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Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets
  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.


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Monday, April 7, 2003
16:24 - An Exile Comes Home
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030407/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_iraq_h

(top) link
Via The Command Post.

I once had the privilege to travel to Russia with a school group, in 1992, in the company of a man who had been living in Northern California in exile for ten years. This was only shortly after communism fell, and he was taking the first opportunity that availed him to hitch back to his family's home outside Leningrad, which had just become St. Petersburg once again.

The scene of reunion, in front of our whole group, drove home to all of us the real meaning of the fall of the old regime-- what it meant for the people it affected most. We all got to see first-hand what it means when freedom is restored to individual people who had had it withheld from them, who had had their families forcibly split up by the political realities of living in a real, live police state.

And it's starting again-- this is one of what are likely to be thousands of similar stories unfolding soon:

Khuder Al-Emeri, 43, left his Seattle restaurant behind three months ago to join the Free Iraqi Forces, a group of exiles trained by the U.S. military to serve as interpreters and guides in Iraq (news - web sites).

Wearing desert camouflage and assisting the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, his return to the Shiite village where he once led an uprising against Saddam's regime was a whirlwind of tears and hugs - seeing relatives he didn't even recognize after 12 years away.

"I came to help my people," Al-Emeri said.

. . .

Leader of a Shiite uprising during the first Gulf War (news - web sites), Al-Emeri left the country in April 1991 and said the Iraqi regime placed a price on his head. He was only able to communicate with his family - who was regularly questioned about his whereabouts - by relaying messages through acquaintances in Baghdad. The restaurant he ran, named "Peace" in Arabic, was seized by the government along with his other businesses.

His family were among those who rushed out to greet him - including his 15-year-old son, Ali, whom he hadn't seen since he left Iraq. When they first saw each other, they embraced tightly and wept.

Ali Al-Emeri said he was afraid to ever let his father go away again, but Al-Emeri assured him: "Stay home. You are safe. I am here, the U.S. forces are here."

I wonder what his family might like to say to the anti-war folks here in the US.


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© Brian Tiemann