She is a roughly 60 year old Catholic Iraqi who was accepted as an official refugee in 2008. She has a legal problem. The interpreter was a U of H student from another nearbye c,ountry who had lived in Iraq between the two wars and speaks fluent Arabic. The old lady was a depressed, near vegetable. Apparently her house of many many years was bombed and destroyed during the war. Her husband was killed in the bombing. She survived and came to the US with two adult daughters. The old lady is obviously suffering from depression and post traumatic stress disorder. Her daughters are struggling to learn English and can be of only limited help for her. What was most interesting to me was that the young U of H student told me casually that the Iraqis hate us for what we have done to destroy their country, but says many won't tell us that. This was said casually without bitterness and the U of H student seems personally quite optimistic about her career prospects. Interestingly the young woman, also a Catholic, said that she is glad that not as many Muslim Iraqis are admitted to this country as refugees.
Some must suffer for a greater cause, in this situation though I doubt it was worth it. Sad to hear...
Sure it was, control of oil supply + tons of money for US government contractors. It's a win-win. Seriously though, anyone that still believes we originally went into Iraq because of the WMD threat is delusional.
Almost every Iraqi or Kurd I have spoken to who are immigrants to Western lands have told me they hold the US in the highest contempt for what they did to their once beautiful country. Granted they weren't refugees, but most still have family or used to visit often.
I really don't get how the extreme right actually believes Bush went into Iraq to take down Sadaam and "liberate" the Iraqi people. Since when did the Hannity's/Limbaugh's/O'Reilly's of the world start caring about the well-being of Iraqis? If that's the case, I'm still waiting for the day we liberate Pyonyang... Some people say religion is the world's largest fraud. If that it is true, then US foreign policy is a close 2nd.
Like him or not, lumping O'Reilly in with those other two isn't fair at all. While he initially supported the war, he has said for some time now that Iraq was a huge mistake, and has apologized several times.
it is really sad because the Christian minority community in Iraq has effectively been wiped out by the American campaign. not to hijack this topic, but do you know if some refugee agencies in Houston are hiring? I am in the process of looking for a job and would really like to do something where I can help out new refugees with their interpretation and resettlement needs, and I figure immigration lawyers or other law offices might be a natural place to look. I am fluent in Arabic and have some experience working with recent immigrants. If anyone here can give me a tip I would be thankful. I am really looking for any full-time opportunities at this point, immigration or otherwise
If you do not believe that the intel that the US receives is faulty a good bit of the time, then explain why the US under Clinton bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Thanks for your help.
Bad comparison imo. Iraq intel was faulty but it was also manipulated in such a way as to form an illusion that Iraq was a threat. Whether this was due to the right-wing/neo-con way of reshaping the world through nation-building, lucrative miltary-industrial contracts, the Israeli 'lobby', oil, naive/sincere intentions on the part of Evangelical factions trying to make ME a better place, or simply an unfortunate combination of all the above is still being debated. From De Spiegel: Here's the 2007 interview
It's interesting that she hates the US, yet comes here to get a college degree. Doesn't that seem hypocritical?
I think the scenario is that she's a 60-yr-old windowed refugee with 2 kids. The student in the scenario was the interpreter who was very matter-of-fact in tone if I'm reading this correctly.
A few years ago a friend of mine was dating an Iraqi refugee, a Shi'ite. He seemed bitter too about the war even though he admitted that his people suffered quite a bit under Saddam.
Are you serious? She hates the US government for its choices, she hated Saddam and she certainly hates the current Iraqi regime. She doesn't hate the American people. There are millions of Americans who feel exactly as she does about those 3 groups. Maybe a small exercise will help clarify. List out this family's options considering the events which have unfolded since the husbad's death.
