DJ Hartman & 2,947 Pakistanis

Since 2003 there have been 2,947 Pakistani soldiers that have embraced shahadat fighting the menace of terrorism. I do not know and cannot recall, offhand, the name of a single one of those 2,947 Pakistani heroes. One name that I do know, and will be able to recall for a long time to come is David James Hartman.

David James Hartman was twenty-seven years old. His son Mikey is only a year old. His wife Cherise is pregnant with their second child. The Hartmans first met at Kadena High School at the US Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. David signed up for the US army almost immediately after graduating high school, and served several tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cherise has endured multiple tours of duty and moving cross-country to be in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where David's team within the US army -- the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne), 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) -- is based.

David Hartman was one of the three US army service members that died in Lower Dir near the opening of a girls' school where an explosive device killed three Pakistani girls and one Pakistani soldier on February 3, 2010.

Just what were Sergeant First Class David Hartman and 35-year-old Sergeant First Class Matthew Sluss-Tiller both of the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion doing at the opening of a girls' school in Dir? And just what was their American comrade, 39-year-old Staff Sergeant Mark Stets of the 8th Psychological Operations Battalion (Airborne), doing there with them?

In the first few minutes after the attack nearly two weeks ago, all kinds of speculation spewed itself across the ether. There were rumours that a group of foreign journalists had been killed in a terrorist attack near Swat. Then more rumours that the foreigners killed were not journalists but belonged to an NGO. Other rumours suggested that the deceased were part of the USAID mission to Pakistan. As media organisations and a range of official spokespersons, from the Pakistani military's ISPR to the US embassy, kept clutching at straws trying to figure out exactly who had been killed, the rumour machine began to generate speculation about the possible links of the dead soldiers to Blackwater.

Luckily for Blackwater (and for the Pakistanis that lubricate its presence in Pakistan), rumours about the Lower Dir attack's links to the company died a relatively quick death. On February 5, rather than dealing with the crisis in the desperately inadequate manner in which the Anne Paterson era has handled crises in Pakistan, the Special Operations Command (SOC) of the US military realised the need for damage control. It swiftly released the names and affiliations of the three US army soldiers that were killed. The soldiers' commander, Col Michael Warmack, spoke very highly of his fallen comrades, and in the SOC press release, said that both soldiers had volunteered to be part of special operations and to be posted in the arena they died in.

While there's no reason to doubt Col Warmack, Sergeant First Class David James Hartman's regular status updates on Facebook suggested that life in Pakistan was no breeze for him.

Hartman spoke of leaving his son Mikey in November 2009 back home in North Carolina as, "One of the most difficult moments of my life". On Christmas Day, Hartman is decidedly melancholy about not being home for Christmas, saying "Christmas is not the same when you can't spend it with your family. But God is in control. So Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a great day."

On December 30, Hartman came down with a bad tummy after having downed a Big Mac, Chicken McNuggets and fries from McDonalds. He is emphatic in advising Facebook friends, "I don't recommend eating McDonalds in a 3rd world country. Never do that." On January 14, in a conversation with a friend, he complains about the load-shedding, and then when reminded by a friend about Pakistan's nuclear power, says "Supposedly, the only developed thing about this place". After a couple of clearly bad weeks, Hartman announces he will "have Pizza Hut" on January 21.

All indications suggest that Hartman was a practising Christian, with a strong and abiding faith. Hartman's father is Pastor Greg Hartman, and leads the Freedom Worship & Education Centre in California. His mother, Mikail Bacon, who lives in Wisconsin, told local NBC affiliate news team that "she just talked to him a few days ago. He told her he was delivering food to poor people in the area, so she says he died doing what he loved: helping others."

Why have I dug into Hartman and his family's Facebook profiles, and scanned the newspapers of the areas in which these families live in the US? I wanted to humanise the lifeless bodies of the three American soldiers killed in my country. David James Hartman's beautiful young bride and his adorable three-year-old son are scarred with the death of the most important person in their lives. Hartman's unborn child will never know what it is like to be held by his or her father.

The dangers to which US soldiers are exposed in Pakistan are a product of the same vile hatred that makes Lahore's markets, Karachi's streets and Pindi's mosques a target of terrorists. But the degree of risk to US soldiers' lives is quite clearly and indisputably exacerbated and accentuated by an ugly -- and for warmongers in Washington DC and in Islamabad -- an inconvenient truth. When those boots hit the ground in Pakistan, they are stepping in a country whose people simply do not want them there.

The FC and other Pakistani instruments of defence against terror are technically inadequate. But are Civil Affairs and Psy-Ops Special Forces from the American heartland the only instruments available to address those inadequacies? Could the ambient level of training for the FC not be improved by skill injections from Turkish soldiers, or Malaysian trainers? Those kinds of alternatives would be dramatically less combustible.

Of course, Americans will solve America's problem in Afghanistan, and in part in Pakistan. Ultimately, American democracy, warts and all, will generate an Afghan war equivalent of Cindy Sheehan. Sheehan is the anti-war activist who shot to fame for her famous protest against the Iraq war, after her son was killed in action in that misguided American war. Cherise Hartman may be that Afghan war equivalent -- despite the irony of her husband having been killed in Pakistan. But it may also be one of the family members of the nearly 1,000 US soldiers that have died serving their country's fuzzy and conflicted goals in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama and his administration will eventually have to be accountable for sustaining a war and putting in harm's way thousands of young Americans needlessly and aimlessly.

The real question for Pakistanis in the meantime is not about what American soldiers are doing in Pakistan. That is an important but secondary question.

The real question is where is Pakistan's Cindy Sheehan? Since 2003 there have been 2,947 Pakistani soldiers that have embraced shahadat fighting the menace of terrorism. In the less than two months of 2010 alone, 71 young Pakistani heroes have fallen while fighting terror. How many young Pakistani widows like Cherise Hartman are out there? Will Fauji Foundation and Askari Welfare Trust support them all adequately? But most importantly, when will a mature and balanced discussion emerge, about the costs and benefits of perpetual war in an already military-dominated Pakistani culture?



The writer advises governments, donors and NGOs on public policy. He can be reached through his website