a thankyou to all from an Iraqi.....

[Newroo]

Hubby and i were in Örebro walking through a store. A young male shop assistant, hearing us talk english, asked if I was English. Upon telling him no , not English but Australian, he appreciatingly let out a loud and emphatic thankyou .. "to the Australian ,English and American people for helping Iraq". This was the day it was announced of the liberation in Bagdad.... he was from Iraq, and went on to say how that the Iraq people generally lived in fear and what you saw on TV was not adoration for Saddam, but fear of being tortured/ killed etc if it didnt look like you did. He continued to tell of more wrotten things and that he had as yet not heard from his family over there. I said to him I come from a great land , a blessed land and wished him well. Seeing it was one of the little people thanking the other little people, I thought I would honour his appreciation by passing his thanks on at any available opportunity.
Doesnt matter what your opinion is on war or politics...its good to know among the thousands of critics..there are are few grateful folks...
cheers,
Linda

[Carolyn]

And for all those stories about fear of Middle Easterners in Sweden and such, I will just briefly repeat the wonderful response I got from my SFI fellow students on 9-11, who were so afraid I wouldn't be their friend anymore because they were Muslims. As I said to them, all Muslims are not terrorists. And all Middle Easterners are NOT out to get you.

Of course, it pays to be careful, as some ladies here know, but you should realize that a lot of people out there like you too.

[Sabeine]

I have two men from Iraq in my SAS class, and they were very glad when they saw the statue being pulled down. One of the men has become a good friend, and he called me crying so glad that the people would now be able to begin a process towards freedom.