The face of a patriot
Student witnesses devastation in Baghdad

February 13, 2004
by Sarah Heddon
Staff Reporter

Fedaa Jasim, Dearborn senior, never expected to spend the semester break from Albion pleading for her family’s lives.

After spending three weeks in Iraq over winter break, Jasim came to realize just how much the American occupation affected her family in Baghdad.

She and her father tried to argue for the release of her two uncles and three cousins who had been arrested by American forces three months earlier, they were told, on charges of planning resistance. The last week she was there, her family was informed that one of her uncles had died. “If they would have only taken the time to get to know my family they would have known that there was no connection,” Jasim said. Her outrage reflects the frustration and hopelessness felt by many Iraqis, faced with the lack of security currently in their country.

Jasim had mixed sentiments about her first trip to Iraq.

“It was nice to see my family, but the situation there was really horrible” Jasim said. “I didn’t expect to see such a war torn place. For example, it has been eight months since the war has been over and nothing has been rebuilt. All the government buildings are still burnt down.”

Her first week in Iraq was an adjustment, to say the least. “There is no such thing as security or safety and you are in constant fear of getting shot at,” she said. “The gun shots are constant. But after a while you get used to it, and the fear dissipates.”

Jasim described the present state of Baghdad as a place where garbage overflows into the streets due to the lack of government jobs; a city where construction occurs on any available, open land; a place without phone lines; a city where traffic flows in conflicting directions leading to standstills and chaos; and a place where taxi drivers rob and kill their passengers.

“There is no order,” Jasim said. “The police have no authority and the Iraqi people feel trapped. The absence of a strong, central authority is creating more ethnic turmoil.”

To Jasim, the kind of ethnic conflict that allowed a rebel militia to arrest and seize another uncle at gunpoint from his home illustrates a major difference between conditions in Iraq now and when Saddam Hussein was in power.

While traveling from the country of Jordon to Baghdad by car, Jasim experienced the powerlessness Iraqis currently have over their own natural resources.

“The Iraqi people stand in lines for miles and days just to get gas for their cars,” she said. Gas prices have skyrocketed while sources of income haven’t increased. Before the war it cost about 300 dinar for 30 liters of gas, and now it’s like 3,000,” she said.

Scenes like this make it hard for Jasim to understand why the American government chose to pursue war.

“Morally, I was always against the war because I did not agree with reasons that Bush presented,” she said. Our goal was to get rid of Saddam. Granted, Saddam was very cruel to his people, but every dictator or president in that area does the same exact same thing. Why did we only attack Saddam? Don’t get me wrong, it is good that they got rid of Saddam, but all other aspects of the war make no sense.”

After America had occupied Iraq and desecrated so much of Baghdad, Jasim believed in the moral obligation of reconstruction. Her journey may have changed her mind.

Now, after her experience in Baghdad, she questions whether the United States-led initiative to rebuild Iraq is benefiting Iraqis or Americans.

“There is no sign of reconstruction for the Iraqi people”, Jasim said. They are building prison areas and airports and buildings that benefit only the American forces. American soldiers took over and are occupying all of the nice places in Baghdad and are preventing Iraqis from using those places. They don’t care about the Iraqi people, these are their places. Right now the Iraqi people are trapped. There are no jobs and everything has been taken away from them.

“If you talk to Iraqi people, they believe that there is no justification for this war,” she said. “Americans came in, blew up buildings, ruined cities and now they are bringing in their companies for reconstruction, she said. Right now the Iraqis feel that Americans are trying to steal their money.”

Reflecting on the actions of her government and the hatred toward Americans she experienced during her journey, Jasim feels her American citizenship and her Iraqi roots sometimes conflict.

“It is a struggle to balance being an Iraqi and being an American,” Jasim said. “I really feel for both sides. Why do our troops have to go there and get killed everyday? You should see them. They are afraid for their lives, every single soldier.”

But from this struggle stems a strong sense of patriotism.

“When I went there, my heart fell because I felt like I am an American, I should be able to change this, to have some say in what’s going on. It is because I am patriotic and care about this country and how this country is viewed that I want to initiate change.”

Drawing on strength from her family and also from the premise that her activism has the ability to change things for her family in Iraq, Jasim attempts to initiate social awareness about the current situation in Iraq.

“I think my job here is to spread the word that many things portrayed in the American media are total lies. It is a total propaganda war here, so I think my job is to educate. I am not generalizing, but so many people are just blinded by what they see. They can’t picture anything other than what is shown in the media."

For Jasim, spreading the truth is patriotic.