Why They Fight
HAYES, STEPHEN F.
Why They Fight Meet the Free Iraqi Forces BY STEPHEN F. HAYES Outskirts of Kuwait City In a quiet moment some three weeks before the United States sent 40 Tomahawk missiles and several...
...The training came in two phases—two weeks of basic skills and two weeks of civil-military operations...
...For the last ten years, I work in construction and right now I'm const^ction contracts...
...There were several young men, perhaps in their twenties, and others who could have been septuagenarians...
...Interviewer: How did you tell your family, especially to your five children, that Daddy is going away for a long time...
...And the closer I come to the mission, the more I get fired up and the more I get emotional...
...Munem al Saedy—invited me to their room for a chat away from the rest of the delegation...
...And this time, what I know they said, the United States military was ready...
...Wis it a surprise to you or was it what you expected...
...troops in the Gulf summoned me to the Microtel Inn near Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia...
...I am ready to do it, now more better...
...And the Iraqis, despite their apprehension about the human costs of the conflict, have begun to celebrate their freedom...
...Why They Fight Meet the Free Iraqi Forces BY STEPHEN F. HAYES Outskirts of Kuwait City In a quiet moment some three weeks before the United States sent 40 Tomahawk missiles and several 2,000-pound bombs into Baghdad, an Iraqi-American man named Hakim contemplated his mission...
...Several were dressed in traditional garb—flowing robes, sandals, and a wide assortment of headdress, from the skullcaps popular with American Nation-of-Islam Muslims to the kaffiyeh favored by Yasser Arafat...
...Your time is up...
...Interviewer: And from the time you were accepted to the time you left home, how long was it...
...David: (Laughs) I would tell him, "What comes around goes around...
...I mean, I felt that civilized nations cared about their people and their countries and their nations only...
...He has written recently for National R^'view and is featured in a State Department public diplomacy campaign called "Iraq's Voices of Freedom...
...Interviewer: Do you have a family in Iraq now...
...Interviewer: Are you in communication with them...
...You've just completed your training of approximately one month...
...And that was a little above my expectation...
...To serve the people...
...But there is nations that care about other nations' civilians more than their own government, like Saddam's government who kill a lot, like their own civilians, use chemical weapons and mass destruction weapon against our people, in 1988 and 1991, after the uprising as well...
...Iraqis...
...But they were willing to help in any way they could...
...Interviewer: Tell me about the training...
...Finally, somebody gave me informations that I got to get ahold of the Iraqi opposition, so I contact all the Iraqi opposition to—I put my name on every list was available...
...Those lucky enough to make it to Hungary trained hard, though their exercises were much less rigorous than ordinary military boot camp...
...when U.S...
...But any doubt that Hakim expressed the beliefs of a great many Iraqis was shattered Friday, when Iraqis greeted American soldiers with dancing, handshakes, and hugs...
...Our mission is a mission of liberation for a free and democratic nation, got to be part of the world...
...government and obtained by The Weekly Standard...
...Security Council since April 5, 1991, when that body declared itself "seized of the matter"—the matter, that is, of the mass slaughter of the Iraqi people by their outlaw leader...
...Demands that Iraq, as a contribution to remove the threat to international peace and security in the region, immediately end this repression, and expresses the hope in the same context that an open dialogue will take place to ensure that the human and political rights of all Iraqi citizens are respected...
...Hakim, the engineer from California, is part of a group the Pentagon is calling the Free Iraqi Forces...
...Interviewer: Have you had any prior military experience...
...And I was very upset because my name was not on the list to join this mission after three or four days...
...David is a middle-aged construction contractor...
...However noble Kofi Annan's intentions, if he had had his way, these atrocities would have continued...
...No Saddam Hussein...
...On Sunday, March 9, two men who desperately wanted to join the U.S...
...but as long as my country needs me I will wear this (grabs uniform...
...Interviewer: How soon after you applied did you hear that you were chosen...
...Americans very good," he offered...
...David "Bull" Gurfein started another cheer, and several Iraqi men joined in...
...David: Well, actually before I volunteered I set me and my wife, and we discussed it and she knows it's a noble job...
...I left the country in 1974, when I realized at a very early age that the country gonna go down the hill under such management—they are a gang rather than a leader...
...Perhaps if we had persevered a little longer Iraq could yet have been disarmed peacefully," he had said...
...Although scores of Iraqi Americans seem to have been shut out of pursuing their "good dreams," others are working with American forces inside Iraq...
...I ' got two lives: I got life in United States and I got previous life...
...and the United States coming into Iraq...
...I must go to Iraq," said al Saedy...
...David: It's a hell...
...I work all kind of jobs...
...It sits at the confluence of overdeveloped and rural, one of the last of the gleaming, sharp-edged modern structures before you reach the terminal...
...military had provided to Iraqis to prepare them for the work they are now doing, side by side with American soldiers near the Iraqi border...
...As Annan spoke to television cameras on Thursday, Hakim, one of the Iraqis who occupy the secretary general's thoughts, was working with U.S...
...What would you say to these demonstrators who are pretty much living in free and democratic countries and here they have a great deal to say about the U.N...
...Kofi Annan lost that argument...
...In fact, I think it's still with me...
...A lot of them were happening before you came here, and probably in the month that you were here more have popped up around the world...
...That's what democracy is all about...
...A young man concurred...
...government interviewer: You're giving up a lot to put your business on hold, your family life on hold, to go to Iraq to help democratize the country...
...But I see an American army and all these units and working for U.S...
...And I went ahead on the phone and called the State Department, the Pentagon, everybody I can find on the Internet...
...government personnel, and some of the questions, perhaps those above, could fairly be described as leading...
...troops in Iraq...
...The lobby, the day we met, was a makeshift cafe, with nearly a dozen Iraqis chain-smoking cigarettes and sipping stale Microtel coffee from white styrofoam cups...
...troops in the desert near the Iraqi border...
...He had graduated that day from a training course that the U.S...
...Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since the U.N...
...The middle-aged Iraqi-American petrochemical engineer was preparing for war...
...sanctions imposed because Saddam would not disarm...
...Some cheered and chanted "Ameriki...
...After our meeting, the group was taken to New York for several days, and then returned to the Microtel a week before the bombing began...
...You can do nothing...
...None of them had any idea where they were going or when they would leave...
...And when my country called me, I'm also your citizen, and when my chief and commander want me to serve I am happy to do it and willing to do it as long as it takes...
...Hamdy is an engineer and small business owner from Missouri...
...An Iraqi named Ali Khemy spoke to Ellen Knick-meyer of the Associated Press...
...Interviewer: How did you tell your family—what did you tell your family...
...Then] I receive a phone call from my friends, part of the politicians in Washington, D.C., telling me about this duty, and my wife just saw me jumping and laughing and dancing that my name was on the list...
...Hamdy: It's a little above my expectation...
...Their anticipation of the coming adventure was apparent...
...Now, we're twenty-first century...
...I live all my life, I born there...
...They spent the last 35 years in total dictatorship, stripped [of] their dignity and freedom...
...government interviewer: You've finished one month of training—you've probably left a very comfortable life back home...
...Marines ripped down the omnipresent, oversized portraits of Saddam Hussein...
...Of all those present, he was the only one who looked like he might have stayed in a Microtel before...
...I see a face of woman has been stripped out of their dignity for the last 35 years...
...Interviewer: Tell me about the training—was it what you expected...
...The Microtel is a huge pre-fab building off of the toll road that takes D.C...
...Interviewer: You probably are aware of the demonstrations being held around the world...
...David: This is very hard question...
...Others were dressed in Western clothes...
...Imagine—you cannot go out the way you want...
...resolutions passed after the Gulf War, were strong...
...Where you been when Saddam Hussein killed 100,000 Kurds...
...Interviewer: What do you think you might accomplish...
...David: Well, I live in the United States since 1984, happily married, got five children—all of them born in the United States...
...Two of the Iraqis—former Republican Guard general Riadh Abdullah and his friend Lt...
...They were scheduled to leave for Kuwait City on the evening of Tuesday, March 18, but the flight that brought me to Kuwait the day before that was the last British Airways flight in, and most other carriers cut back their schedules severely...
...Some, perhaps as many as one million, perished from causes related to U.N...
...David: No I don't have no military experience...
...I see a piece of child lost his happiness and smile for years...
...In fact my mission started 26 years ago, I never lay down, I never sleep...
...made that dramatic and worthless paper proclamation...
...The men listed their bona fides, and it was hard to disagree...
...You cannot work...
...Bush...
...Where you been when he killed a million Iraqi soldiers and Iraqis and Iranis...
...But if they don't need me no more, we shall see...
...Are you as dedicated right now on your graduation day as you were when you first came here...
...Kuwaiti television captured the scene in the southern Iraqi city of Safwan, a town notable because it's where coalition and Iraqi military leaders signed the cease-fire that ended the first Gulf War in 1991...
...I consider this a continuation for the mission we started in 1991...
...In the first section, the instruction focused on things like self-defense, map-reading, and military customs, as well as first aid and chemical/biological weapons protection...
...Hamdy: I was obligated for that, the day I joined the uprising on February 2,1991, when I give away all of my privilege, when I was living a very comfortable life in my country, when I joined the people—I joined the uprising against the regime trying to overthrow Saddam from power and gain our freedom and democracy in Iraq...
...Interviewer: You must have been excited when you heard about this opportunity...
...Interviewer: Do you have any idea what life is like in Iraq today...
...The Iraqi officers jumped on the al-Khoei Foundation trip as their ticket to the region...
...Both had been flown to Dulles by the Majid al-Khoei Foundation, a nonprofit Muslim cultural and philanthropic center...
...to go for the civil military operation and all of our training is for the duty of taking care of civilians in Iraq...
...troops, but the total is probably no more than 300...
...They were out of place in this group, they told me, because of their vast military experience...
...The world's top diplomat was talking...
...David: Yes, my family is still in Iraq...
...The foundation's plan, as one of the participants told me, was to dispatch teams of 15 Iraqi exiles to cities and towns throughout Iraq to "settle the people" once the fighting began...
...Ameriki...
...resolutions hadn't been enough...
...While he convened meetings between Cameroon and France, while he discussed human rights doctrines sipping tea on New York's East Side, while he wished for "an open dialogue" on Iraq, more Iraqis would have died...
...Others died directly at the hands of the Iraqi dictator—^by political assassination, random execution, or mass killing...
...You cannot talk...
...David: Yes (pause), last communication was approximately a year ago...
...This is my good dream...
...Interviewer: If Saddam Hussein is uprooted in Iraq, will you return or stay in your country to help democratize...
...When did he leave Iraq...
...Iraqis...
...Over the past several months, the Bush administration has fielded thousands of inquiries from Iraqis eager to enlist—many from the United States and others from around the world...
...Why, Hakim was asked, did he choose to leave a comfortable life in America to join U.S...
...They wanted to know if I had heard anything more about potential work with the Defense Department...
...And my wife was dancing more than me because she want me to go (he says smiling big...
...U.S...
...Interviewer: So tell me about the training...
...As well, she was angry that her name was not on, because she wanted to join this mission as well...
...If Kofi Annan is now thinking of the Iraqi people, they might be forgiven for asking, What took you so long...
...Then, he had changed the subject, saying, "My thoughts today are with the Iraqi people...
...They were trained at an air base in Taszar, Hungary...
...Where you been when he occupied Kuwait and he killed over a thousand Kuwaitis...
...But the people of Iraq cannot do it...
...David: Approximately two weeks, a very torture two weeks I was waiting...
...Both men had signed up to work with the Pentagon, but had heard nothing...
...David: Well first we had training in self-defense, then we had training with civil military operations, and then we graduated today...
...Why nobody says nothing...
...Moments later, another question...
...Its namesake and current general secretary, Sayed Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a Shia Muslim cleric, is by reputation a moderate...
...David: Well, it's not first time...
...Iraq wants to be free...
...That's what freedom is all about...
...In the final two weeks, the Free Iraqi Forces' boot camp concentrated on refugee resettlement and working with relief agencies...
...No room for dictators...
...It ^ police state, it is hard...
...One man pounded Saddam's face with his shoe...
...This exchange comes from a series of exit interviews taped by the U.S...
...All of them, even the old men, had been hoping for something more, possibly a combat role...
...The "peace" he so desired, which really wasn't so peaceful at all, has given way to war...
...The current rumor was that they would work with British forces once bombs started dropping, translating from English into Arabic and back again...
...Several participants wept at the graduation ceremony...
...David: Less than 24 hours...
...Interviewer: If Saddam Hussein were in front of you instead of me what would you say to him...
...The words of Resolution 688, one of the first U.N...
...visitors to Dulles airport...
...One man was wearing khakis and a white sweater bearing the blue-and-gold emblem of the University of Michigan...
...Every time I look at a friend here with me at training, I see a brother suffering there in the prison or torture or disappear...
...No doubt many Iraqis who signed up for these programs are now glued to their television sets, frustrated to have been left behind...
...It's very, very tough...
...I see a waste of resources of a great country and cradle of civilization has been waste...
...Do you feel as dedicated today as when you first came here...
...Military officials here won't reveal exactly how many Iraqis are working with U.S...
...Here are some thoughts expressed by two members of the Free Iraqi Forces, recorded on the day they graduated from training in Hungary...
...Defense Department sources say that processing these applications has taken time—in part because of the need for careful vetting of volunteers...
...In 1991 when Iraq invaded Kuwait, nobody willing to take me that time...
...Now, your time to go...
...How did you present this to your family...
...That modest count is not for lack of volunteers...
...David: Well, I am overwhelmed, I am overwhelmed by these beautiful young men and womens who left their loved ones in the United States and they came here to train me, I feel so small (hand gesture for smallness) compared to what they're doing...
...Twelve years and seventeen U.N...
...Tell me something about the life you left before you came here...
...The Iraqi people have officially been in the thoughts of the U.N...
...I hadn't, but promised I would check...
...Free, you can talk, you can do anything you want to do...
...But the training within the last four weeks has just bringed that dream back to reality...
...I had gotten to know them on a recent trip to Dearborn, Michigan...
...U.S...
...David: Well, I would tell them I'm proud of you...
...David: I hope to do my job as my country want me to do...
...As we have three children and we cannot leave them and either she or me has to join these forces, so we decided that I would go for this mission and she stay until we liberate Iraq and I will move them all...
...It's very hard life...
...Earlier, on Thursday, the United Nations secretary general had expressed his disappointment that the war had begun...
...They knew only that they would be involved in some way in the liberation...
...Iraqis...
...The Security Council, it said, Condemns the repression of the Iraqi civilian population in many parts of Iraq, including most recently in Kurdish populated areas, the consequences of which threaten international peace and security in the region...
...The interviews were conducted by Stephen F. Hayes a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...Hamdy: (Deep breath) Actually, my name comes up three or four days after my colleagues in the city I live in in Missouri...
...Our story is the story of the 22 million Iraqis...
...Today is the day where the mission start and I'm comforted more than ever...
Vol. 8 • March 2003 • No. 28
