The War of Freedom

This week, our Senior Vice President for all of Mercy Corps' global programs made a three-day stop in Basrah. As part of a presentation, our Deputy Head of Office - an Iraqi national - gave a brief overview of Basrah's history for the past several decades. Hearing his candid perspective on the state of the Iraqi republic was a real privilege. I am impressed at how frank and forthcoming my colleagues have been as they share their experiences in Iraq new and old. Here is a brief paraphrase of what Eyada told us:

"Basrah was always a prosperous city, as it is the country's only port and sits on large oil reserves. While Baghdad is Iraq's political capital, Basrah is its economic one. In the 1970s, life was good in Iraq. The country was safe and politically stable, and people had jobs and were easily able to feed their families. When the Iran-Iraq war happened, things became somewhat difficult but were still okay. At the time, the people of Iraq and throughout the Middle East saw Saddam Hussein as a hero and a great leader. But then Iraq invaded Kuwait, and everything changed. The economy went bad, corruption was rampant, and many people found themselves out of work and living in poverty.

It was at this point that the popular opinion of Saddam became very negative. After the war, it only got worse. We no longer trusted him, and he put our country in a very bad situation. It was only in our dreams that we could envision an Iraq free of his corrupt dictatorship. But our dreams came true when we watched the statue of Saddam topple in 2003. For the first time, we had hope for a free Iraq. And this is why I call that time the War of Freedom - because it was the beginning of making our country truly free."

Eyada is, by many accounts, a perfectly average Iraqi: he is Sunni, he is middle-class and well educated. Many of us in America have a tendency to believe that the average Iraqi might not have supported our operations in their country, viewed us as invaders, exploiters, colonialists. It could only be oppressed Shi'a or impoverished, disenfranchised citizens who would cheer regime change regardless of the morals or the consequences. Eyada is none of those things; he is simply an Iraqi citizen who saw what his country had become, and knew that its people deserved better.

I am trying to decide what my stance is on the US-led operations here, whether I think it was right or wrong, whether it was justified, or whether the ends justified the means. I don't suppose I'll ever have an answer, because there are too many convincing arguments on both sides. But at the very least, it gives me hope to know that there are Iraqis out there who feel that their lives, and their country, have been improved by what has taken place in the last six years. Right or wrong, I hope it has set the stage for positive change ... for a new Iraq. And I hope our work, through the 81 courageous, dedicated members of our national staff, is helping to bring that new Iraq to life.