Poverty stuns Marines

By STEPHAN FARIS in Tikrit, Iraq, and ROBERT INGRASSIA in Baghdad
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Wednesday, April 16th, 2003

For two Marines in Tikrit who grew up near Hunts Point in the Bronx - but didn't know each other until they met here - Iraq is turning out to be a place of stark haves and have-nots.

"This is a good experience," said Hospitalman 2nd Class Jason Taylor, 27, a medic with the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance weapons company. "I can go back and say, 'Hey, you think what you got was bad. Let me tell you what I've seen. Maybe it'll open some kids' eyes.'"

He and Sgt. Jayro Ferdonis, 29, said they are shocked that a country with such opulent palaces and stunning oil wealth is also a place of such utter poverty.

"I wish we could give a window to the people back home," said Ferdonis. "I wish they could smell the stench and see the hungry people and feel the bugs crawling on their skin. Poverty in the United States is nothing compared to the poverty in the rest of the world."

"Going up through Iraq, it was like driving through a time line," he said. "Going through mud villages, then when we got to the cities, through the slums. Man, people bitch about living in the projects?"

"We have a small part on this big mothball, but it's a good part," Ferdonis said, and it's a lesson he wants his first child, due next month, to learn.

Taylor, who has been in Iraq since mid-March, said, "This country has a significant amount of money. There's no reason it should be like that."

He's tried to cure sick people, he said, and has handed out $10 bills to the most poor.

The shock of their surroundings also is setting in for Army soldiers with 4th Infantry Division, who entered Iraq from Kuwait only days ago and approached Baghdad last night.

From their armored vehicles - now able to drive at night with headlights on, unworried about a major attack - they peer out at war-torn countryside.

It's a land in economic ruin: industrial plants blown apart or on fire, shuttered shops and rusted machines.

From tiny farming villages to medium-size cities, about the only signs of economic life are the decrepit buses taking passengers from town to town.

Iraq's environmental mess is also clearly visible - and malodorous.

Sewage stench

There are scores of burned-out vehicles on the roads, which are littered with garbage. In some villages, the odor of raw sewage fills the air.

"This is my first deployment, and I'm just amazed by what I saw," said Sgt. Tawana Herring, 24, of Talladega, Ala. "It's trashy. It's dirty. The people have nothing."

But in the bleakness, there are signs of hope.

All along the route to Baghdad, villagers greet the convoys with smiles and waves. One boy even donned a T-shirt with a picture of President Bush.

"They're definitely grateful we're here," said Spec. Thomas Whitesides, 21, of Morgan, Utah. "This is just the beginning of what we can do to help."

Staff Sgt. Frank Konarik, 24, of Rockdale, Tex., said he is eager to get started.

"It may take some time, but eventually Iraq can be a nation that benefits from the world's help," he said. "It can be done."