I want to start out by saying that I am not a Psychologist and am not making any professional conclusions; I am merely stating facts from my own experiences and those around me.
There is a Middle Eastern saying that goes like this:
to get a better perception of an illness, it is better to ask the patient rather then the doctor"
I am one of many Iraqi expatriate that escaped the cruel dictatorship of Iraq, yet have remained vigilant. I have not forgotten where I come from and what kind of life that my family and I escaped. I know very well and count my blessings everyday for the fact that we were among those very lucky to have escaped and found a safe haven here in America. When asked to tell my story, I chose not to concentrate on the political controversies surrounding my birth country. I chose to tell the story of the HEART OF THE COUNTRY…its people. This is my book called LOOK BEYOND THE FIRE, the daily struggles of our life in Iraq. It is the story of why and how we escaped Iraq. I was very careful in choosing the title and its cover, because I know to be realistic and understand that even though we all know to say "never judge a book by its cover", yet I realize that we are all guilty of judging many books by their covers. The message that I was trying and hopefully succeeded in expressing with the title and the cover was that "we need to look beyond the debates, beyond the political views and beyond the fire of war and look through it all and see the heart of the country… the struggling people of Iraq. Within the pages of the book, I have told a very simple story of my family which could in fact be like any other ordinary family, yet extraordinarily and unfortunately was living under very hostile and harsh environment. Even though this story can be about any one of the ethnic groups that call Iraq home, yet I tell it from my perspective as Christian/Assyrian. This is the story of the everyday lives of the Iraqi people and their personal daily struggles, as they endured a life of fear and uncertainty under the cruel regime of Saddam Hussein. I describe how under the totalitarian rule, the peoples’ cries were muffled out of fear, and yet still today, they continue to suffer being trapped, within the catastrophic and disastrous situation that surrounds them.
I know many of us understand the basic effects of war and but none can illustrate or describe it better then those that are living within the life of war. We all can recognize the consequences of war, yet the Iraqi people are among the very few in the world that have suffered for years in silence while the rest of the world remained unaware.
The struggle of the population of Iraq is exceptional because even though they endured a life of extreme fear and uncertainty under Saddam Hussein Regime, yet they were still forced to maintain the pretense of a happy way of life. The sequence of events that turned an otherwise simple life to one that became complex and confused grew to be too much to bear. It complicated life and constrained people to a dreadful stillness as they experienced a new found fear that left them frozen and motionless. Everyday life became complicated and frightening. Daily events became explosive life and death issues that were completely blown out of proportion by the paranoia of the regime. Our escape occurred during one of the most fearful times, as Saddam cunningly silenced the population by intimidation and elimination. We lived a life that was restrained yet still conscious. A population that was still alive physically yet dead emotionally and mentally. Life became so extreme that when realizing and sensing the dangers of staying in Iraq, some, like my family risked their lives to flee. But others who refused to leave chose to stay and oppose the government. Iraqi’s had to endure not only life under the brutal government of Saddam Hussein, but had to bear through several continuous senseless and pointless wars and battles that none understood nor agreed with. Yet, THE PEOPLE were the ones that felt the greatest brunt of tragic life that they had no control over. People watched as their entire lives were being destroyed and their futures demolished only to satisfy and feed the ego of a distraught and crazy dictator’s thirst for power. Men were being forced to fight and later be killed fighting Saddam’s wars, while their families; women and children were left behind, fending for themselves. With no government financial support and no other resources, a great deal of these families became impoverished and poor. Iraq, the country with deep roots, a country known as the once upon a time cradle of civilization, became a war zone…IT was 911 EVERYDAY! Therefore, as a result of the continuous devastation, Iraq started to see the greatest exodus in its history.
Again, I am no expert in posttraumatic conditions, but I think we can all come to a decision very easily that the individual mental state was destroyed. Naturally the entire country's civility was damaged. I realized that when the liberators overthrew Saddam's oppressive government, they were taken aback by the swiftness of their success to penetrate and overtake Baghdad. Upon their entry, they were prepared and primed for a massive resistance from the Iraqi Army, but instead were greeted with the open arms of the Iraqi population. They were astonished when all they found were the citizens welcoming their access with flowers, cheers and celebrations! HOW STRANGE WAS THAT? THE PEOPLE WERE FINALLY FREE OF DECADES OF BRUTALITY and they welcomed the liberators.
Yet after the liberation and the celebration there needed to be a more focused deliberation of the condition of the PEOPLE! Because there lurked a dangerous and serious situation in the country that went unnoticed...the psychological effects of life after Saddam. I know many Psychoanalysts can define this in better terms, but I prefer to call it the "POST SADDAM SYNDROME". I know the Mental Health field has many stages of traumatic, post war terms, but no one can actually explain the multiple and various consequences of life under Saddam... reason being, no one has been able to explain Saddam. Post Saddam Distress is something unique to Iraqis. The Iraqis didn't just go through "A WAR', or live under "A DICTATOR"...the Iraqis lived under conditions more extreme then anyone realizes. They lived through not only the country's external wars but also struggled with the internal personal wars within the walls of their homeland. They faced an outside enemy as they fought to defend their countries but also faced an internal personal enemy from within, suffering daily betrayal from their own leadership. They faced a tyrant that destroyed the individuality of each Iraqi, in order to gain personal success. They faced a confessed narcissist, who had no difficulty showcasing his hungry ego. Can anyone really explain this?
Along with the coalition forces, Iraq immediately needed and still needs Psychological evaluation and intervention. I have often said, there should have been as many Mental Health professionals as there were Military personnel during the initial entry into Iraq. I know there was no way for anyone to have known the actual condition of the country before hand, but after the fact, there should have been better assessment. The people needed and still need to heal from the unexplained decades of brutality. No one can explain it verbally, but the effects can be seen in the lives of all Iraqis. I work with refugees being resettled here in the U.S and see it all the time. The effects were not only felt n the lives of those that continued to live under the direct violence, but also those that were in Diaspora, who were remotely silenced and subdued out of fear for the remaining loved ones still living in Iraq. Bottom line...Iraq was saved from the confines of an outrageous ruler, but now Iraq needs to be saved from the consequences of the after effects of "POST SADDAM SYNDROME".