Welcome home, Khuder
04.07.2003
Khuder Al-Emeri, an Iraqi exile finally returned to his home village today. At the head of the 1st Battalion, Free Iraqi Forces (more). In the picture, he's hugging his 15-year-old son — for the first time in twelve years. Here's another amazing story (heartbreaking, actually).
Granted, the fact that Iraqis are rejoicing and celebrating coalition advances throughout Iraq — even in Baghdad and Basra — doesn't necessarily justify the war. I suppose neither do recent discoveries of chemical and biological weapons. Nor the gruesome torture chambers we found. Or the mass graves and boxes of mutilated bodies, all catalogued and photographed. But it certainly makes one reconsider.
A popular Hollywood criticism was: "What has Iraq done to us?" If you limit "us" to only Americans, then not much. But. If you extend "us" to include civilized humanity, then Hussein's done an awful lot. The first definition is (at best) quaint provincialism; the second, an internationalist ethos (akin to this).
The real question might now come from the Iraqis themselves: What has Susan Sarandon done for us? What has International ANSWER done for us? What has France done for us? What has the UN done for us? The operative word is for. All of them can take comfort in the fact that they did nothing to the Iraqi people. But the US Marines are doing something for them.
The smile on this Iraqi girl's face certainly looks genuine to me.
Posted by Miguel at 07:50 PM
Comments
?snainitselap eht rof enod neeb sah tahw ,snoitseuq yksir
Posted by: Guy at April 9, 2003 12:35 PM
What has been done for the Palestinians? Let's see. Israel built them an airport in Gaza. A university in the West Bank. It armed and trained the Palestinian Authority police forces. It built hospitals and schools. It brought investments into the area. It tried to give them an independent state. W/ one tiny little condition: please stop blowing up our children. I guess that was asking too much, eh?
Posted by: miguel at April 9, 2003 01:13 PM