Blood Money
The guards chased off a thief two nights ago. He came in over the back wall from the abandoned house behind us. This is the area where we are building our new living quarters, so we're suitably concerned about security there. This was a small incident - a warning shot sufficed to send the black-clad man running like a frightened cat.

However, this has caused us to step up the schedule for installation of our shiny new razor wire (Thanks, Jayme's company!). We should have it up in a few days. The neighbors are going to just love it. Our new house has a guard observation box on the corner over my bathroom, so the combination of fiercely-loyal peshmerga, flesh-ripping steel wire, and bright outward-facing lights should eliminate all but the most determined small-arms clashes.

Ah, home sweet home!

The oldest and most respected guard is Noor Al Dien (that's just his first name). He came to me to ask me about the company policy on shooting intruders. I misinterpreted his question, answering that the policy is "One warning shot, and allow him to flee. If he does not flee, shoot to kill." But he wasn't asking about when to shoot. He was asking "Who pays the blood money, me or the company?"

A note for those unfamiliar with Iraqi culture: when someone is killed, the killer's family has an obligation to pay the dead person's family. This money is called "fassel" (فصل), and can be translated as "blood money". Some may consider this practice barbaric, because it assigns an explicit value to human life. I think it's a better idea than we have in the west, where we assign no value at all. Because killing a man carries a monetary penalty, people take murder very seriously. And you cannot run, because even if you do, your Mom will still have to pay.

I told Noor Al Dien that the company will pay the blood money for any man he kills on the job. That's obviously the best policy. If he's got a man in his sights, I don't want him to hesitate because he's got to pay for it later. He watches my ass, I watch his. That's the deal.

Just to make it more interesting, Imad told me this: if we capture a thief, we may hold him until his family comes and pays to get him back. Which is really funny, and definitely something I wish we could do in the west. But I think I'll make the company policy to turn thieves over to the police. Maybe he'll get off, maybe he'll bribe his way out. But we don't need to get into the hostage business.