I continued to do some investigation. Soon I discovered that the term Haji is a muslim term that stands for "One who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca." It is a revered term in Islam, but this is not how it is being used by the American soldiers. We are using Haji in a similar way as soldiers used the term Charlie when talking about the Vietcong. I was able to find the origination of Charlie, which is short for the phonetic representation Victor Charlie. I haven't been able to determine the origination of calling all Iraqis Haji.

I am sure I have been a bit annoying to some of the younger soldiers in the unit, but I have been trying to educate them on the true meaning of Haji and instead encourage them to use the term Iraqi National to describe the workers.

Our view of the Iraqis is very different here in the International Zone compared to our counterparts that just returned from Mahmudiyah. All the Iraqis around our compound are westernized and very supportive of the American troops. Their lives are in danger everyday that they show up for work for the Americans. The Iraqis located in Mahmudiyah and other smaller towns in the south of Iraq have a large contingent of insurgents and our soldiers have no way to tell the difference between the good and bad guys. Because of this difficulty they view all Iraqis as bad and use the term Haji more freely and in a very negative context.