Denial, or a Culturally Skewed World-View?

The Associated Press reports that 2/3 of Americans surveyed say that Iraqis are better off now than they were under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

This made some of my double-shot mocha come out my nose. So I started e-mailing and text messaging friends from college who have retuned to Iraq since graduating. I sent 12 messages and received five back – not bad given the state of the Iraqi grid.

Hudda, a Sunni microbiologist (no, not that one! She is a clinical microbiologist) was as incredulous as I am. She invited those who feel that way to come spend a couple of weeks with her in Nasar’iah.

Baheshta, a Shi’ite Sociologist at Baghdad University, who I met in a Women’s Studies class in 1985 laughed out loud and said “Americans have been convinced since the Boston Tea Party that their actions are always right, even when they are wrong, haven’t they?”

Fatima, a Sunni physician in Fallujah, married to a Shi’ite physican, responded “I have absolutely no idea what to say to that. When I was attending college in America, Americans struck me as smarter and more fair-minded than they appear to be now. What the hell happened in the 22 years since I went to school with you?”

Nuzhat, another Sunni and an engineer who has fled to the United Arab Emirates, had the same reaction as Fatima, so I won’t bother to rephrase the sentiment.

Rema, a Shi’ite hematologist with six kids, however, with whom I was not only educated but started my career, had the quintessential remark. Remembering her old friend of a quarter century is Jewish, she e-mailed back two words: “Oy Vey.”