posted on May 10, 2004 02:42:40 PM new
Some say Sunni prisoners deserved mistreatment
By JOHN IWASAKI
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
EVERETT -- The abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. soldiers draws intense reactions from some who left Iraq to find freedom in Washington state, but prolonged outrage isn't one of them.
While some local Iraqis are bothered by the images, others welcome them.
"It's a terrible thing and it adds more wood to the fire," said Hussein Al-Muhanna, who came to the United States in 1993. "(But) to me, it's not the issue I have to worry about. To me, the main issue is Iraq's future."
Imad al-Turfy, another Everett resident, shows no sympathy for the prisoners, saying their treatment paled when compared with the horrors inflicted under Saddam Hussein's regime.
"They raped our women. They killed our kids. So there's hatred between us, the people here, and the people in Iraq," he said, referring to the Shiite Muslims who emigrated and the Sunni Muslims who ruled Iraq under Saddam.
"Anything coming to them would make me happy."
Al-Muhanna and al-Turfy were among about 20 Iraqi men who met last night to talk politics, discuss their jobs and offer opinions on the latest headlines.
Al-Turfy said he could "tell a million stories" about Saddam's abuses: the people who were blown apart by dynamite or thrown off 20-story buildings, or the family that was buried alive in a car in Baghdad.
"You can't imagine," he said. "They killed us like rats. Like anything cheap."
So to view photos of prisoners in humiliating positions -- one month after seeing another chilling image, the charred and mutilated corpses of Americans hanging from a bridge over the Euphrates River -- was "worth it, because they did the same to us," al-Turfy said, a comment echoed by several other Iraqis.
Mosafer Al-Yaseri, a Lynnwood resident, said that the abuse by some soldiers should not taint the overall efforts of the U.S. Army.
"(The Iraqis) feel soldiers come from good families. Over there, there are 135,000 soldiers. Out of that, 10 people are bad," he said.
His cousin, Salam Al-Yaseri, said that the images were "not good for the American government or the American people. ... As you know, we are Muslims. This is a very bad thing in our religion. The people that did this did not (represent) the American people."
Al-Muhanna said the photos of prisoners were "embarrassing for me."
Though at least some of those depicted were loyal to Saddam, "I still do not want the American Army to do that," he said.
"Some of them could be innocent. Innocent people shouldn't be treated like that. They are a human being. It represents something disgusting."
Patience is running thin in Iraq as the United States attempts to bring stability to the country before turning it over to the new Iraqi government on June 30.
"For one year, there's no work, no jobs and corruption everywhere and contractors not doing their job," said Al-Muhanna, recounting telephone conversations with relatives in Iraq. "There's no management. It's not a country, not a government. There's nothing that works even 30 percent efficiently. That's what our family tells us."
Al-Turfy also has received an unsettling update.
"I got a call from my dad," al-Turfy said. "He says, 'It's a horrible thing. We are in big trouble because of looters with guns.' My reaction was, the American soldiers, they'll be on their way to get them liberated. He said, 'I hope so.' "
Riyadh Al-Alaki, also an Everett resident, said that the problems won't cease until there is better security at Iraq's borders.
"The Iraqis know better (than the Americans) if people are from Syria or Iran. Americans see them all the same. As we have heard, these are the ones making trouble," he said.
Mosifer Al-Yaseri said that while the Arab TV network al-Jazeera has repeatedly shown photos of the Iraqi prisoners, it did not report about abuses under Saddam.
"If there's a good story about how Iraq has changed, they never show it," he said. "They never showed a bad thing about Saddam Hussein."
Reyal Sindi, director of Kurdish Human Rights Watch in Kent, questions the U.S. decision to restore some of the Baath Party leaders to positions of authority in Iraq.
"To me and my people, that's the baddest thing," said Sindi, who did not attend last night's meeting in Everett.
"All we saw from (Saddam's regime) was casualties and suffering. It was those people who did it. It was not Saddam alone. He was just one person sitting in the palace."
"The Secret Service has announced it is doubling its protection for John Kerry. You can understand why — with two positions on every issue, he has twice as many people mad at him." —Jay Leno
What those GIs did was reprehensible and obviously morally beneath us all. They should be punished to the full extent of the law and made examples of in the strongest way.
BUT...
This isn't the biggest deal in the world, despite what the media would have us all think.
Remember, these prisoners of war are mostly Saddam loyalists. They aren't exactly the most popular people among the majority of Iraqis right now. Although as I said above, I don't condone this, there will be plenty of Iraqis who say "Good for them, they had it coming."
--------------------------------------
We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing -- Anonymous
