What country would you guess is one of the most dangerous places to be a Boy Scout? IRAQ is correct, or it used to be correct.

IRAQ is going through a change. With the help of Americans and many other free countries, Iraq is now tasting freedom. This past weekend the Iraqis had a democratic election for the first time in 50 years.

Lets talk about Boy Scouts in Iraq,

Iraq was one of the first Arab nations to embrace Boy Scouts, launching its program in 1921, after Saddam seized power in 1979. One by one, youth groups were retooled to serve the state. Under Saddam Hussein's rule, severe restrictions were placed on the Scouting program and a separate, corrupt pro-Saddam youth movement was founded. One replacement program, Saddam's Cubs, offered "summer camps" where 10- to 15-year-old boys endured 14-hour days filled with hand-to-hand fighting drills. By 1999, Iraq had been expelled from the WOSM.

Though the Iraqi Boy Scouts faded away, the spirit of Scouting did not. Now that Iraq is emerging as a free country, the Boy Scouts are emerging again.

On the shores of the Tigris River are 40 acres of prime real estate which recently a compound used by Saddam Hussein's secret police. The location has since been bombed by coalition forces, and looted by local Iraqis.

U.S. Navy commander Chip Beck, is leading the charge to turn the remnants of this police camp into a first-class camp and training facility for Boy Scouts in Iraq, and have Scouting flourish once again in the region. Beck says that he has yet to encounter resistance to his efforts.

The Iraqi people are ready for the return of the Boy Scouts. Since Scouting celebrates faith and patriotism and integrity, universal values to distinguish right from wrong, and aspiration to higher ideals than self, the Iraqi people agree that Scouting is good for their young people, their communities, themselves, the country. It's something every decent person in the world can agree on. These are the values of right and wrong.

In January, sitting around a table and listening to mortar bursts outside, Beck, along with his boss at Strat Com, Gary Thatcher, and another CPA staffer, Terry Logonsky, started talking about their families. All of them, it turned out, lived in the Washington, D.C., area, and all had children involved in scouting.

Beck himself had been a scout in his native Hagerstown, Maryland. Like the other two men, he'd heard that scouting once existed in Iraq. Maybe this was a good time to get things restarted?

The trio sent out an "all hands" e-mail in the Green Zone to see if anyone wanted to help; several hundred people replied. In short order, Beck started a multinational volunteer council of scout leaders and boosters.

"We can do it. There's more people out here in Iraq that want to see their own society succeed and need our help than there are those who want to destroy, but those with guns can also make a loud statement. It's the quiet ones that need to do the work more effectively."

Iraqi scouting, according to its formal blueprint, will involve all 18 Iraqi provinces. Its "21st-century headquarters" in Baghdad will include a dormitory, mess hall, restaurant, leave-no-trace campground, nature preserve, and jamboree area. The project will be financed with donations and campaigns like the ongoing Operation Pocket Change, in which scouts worldwide have been asked to pitch in with pennies.

Beck is hoping to raise some $4.5 million dollars to rebuild the damaged secret-police camp as the national headquarters of the Iraqi Scouts.

"With $4 million, we can turn a camp for killers into a camp for kids," says Beck. It's one of the many scout-salesman lines that I've heard from him since we met. "With $100 million," he proclaims, "we can change the face of the Middle East."



(Editor's note: Those wishing to donate to the Iraqi Scouting effort can make checks out to:
World Friendship Fund, PO Box 152079, Irving, Texas 75015
Include the notation "Iraqi Scouting" in the memo.)

SM Minute Note: This information was gathered from several news articles and is meant to be summarized, not read, when presented to the Troop.