How the Iraq war has touched one Michigan family.

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Road to Baghdad 
How the Iraq war has touched one Michigan family. 

by Curt Guyette
Metrotimes
10/22/2003

"I feel like the media here only reports what the government wants."

As family gatherings go, one that took place in Baghdad during August holds
far more interest than most. Lateef Al-Saraji, an Iraqi native who has lived
in the United States for the past 10 years, made the journey from his home
in Erie, Mich., to visit the family left behind when he fled Iraq in 1991.
Along on the trip was his wife, Teresa. On returning to the United States,
she began speaking out against the occupation that has removed the
oppressive thumb of Saddam Hussein but unleashed the potential for what she
fears could be a "bloodbath" if the United States does not soon devise an
exit strategy.
Yet it's not only the fate of her in-laws and their countrymen fueling her
concern. Sgt. Kristin Cruikshank, Teresa's daughter and Lateef's
stepdaughter, was also on hand for this reunion. Stationed in Baghdad, her
attendance required the use of a well-armed, three-vehicle convoy. Such is
the danger American soldiers face in a war our president declared we had won
nearly six months ago but continues to drag on with no end in sight. Which
only gives Teresa more cause for worry, because her son, Theodore, is in the
Army as well. He has already done a hitch in Afghanistan, and could soon
join his sister and his stepfather's family in Iraq.
Taken together, theirs is a story that brings into sharp relief the
contradictions and dilemmas America faces in a country filled with dire
questions but offering few certain answers.


Full story
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=5533



~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.