Iraqi expatriates return to battle U.S.

by Trauma_Hound 48 Replies latest social current

• 

  Trauma_Hound

  http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0326war-jordan26.html

  Iraqi expatriates return to battle U.S.

  Margaret Coker
  Cox News Service
  Mar. 26, 2003 12:00 AM

  AMMAN, Jordan - Clothes stuffed into carry-on suitcases, furry synthetic blankets rolled like sleeping bags, packages of cookies and stout hearts. They are the motley supplies of hundreds of Iraqi expatriates leaving Jordan on buses bound for Iraq.
  
  The men are returning as volunteers to defend their homeland against the U.S.-led invasion.
  
  Jordan, Iraq's neighbor to the west, has served as a haven for at least 300,000 Iraqis who over the past 15 years have fled their country's wars, repression and economic hardships. Now, with a military conflict intensifying, many feel a patriotic urge to go home.
  
  "I called my father last night in Baghdad. He told me come home right away. He said I am needed to fight the aggressor," said Ali Latoush, a 21-year-old tailor who has worked in Jordan for 15 months. "I'm ready to become a martyr to keep the Americans out."
  
  Jordan has kept its borders open for civilians who have wanted to leave Iraq. As of Tuesday, few refugees had appeared on the border.
  
  The stream in the other direction, however, is strong. From March 16 to 24, 4,330 Iraqis have returned to Iraq from Jordan, according to the Jordanian Foreign Ministry.
  
  Bus drivers who have traveled the road from Amman to the border town of Ruashiyeh since the start of war report an increase of traffic, saying about eight buses leave Amman for the Iraqi border each day. The vast majority of their passengers are men of fighting age who have traveled with only a few personal items, they said.
  
  The U.S. military warned Iraqi civilians Tuesday against using roads. A U.S. warplane intending to destroy a bridge dropped a bomb Monday that also hit a bus filled with Syrians evacuating Iraq. The Pentagon expressed regret.
  
  The 50 males aboard a packed Greyhound-size bus Tuesday that left downtown Amman, the fifth departure of the day, expressed more bravado than fear.
  
  Several men interviewed in the drizzling rain as they waited for the driver to load their blankets and small bags said they are experienced soldiers and want to take up guns against U.S. troops.
  
  "Whether we are Shiites or Sunnis, we are prepared to fight. The invaders made a big miscalculation if they thought otherwise," said Hussein Sharif, an accountant who said his older brother is fighting the allied forces at An Nasiriyah.
  
  In the Iraqi community in Jordan, pressure to return and fight is strong, with honor and dignity at stake.
  
  
  "How can I be happy when our country is under bombardment?" asked Zeid Ismail, 26. "If we (my family) are going to die, we are going to die together. If we are going to be saved, then I am going to be needed to help protect them. We don't want America or Britain to control our lives."
• 

  Utopian Reformist

  Let me guess, these Iraqi's will be villified shortly as "terrorists" for simply practicing the same belief that americans have been hiding behind for the last three wars:
  
  "my country right or wrong". It's OK for americans to rally behind their flag, just not the enemy!
• 

  teejay

  I guess it's more than just Americans who love their country.

  Iraqi saying: My brother and I will fight my cousin. My cousin and I will fight a stranger.

  Hafta tip my hat to people who would leave a place of relative safety for a place that's being bombed to smithereens by an invading, well-equipped army. Call 'em "terrorists" if you want, Mr. Bush, but I'm impressed with their courage and their families back home no doubt view them as heroes.
• 

  hillary_step

  The US Government has made a terrible miscalculation once again in their Foreign Policy. The much heralded 'New American Century' is already leaking at the seams. Please note this statement of issue, then follow this link and note the influential members of this committee :

  The successful disarming, rebuilding, and democratic reform of Iraq can contribute decisively to the democratization of the wider Middle East. This is an objective of overriding strategic importance to the United States, as it is to the rest of the international community - and its achievement will require an investment and commitment commensurate with that. We offer our full support to the President and Congress to accomplish these vitally important goals. http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqstatement-031903.htm

  The Arab heart does not clamor for democracy, it is still locked in ancient traditions and customs, even Saddam's enemies are rallying in support at what is perceived as an invasion into not just Iraq, but all that Middle East stands for. Mark my words, a terrible price will be paid by the Coalition for displaying an appalling lack of understanding of the tenets of history and the culture of other nations. The next decade will show the true price that has to be paid for ‘Operation Free Iraq’. When Regan sent Brumsfield on his expedition to befriend Saddam, which ultimately resulted in the gassing of the Kurds and it might be added even more brisk trade with Iraq for following few years, he had no idea what this would lead to in 2003. He was of course warned.....by the French!

  Ignorance is a very dangerous drug indeed.

  HS
• 

  teejay

  "One power, with a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust." -- Nelson Mandela on Bush's unyielding plans to assassinate Saddam
• 

  heathen

  OMG-- I can't believe what is being said here. You people want to support the Iraqi war machine? I think the US has stepped in it big time here but to say that these people that were oppressed and left Iraq are brave and honorable for returning to fight for saddaam is ludicrous . I think jordan should have sanctions put on them for cooperating with this and that no one should be let into Iraq until this thing is settled once and for all.
• 

  hillary_step

  Heathen,

  OMG-- I can't believe what is being said here. You people want to support the Iraqi war machine? I think the US has stepped in it big time here but to say that these people that were oppressed and left Iraq are brave and honorable for returning to fight for saddaam

  Just for the record, many of them HATE Saddam - they are returning to protect what they see as an assault and invasion of the Middle East ad its culture by outside forces who do not understand or respect their traditions and way of life.

  HS
• 

  heathen

  Hillary step -- If Iraq wins or holds out till the US goes home sadaam will remain in power and these people will be in the same situation with out religious freedom or any other kind of freedom for that matter ,I would think that the freedom would be of the most importance . The US plans to rebuild Iraq with the oil revenues where as at this point if Saddaam remained in power they probly wont even get the oil for food deal that the UN imposed on them. I think their culture stinks anyway so they can just can that for all I care.
• 

  Uzzah

  Heathen:

  I want to leave the safety of Canada and return to the United States to join their military and join in the destruction of the Saddam war machine. Should I be allowed to do so?

  Is the freedom to chose not to have freedom (democracy) still not a freedom? What about the freedom to live according to one's chosen culture even if despised by you?

  Uzzah - in the "things that make you go hmmmmm" kind of mood
• 

  hillary_step

  Heathen,

  I think their culture stinks anyway so they can just can that for all I care.

  This attitude is what is the problem. Arab culture may not be to your taste but it is no business of anybody in the US to judge this culture, let alone try to change it.

  Let me state once again, that I am no defender of Saddam Hussein, nor the many Saddam Hussein's this past century that the US has aligned itself with for its own political ends. I wish to see this monster defeated, but the way that the Coalition has acted will NOT defeat the inner forces in the Middle east that gave birth to Saddam, in fact it will empower to them. I have heard all the arguments on both sides and I am yet to be convinced that this war will achieve its purpose, which is ultimately to democratize the Middle East. Saddam has taken thousands of innocent lives, thousands more innocents will die over the next decade as the fall-out of the present action being taken in Iraq bears sour fruit.

  The US as a nation needs education, not in the use of military technology but in understanding the history and development of parts of the world whose fundamental nature they obviously do not understand.

  Travel. Speak to these people, learn that they are not all barbarians, but most of them tender, hospitable and kind people. Learn that Arab tears have the same clarity as Western tears and that one Arab life has the same value as a Westerners life. Learn that these people are hemmed in by tribal traditions of which they are proud and would die for. They may hate Saddam, but they love their religion and culture and above all their families and will fight to the death to honor them.

  Many of us posting on this Board viewed the ‘shock and awe’ Hollywood sanitized battle plans for the instant surrender of Iraq to be a plain nonsense which would not happen. The Coalition are battling not just Republican guards but centuries of internal anger. The taps of bitter history have been opened and the ‘wogs’ in the Middle East, so exploited, dehumanized and misunderstood by the Western World over the centuries are proving that blood is thicker than ‘Bunker bombs’.

  HS