Quagmire?
NOT!
by Jennifer King, Managing Editor
October 7, 2003
Frustrated
by the all the bad news from Iraq? To hear the established story, our soldiers
are trapped in a Vietnam-like “quagmire”, are universally hated by
the Iraqis and are viewed as invaders and oppressors. Balderdash, according
to Robert and Roni Anderson (right, at Al-Qosh Monastery). The Andersons should
know, they’ve been in Iraq since 1992, helping Kurdish children orphaned
when Saddam Hussein killed their parents.
Robert Anderson, a 30-year IBM employee, was in Iraq on charitable work - drilling a well for the impoverished Kurds. That project, which was supposed to take 30 days, turned into a mission which would become Robert and Roni’s life. The story starts in 1992, when Robert and his group salvaged some MREs left behind by retreating U.S. troops after the Gulf War. The emptied MREs were then put into a trash dump, which was periodically burned with diesel fuel. One day, Robert noticed some ragamuffin children poking around in the dump. One of his Kurdish companions told him that they were orphan children, living in the prison where their parents had been murdered. When Robert investigated, he was horrified to find the ragged and filthy children living in cells in the infamous Nizarki prison, sleeping below the bloodstained ropes that had been used to hang their mothers and fathers.
Determined
to help, Robert placed a call to Roni (left). “Roni”, he said, “You
need to get over here. These children need a Mom.” After a harrowing journey
from Turkey through active combat zones, Roni was there. Saddam’s brutality
towards the Kurds was horrific. Out of 5,000 villages, Saddam razed 4500. The
huts, made primarily of rocks, were bulldozed to the ground. Saddam even set
fire to the local trees. The Kurds, those who were left, had nothing. Food consisted
solely of rice and tomatoes. The water was unclean, and Roni later caught hepatitis.
There were no antibiotics - one five year old child with pneumonia had been
sent home from the hospital to die because the doctors could do nothing more
for him. Roni carefully crushed up an antibiotic tablet that she had, and the
child lived.
Robert and Roni, on a visit home to Atlanta, looked around at their beautiful home, their possessions, and their Mercedes and Jeep. Turning to his wife, Robert said, “There’s nothing here that I want.” Selling the luxuries, they went back to Iraq.
The Andersons started a group called “Concern For Kids, LTD”. (www.Concern4Kids.com). Over the next few years, Concern For Kids would provide food and shelter to impoverished children. They would host teams comprised of doctors and nurses - who would fan out to the villages, providing prenatal, pediatric and women’s care to Iraqis. They helped rebuild churches and villages destroyed by Saddam. One man, crying as they painstakingly rebuilt his stone home, said it had been bulldozed three separate times. They even managed help rescue and provide asylum for 6,318 Kurds - now political refugees living in the U.S. The Andersons did such a good job for the Kurds that they found themselves on Saddam’s hit list - with a $120 billion dinar bounty on their heads. Yet, the people they helped were so grateful, they were never betrayed.
Robert
and Roni also have a very different view of the successful Operation Iraqi
Freedom. Based in Mosul, they are in close contact with the 101st Airborne
Division (personnel pictured right). Robert recounts how, when the soldiers
are on the move, children run alongside the convoys, blowing kisses and waving
homemade American flags. The U.S. military, in addition to repairing the infrastructure
ruined by Saddam, is providing medical care and food supplies. According to
Robert and Roni, the Iraqis are extremely grateful to America for this and for
removing the evil regime of Saddam Hussein and his twisted sons. Most families
lost at least one family member to the hated Baathists, and they are glad to
see them, and their human shredders gone. When asked if he believes that Saddam
is still alive, Robert replied that it is difficult to tell because, “there
are six or seven Saddams.” “Yet”, he continued, “he’s
out of power and he can no longer terrorize helpless Iraqis.”
When asked if the Iraqis truly want the Americans gone, Robert replied that his Iraqi contacts say, “If the Americans leave, the Iraqis will want to leave also.” Robert reports, that in the Arab world, strength is equated with power and weakness with contempt. Appeasement, as proven throughout history, does not stop homicidal, megalomaniac madmen bent on conquering the world.
When Robert and Roni were asked for some Iraqi quotes regarding America’s actions they gave the following:
A common saying is, “Allah is in his heaven, and George W. Bush is there beside him.”
The head of the powerful Kurdish Misouri Clan, Aga Gazi Misouri, said: “The United States of America is the only nation worth dying for.”
Robert, expressed bewilderment that the U.S. media has got it so wrong about the troops in Iraq. He said, “Why are they giving these false impressions? Don’t they know that it demoralizes and discourages these kids who are doing such a good job?”
Indeed.
Yet, as Robert and Roni continue their charitable work in Iraq, Robert sees
a great deal of hope for the future. “God made a promise to the Iraqi people,
in Jeremiah 49:34. George
W. Bush is fulfilling that promise, today.” ***
© 2003 Jennifer King
COPYRIGHT © 2003 BY THE AMERICAN PARTISAN. All writers retain rights to their work.
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