EVERETT – President Bush found support – and skepticism – for his new Iraq strategy among Snohomish County residents.
Bush’s plan, announced Wednesday, includes adding 21,500 more troops and spending more money to rebuild Iraq’s crumbling infrastructure.
“There will be good security, and more buildings, schools and houses,” said Abdul al Tamimi, 52, an Iraqi who fled Karbala and arrived in Everett in 1993. “Maybe I can go back.”
Everett is home to the state’s largest Iraqi community – 1,000 or more people, by some estimates. Most of the families live close together in a dense neighborhood in north Everett.
They say Bush is their savior. When he bombarded Baghdad and plundered former dictator Saddam Hussein’s palaces, they say, he offered a new life for every Iraqi.
Each military or political shift renews their hope that, one day, they will return home.
Now, nearly two weeks after Hussein was hanged, many Iraqis simply continued their celebration.
“This will help Iraq, especially Baghdad,” al Tamimi said.
In Snohomish, Shellie Starr, mother of slain Marine Cpl. Jeffrey Starr of Snohomish, said the president might be on track finally.
“I think his advisers didn’t encourage him to have enough troops to begin with. We hate what we’re seeing,” Starr said.
She said her son, who participated in the invasion of Baghdad, talked about caches of weapons left behind because there weren’t enough troops to guard them.
“Maybe Jeff wouldn’t have had to go back three times if we had had more troops,” Starr said.
“Jeff still served his country honorably and his death would not be in vain,” she said. In the case of failure, “I would feel it’s a tragedy for this country.”
Hussein al Rubaye, 36, of Everett worked as an Arabic interpreter for L-3 Communications with a mobile interrogation unit in 2005.
He recently signed another yearlong contract and plans to leave Sunday for training in Virginia. By February, he’ll be in Iraq.
More troops will help stabilize the country, al Rubaye said, but Iraqi forces must learn to not rely on the U.S. He said the Iraqi government should institute a draft to grow the Iraqi army. That way, he said, it will be strong enough to secure the country on its own more quickly.
But Hatam Shafeean, an Iranian pharmacist who claimed political asylum in the United States in 1984, believes Bush’s new strategy will bring increased violence.
“I know (Iraq) was not democratic by any means, but this is not the way to deal with the area,” Shafeean said. “Iraq had not much to do with 9/11. This was just a strategy of big oil cartels, and it’s not as easy as they thought it would be.”
It’s impossible to win a country purely with military might, he said.
“The media should show what’s going on over there. Show the lobbies of the hospitals, the clinics, the morgues,” he said. “Then the American people will know that these are human beings, too. Not everyone is a terrorist.”
The only good that can come out of the situation is that Bush may think twice before engaging Iran in a similar fashion, Shafeean said.
Even if Bush sent every soldier he has to Iraq, the U.S. military will still fail in its attempt to crush the terrorists, he said.
“There will be killings, lots of violence,” he said. “In the end, it will be even worse.”
Kris Krischano, who retired from the Navy, said the president’s speech was really “the same old story we’ve heard for almost four years.”
Krischano, of Everett, said the November election forced Bush to respond in some way. But he said he hates the idea of putting more troops at risk.
If the commanders in the field had been listened to in the first place, the whole situation might now be different, Krischano said.
The addition, thousands more troops to secure neighborhoods in Baghdad, is something that should have been done earlier, Krischano said. “Why didn’t we hear that two years ago?”
For Kal Leichtman of Everett, the difference between this war and World War II is that the politicians have not given the generals the power to act.
Leichtman, adjutant for the Everett American Legion post, participated in Normandy and other World War II battles. He emphasized that he spoke for himself, not the American Legion.
The November election showed that the American people lost faith in the political leadership, partly because Washington, D.C., and the president’s policies have “micromanaged” the combat in Iraq, Leichtman said.
To do so “is a recipe for defeat,” he said.
“It was a tough speech and I hope (the new policy) is successful because I want the American service people to be successful. I really grieve the loss of lives.”
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
BUSHS NEW IRAQ STRATEGY
MORE TROOPS: 17,500 to Baghdad; 4,000 to Anbar province
ECONOMIC AID: $1.1 billion for reconstruction and rebuilding
DIPLOMACY: No talks with Iran and Syria
THE SPEECH: To read the speech, click here.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
