Word: ordeal
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Waddah al-Anbari's ordeal began on an afternoon in Baghdad early this year while he was out buying a new cell phone. The neighborhood seemed safe; Waddah didn't bother to lock his car door. He was about to cross a narrow alley when a car screeched up, blocking his way. Two men got out, thrust AK-47s into his ribs and pushed him into the floor behind the front seat. Climbing in the backseat, the men pinned him down with their feet and beat him in the torso with the butts of their guns. When he tried...
...time or in any place. Waddah's grin reveals two missing front teeth, the result of severe beating with the butt of an AK-47, and his face is drawn and gaunt from long captivity. If his physique--once strong and upright, now stooped and limp--recovers from the ordeal, Waddah's psyche will carry some scars forever: the terror of imprisonment, the dread of not knowing whether he would live another day, the degradation of torture and the mortification of having to grovel and plead for his life. "For five weeks, I was less than a human being...
...trunk. "Thank God for your freedom." The car sped away before Waddah could get to his feet. He found himself just outside a well-known mosque, with 5,000 Iraqi dinars ($3.30) in his pocket. He was able to get a lift home from a passing commuter. The long ordeal was over. He was free...
...Weisskopf's tale of losing a hand in Iraq and his struggle to understand his ordeal was one of the most touching pieces of journalism I have read in many years. In the troubled Middle East, such a story is all too familiar. People are too eager to enter into wars that solve no problems, and the results are devastating. Let's hope that the world's problem solvers can lead us to a different, peaceful path for the future of this planet and its people. Lillian Cohen Kfar Monash, Israel...
...exemplified by Weisskopf and his fellow amputees at Walter Reed are truly awe- inspiring and humbling. Those men should certainly be considered for Persons of the Year. Mary Ellen Lukasiewicz Cumberland, Rhode Island, U.S. Weisskopf's tale of losing a hand in Iraq and his struggle to understand his ordeal was one of the most touching pieces of journalism I have read in many years. In the troubled Middle East, such a story is all too familiar. People are too eager to enter into wars that solve no problems, and the results are devastating. Let's hope that the world...