One of the consequences of not achieving victory in Iraq is that those who do accept our friendship can find themselves targets, like seven notable men who were special guests in Houston.
In spring 2004, seven Iraqis who had been brutalized by Saddam Hussein's regime came to Houston, where they got their amputated hands replaced with prosthetic devices. The men quickly became a local and national symbol of hope and healing in the early stages of the war.Posted by Alan at February 13, 2007 12:28 PMIn fact, after an Oval Office meeting with President Bush, during which the men so impressed the president that they became a triumphal note in his speeches on the war, they returned to Iraq to share their country's new future.
But since they were warmly embraced by Houston, their lives have become a harrowing, capsule version of the collapse of their homeland into danger, death and despair.
Some of the men are trying to get out of Iraq and possibly return to the United States. But they are finding little success in the bewildering process of escaping Iraq as political refugees.
"At this time I'm confined to my home. I cannot leave it as I fear for my life. Even the children are suffering to be enclosed all the time," one of the men, Nazar Joudi, said in a recent letter to an American friend.