Gainesville — Rather than promote his candidacy, District 68 contender Trent

McKnight spoke to Rotary Club members Wednesday about some of his

observations during a stint in the Middle East.

McKnight, a Throckmorton native and livestock farmer, served as an

agricultural advisor along with two other American specialists during

a 2009 assignment in Basra, Iraq.

The project landed in him in what is often termed “the Arab Gulf,” and

was part of a Department of Defense contract designed to help enhance

the irrigation techniques in underdeveloped areas.

“It was to help bring stability to the region through enhancements in

business and agriculture in the Iraqi region,” McKnight said

Wednesday, adding later that when some people think of Iraq, they

simply picture barren desert, whereas Basra had once been an

agricultural cradle. “Wheat is indigenous to Iraq. All the wheat that

is grown in Cooke County has its origins in Iraq. It was there that it

was actually a wild plant, and when man stopped being a hunter and

gatherer, he collected the seed and began to cultivate it as an

agricultural commodity.”

McKnight said he learned that one crucial factor in America’s ongoing

intervention in Iraqi agriculture is to create a deterrent to

terrorism among young Iraqi males. He said that under the regime of

the Ba’ath Party, which included Saddam Hussein in its enforcement,

regions in Iraq operated on a “command economy” rather than a free

economy.

This meant the farmers were required to carry Ba’athist credentials

and prove their allegiance in order to get farming permits and grow

crops.

“If you couldn’t prove it, you were kinda S-O-L,” McKnight said.

But the competitive free market system is now more prevalent in Iraq.

And this, McKnight said, along with constant warring among Iraq and

the neighboring lands of Iran, Syria and Turkey, has led to the import

of agricultural products into regions such as Basra, often putting its

native farmers out of business.

“That means unemployment shoots up high, especially for their sons,

who should be coming back to the farm.” McKnight said. “And when those

sons are no longer employed and no longer have a source of income,

that makes them highly susceptible to terrorism.”

Working with these Iraqi youth was another aspect to his 2009 trip. In

talking to a 14-year-old boy, McKnight said, he was surprised to find

that rather than hoping to leave his native region — a place filled

with overturned vehicles, exposed sewage and rabid dogs — the boy

intended to stay there and become a teacher.

McKnight said this surprised him.

“I said, ‘Why do you want to be a teacher?’” McKnight said. “And he

said, ‘Well, I like to teach.’ I looked at him and said, ‘You’re 14

years old. Have you ever taught before?’ And he said, ‘No. But I have

this teacher and he’s really, really good. And he teaches us that we

can be anything we want to be, even in Iraq.’”

McKnight added that he then asked the boy what his homeland would look

like if every teacher in that region were more like his.

“He looked at me,” McKnight said. “And he said, ‘We would be at peace

and we would be a fully developed nation.’ And I looked him back in

the eye and said, ‘Be a teacher.’”

The lesson taken from that exchange, McKnight said, was that even a

place such as Iraq reveals “little shinings” of hope.

“But they’re few and far between,” he admitted. “But we must continue

to do what we can to support them economically, so they don’t fall

back into lifestyles of terrorism.”