Lt. Col. Rebecca Hastings decided it would be fun for everyone if the Iraqi prisoners put on a play about why they love freedom so much.
“Everyone’s always so glum around here,” she said. “I thought it would be nice to let them do something creative for a change.”
Reactions among the prisoners were mixed.
“This is a travesty,” lamented Ahmed al-Hareeb. “I clearly should have gotten the lead. That al-Binda could not act his way out of a wet paper bag if the bag were made of gossamer and al-Binda were somehow in possession of a magical gossamer-cutting device.”
Others supported the idea. “I think it’s great, and we’ve got a great cast,” said director Hassan Aziz. “That, and anything that removes the jumper cables from my testicles is fine by me.”
The play premiered to an audience of prisoners and military police, and was met with less than stellar reviews.
“I just didn’t believe that they loved freedom,” said Private First Class P. T. Murphy. “It was much better in rehearsal,” responded a noticeably fidgety Aziz. Murphy then inquired as to the opinion of Mister Car Battery, whose reaction was mixed, in the sense of jumper cables being attached to both the positive and negative terminals.
