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Recently, the Iraqi Army suffered a loss, and my team gained cultural insight.  One of the Iraqi Soldiers in the brigade that my team advises suffered a fatal shot to the head.  The investigating officer scrambled to determine what happened.

The situation unfolded when investigators discovered that the Soldier had left a voice recording on his cell phone.  The Soldier had taken his own life. 

An Iraqi officer played the recording for my team.  Naturally, the tearful message was saddening to hear, even though it was in another language. 

With a basic knowledge of the language, key phrases painted a picture of what was on the Soldier's mind--no car, hard life, no money, no wife.

After the recording, our interpreters loosely translated the message.  The Soldier was distraught about his life and the prospect of it never being any better.  He apologized to his mother for the shame of taking his own life.

Several of our team members heard the message and translation.  We took the moment as rather serious and offered our condolences.  The Iraqis took a different approach.

Within a few minutes of hearing the translation, there was a bit of chucking and banter in Arabic.  Then, they played another recording.  The speaker was one of the staff officers that was in the room addressing the unit commander, and it went a bit like this with accompanied laughter:

"Sir, I work too long of hours and do not see my family enough.  Productivity in my office suffers for my hardship.  Life is so hard, and it will not get easier unless you let me go home on leave.  I will kill myself, if you do not let me go on leave to see my family."

Immediately after this recording, they played a third message this one from the unit commander in response to the staff officer.

"Yes, we know that you are alive, because your office is slow and can do nothing right.  Please, kill yourself.  Then your office will function properly, and the whole brigade will be better off."

Politely, we chuckled along with our Iraqi counterparts, though it felt quite the opposite of a normal reaction.  Suicide is a very serious matter that US units do not take lightly.

Later, we discussed the matter with our interpreters, who act as cultural experts for us.  Basically, the core family mourns, but the rest of society turns their back on those who commit suicide, as if the suicide itself was a great insult. 

The difference in how our cultures view suicide came as quite a surprise, even considering how familiar we are with the Iraqi culture.  The Iraqi viewpoint seems not unlike some Christian sects, who consider suicide as an ultimate sin.