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| 1 | 2 | 3 | what goes on. If we’re going to help them form a democratic solution, we need to make sure certain things are accomplished.” And that's what sent Barnich to Iraq. A personal need to help certain things get accomplished.
As soon as the first wave of combat operations ceased in Iraq, it was clear to Barnich that the job there was not accomplished. “We can’t just say that we cleaned up the threat for us, now you guys take care of it,” Clausen said, conveying his sense of Terry's stance. “The infrastructure was in rough shape to begin with.” This, according to Clausen, was a key sticking point. He felt that democracy is a difficult process, and that it takes an educated population and focused, thoughtful people to keep democracy going. This means creating an environment in which people can rely on certain basic utilities (water, sewage, electricity, communications) so that they can focus on the hard work of reforming government and engaging in a new system of governance that is more fair and inclusive than the autocracy they faced in the past.
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"[Terry was] a man with a thirst for adventure and a passion for service to his country." |
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often jokingly compared to the Bill Murray opus Groundhog Day. You wake up, go to work for hours and hours. Come home. Go to bed. Repeat. Repeat. And yet, he remained because there was work to be done. Initially committed to eleven months, Barnich continued to return because he saw just how much there was left to do.
His approach to his work in Iraq, it seems, was very much an extension of how he lived his life. It wasn't, to Barnich, a question of accomplishing one thing, and that being the key to growth and progress in the country and the region. It was a far more complex proposition. Clausen relates that Barnich often decried what he referred to as the “Etch-a-Sketch Brain,” which was characterized by the fact that thoughts and memories only lasted a short time before they were shaken away. “Terry knew that life isn’t about creating
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“Terry was feeling that and felt he had something to offer,” Clausen related. “It began on the telecom side, and expanded into electricity and water.” In fact, it was while working on just such a project that Barnich met his tragic end. “He was coming back from a wastewater treatment facility that would free up potable water for the people around Fallujah.”
However, Clausen asserted that Barnich was never the type to feel defeated or victimized. He was all about forward motion. “He never shied away from trying to make a difference,” said Clausen. That effort to make a difference led him from a comfortable life in the Chicago area to the Green Zone, which he would
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silos,” said Clausen. “You can’t look at telecom today and forget about transportation tomorrow. If you’re creative, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish.”
And Terry was creative. His intelligence and creativity may have been lost on some he encountered. His ability to see common threads and draw parallels between seemingly disparate topics was one of his hallmarks. Barnich could (and did, in at least one case) make a direct comparison between Virtual Network Operators and 17th Century Dutch Shipbuilders, and while the analogy would sail directly over the heads of some in the room, others would remember the comparison years later (as I do, vividly).
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