As we pack our bags and prepare for our trip, I reflect on the reasons why we are going.
I was working as a lawyer in Iraq. I wanted to understand the truth behind the war and the truth of what was actually taking place, not from the newspapers or television, but directly, from the Iraqi people themselves.
I discovered truth in my conversations and interviews with my Iraqi colleagues. Through them I learned what life was like under the rule of Saddam Hussein and during the sanctions. I learned what life was like after the US occupation of Iraq. I also learned what life is like now. I learned that although life was terrible under Saddam and during the sanctions, what is happening today is something none of my Iraqi colleagues ever expected would happen.
They expected new buildings, a thriving economy, and at the very minimum, running water and electricity, of which they had plenty during Saddam, including free education and healthcare. Now they have nothing, and even less than nothing, they have lost their family, their home, and their country.
When I returned from working in Iraq I continued to communicate with my Iraqi colleagues who have now become my very close friends. We talked almost daily over skype. Things were getting worse and worse in Iraq and they were all anxious to leave; anxious to seek safety somewhere else.
When news broke out that Denmark had allowed 200 Iraqis that served as interpreters and drivers in the Danish army to accompany the Danes on their trip home, my friend became bewildered and frustrated. He asked me, “Why only Americans are not trying to help the people who worked with them?” I didn’t know how to answer him. I only knew I had to do something. I couldn’t do what the Danes did but I could do something to help make others aware of the crisis and in doing so urge others to take action.
My friends are now scattered in different parts of the world, seeking security and refuge where they can find it. Some are separated from their families, some are waiting to reunite with their children, some are struggling to find jobs, some are even waiting to be resettled soon in the United States.
But they all long for the families they left behind, their homes, their gardens, their soil and even the twin rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, that once coursed and throbbed through their veins. As one of my friends shared with me, “The idea of staying here or there is not the problem, the problem is staying out of Iraq knowing nothing about my destiny.”
I was working as a lawyer in Iraq. I wanted to understand the truth behind the war and the truth of what was actually taking place, not from the newspapers or television, but directly, from the Iraqi people themselves.
I discovered truth in my conversations and interviews with my Iraqi colleagues. Through them I learned what life was like under the rule of Saddam Hussein and during the sanctions. I learned what life was like after the US occupation of Iraq. I also learned what life is like now. I learned that although life was terrible under Saddam and during the sanctions, what is happening today is something none of my Iraqi colleagues ever expected would happen.
They expected new buildings, a thriving economy, and at the very minimum, running water and electricity, of which they had plenty during Saddam, including free education and healthcare. Now they have nothing, and even less than nothing, they have lost their family, their home, and their country.
When I returned from working in Iraq I continued to communicate with my Iraqi colleagues who have now become my very close friends. We talked almost daily over skype. Things were getting worse and worse in Iraq and they were all anxious to leave; anxious to seek safety somewhere else.
When news broke out that Denmark had allowed 200 Iraqis that served as interpreters and drivers in the Danish army to accompany the Danes on their trip home, my friend became bewildered and frustrated. He asked me, “Why only Americans are not trying to help the people who worked with them?” I didn’t know how to answer him. I only knew I had to do something. I couldn’t do what the Danes did but I could do something to help make others aware of the crisis and in doing so urge others to take action.
My friends are now scattered in different parts of the world, seeking security and refuge where they can find it. Some are separated from their families, some are waiting to reunite with their children, some are struggling to find jobs, some are even waiting to be resettled soon in the United States.
But they all long for the families they left behind, their homes, their gardens, their soil and even the twin rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, that once coursed and throbbed through their veins. As one of my friends shared with me, “The idea of staying here or there is not the problem, the problem is staying out of Iraq knowing nothing about my destiny.”
