Snapshots
KING. I decided to do something set during my time at Baghdad. In terms of goals,I wanted to write something that wasn’t political or didn’t feel like homework, that wasn’t about whether it was good or bad to be there; I just wanted to write about what it was like to be actually there then.
CHRISTOPHER. [BANG.] Stop! Goddamn – God-dammit, fuck! Stop! STOP! [BANG.] She wasn’t doing anything. You don’t have to. Stop. I’m just trying – [BANG.]
Second time encountering the ambiguous citizen in a foreign army’s base. In Y: The Last Man , they hesitated and the pregnant woman turned out to be a suicide bomber, cementing Alter’s pro-war stance.
MAN. The truck is mine. My wife has no food, my children have no food. I will
feed them with the truck. Some American whore will not change me on this.
SAFFIYA. I understand. But I think you have something confused. This
“American whore,” I mean really. That is not right, is it? My grandfather
was a great leader of Iraq. He founded the Baath party with Saddam, turning Iraq
into something proud. Saddam killed him, of course, and my father, and the rest
of the family. Leaving only me in some school in America. Watching it on the TV.
For twenty years then, I worked to convince America to take this country. To let
me return to my people. I gave myself for this. And they took it. And now I have
Iraq. So a whore, then? Yes, I think so. But not American. There is also
some more confusion. I did not come here to ask for the truck. I already
have the truck. And your cousin, Ali, who helped, who drove? He is dead.
And your little brother, Farid, he was the one who told us where the truck
is, he is also dead. Oh, and your older brother, Hassan, the fat one. I
almost forgot. Him, as well. Your wife and children are fine, of course. I have
them. I will keep them safe. I hope that is some comfort. [BANG.] [BANG.] You
should be comforted. At least they did not have to watch it on the TV. [BANG.]
NASSIR. I pray, Fatima, but I do not believe God listens. I follow
Muhammad, but I do not know where he has walked.
FATIMA. You are saying
these things to put it off, my flower. But you cannot put it off. It is here.
NASSIR. I am the servant of our great leader, Saddam Hussein. But where
is our great leader, Saddam Hussein? I am a servant of America, our savior. But
where is America, our savior?
FATIMA. Enough of this, husband. Go and do
what you will do.
NASSIR. I am police, a man of the law, but there
is no law. Fine.
AMERICAN DIPLOMAT. Yes, I believe the soldiers involved with Alla Al Sagar. We
reviewed this incident on the 8th of July, I have said, yes? Very sad.
HASSAN. Ah, this is why the interest. I mean, how old was that poor girl these
soldiers found? And what was done to her. Tsk. Tsk. The Americans do not worry
about Saddam’s people anymore. They worry now about the others who see the
things they have done and try to respond.
NASSIR. But the problem here is that the cut is on the wrong side, no? This man
here is cut left to right; the man in your video is right to left. So I do not
think it can be the same man. […]
CHRISTOPHER. We never did our own
autopsies in the States. I don’t think I could tell which way a man was cut.
NASSIR. I cannot tell a cut, which way it is. I can tell when two Iraqi
men are not the same Iraqi man. But will the soldier listen about this? I do not
know, but I know he watches CSI like everyone. So I say the cut instead of the
face.
SAFFIYA. It is a negotiation. Between myself and some Shia leaders over the
telecom contract the Americans are handing out. It’s all a farce, really. They
will threaten and whine. I will threaten and whine. Then we will agree to each
buy 40 percent in each other’s business. Then, when all is done, we present the
Americans with two proposals. Two fine competing offers. Then whoever they
accept… Well, it is a fun farce at least.
TRAINER. Your man was killed, yes? Trouble, yes? These are men. Like your man.
Boys. They are trying to live fine. They don’t want to be involved in this
trouble, so they don’t answer some questions, maybe. I don’t know. But I know
not answering, not having trouble. This is not lying. This is telling the
truth.
NASSIR. Ah, to be a Sunni cop. Eh? Every case is the same. Find the right
sheikh, let him bring you a man, bring that man to your boss. If the man is not
connected to Saddam, he is your man. If he is connected, ask the sheikh for
another man.
SAFFIYA. Saffiya was a princess. A jew, actually. Daughter of the king and
married to the sheriff of the tribe. One day, she lay down to sleep and she
dreamt of the moon. She saw it coming closer. Falling. Falling… Falling…
Until she seemed to be holding the moon in her hands. When she woke, she told
her husband of her dream. He said it meant she wished to marry his enemy, the
prophet Muhammad, praised be his name. In anger, he struck her. On her face.
Here. On the cheek. And then the prohet came. Muhammad came to their kingdom,
his sword raised. He killed her father. He captured her husband, then
killed him as well. After this, the prophet called for the princess, this
girl. Only sixteen or seventeen. He said to her,: “Choose. Follow your kin into
the sand or follow me into the embrace of the one true God. She chose God, of
course. Right there. And they were married. She was Saffiya, she was the
wife of the prophet, he listened to her, she became perhaps one of the greatest
woman ever to live. A woman blessed later to save the prophet from near death.
My mother named me after her. Americans made it “Sofia” after I was kept there.
After Saddam murdered my family. But it was Saffiya. The princess who
dreamed of the moon.
FATIMA. But for me, you have to understand, with Saddam, we could never get
batteries. The sanctions from America stopped the batteries. And all I
wanted was batteries. I didn’t like Saddam. I agreed with America. One-hundred
percent. Then why couldn’t I have batteries? Is this justice, America?
No, no, no.
COMMANDO. What… What? Where’s the gun? Where’s the gun? Where’s the gun…
Where’s the gun… There’s a gun… I saw… Where’s the gun… Where’s the
fucking gun?! Why are there so many scarves?!
HASSAN. Sometimes I think America is the only God whose will we must care
about. With America, you can make the sky rain fire. You can move a man who will
not move, just by pointing a finger.
SAFFIYA. The Americans have the
most guns, Hassan. Having guns does not make you God.
HASSAN. I do not
know, flower. What is and what is not God? What is a son of a tea boy to say
about such things?
SAFFIYA. Hassan, you are one of the heirs to the
Kurdish empire. Your father was no tea boy.
HASSAN. When I am with the
Americans, I feel as Muhammad felt, I think. Sitting in Medina, looking two
hundred miles across the sand to his home, his land. “There is Mecca, my Lord!
Give it to me!"
SAFFIYA. This is not Koran.
HASSAN. Eh, Koran is
what the commentators say it is. An imam told this to me when I was very young.
Then he hit me across the face, so it must be true.
FRANKLIN. After a few months, she asked you to help her get information.
Targets, places that would help in the case of invasion. You helped her,
providing GPS for coordinates for several locations. Security installations, the
houses of Saddam’s people. Locations you knew through guard duty you’d done on
occassion. Ms. Aqani put your house on a list, places not meant to be bombed.
Safe places we were to look out for. However, due to a bureaucratic problem in
Washington… Your house was confused with some targets you had gotten.
Resulting in the house being bombed when the coalition forces invaded Baghdad.
SAFFIYA. Hundreds of years ago, there was a Muslim who wanted to join
Christianity and he told his Christian friend he was converting and his first
act of converting was to go to Rome, the capital of the Christians. The friend
was upset. He knew the capital was full of sin. Priests fucking each other.
Fighting each other. Blood, sex. Everywhere. All the sins of Babylon. When
the convert returned, the friend expected him to recant his conversion. The
friend greeted the convert and expected this. But the convert said, “No, no, no.
My faith is all the stronger now!” The friend was surprised. And he asked how
this could be. And the convert said: “Any religion, anything, that still has
believers in a land such as this… Well, this… This thing must be true."
References
- The Sheriff of Babylon #1. Tom King; Mitch Gerads. dc.fandom.com . Dec 2, 2015. Accessed Apr 15, 2023.
- The Sheriff of Babylon #2. The Things They Left Behind. Tom King; Mitch Gerads. dc.fandom.com . Jan 6, 2016. Accessed Apr 15, 2023.
- The Sheriff of Babylon #3. Here's Looking at You. Tom King; Mitch Gerads. dc.fandom.com . Feb 3, 2016. Accessed Apr 15, 2023.
- The Sheriff of Babylon #4. The Dream and the Desert. Tom King; Mitch Gerads. dc.fandom.com . Mar 2, 2016. Accessed Apr 15, 2023.
- The Sheriff of Babylon #5. From the Cradle. Tom King; Mitch Gerads. dc.fandom.com . Apr 6, 2016. Accessed Apr 15, 2023.
- The Sheriff of Babylon #6. God Shed His Grace on Thee. Tom King; Mitch Gerads. dc.fandom.com . May 4, 2016. Accessed Apr 15, 2023.
- The Sheriff of Babylon #8. Let Us Go. Tom King; Mitch Gerads. dc.fandom.com . Jul 6, 2016. Accessed Apr 15, 2023.
- The Sheriff of Babylon #12. Jim from Ops. Tom King; Mitch Gerads. dc.fandom.com . Nov 2, 2016. Accessed Apr 15, 2023.
Most comic book writers I’ve encountered have been anti-war. King is different in this sense.