Word: yasser
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Yasser remained optimistic even as chaos began to pervade the nation, finding consolation in the fact that he was making a good living. He served as a bodyguard for our correspondents and photographers, keeping us safe from kidnappers, insurgents and other Iraqis who resented our presence. Frequently threatened with death - by Sunni terrorists and Shi'ite extremists alike - he never quailed. We promoted him to security chief, and he made a tidy income, nearly three times the salary of a university professor...
...good fortune attracted the attention of bad people. Iraqis working with foreigners are regarded with suspicion by radical Shi'ite groups like the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Extremist groups view people like Yasser as traitors and collaborators who deserve to be tortured and executed. Early last year, one such group grabbed Yasser and interrogated him for several hours; that they released him unharmed was a small miracle - and a testament to his ability to talk his way out of trouble. But a few months later, the same faction kidnapped and tortured one of his friends...
...they tried to escape one nightmare, they confronted another. Shehere-zad had two children from an earlier marriage - Liliyan, 16, and Raed, 15 - and while Yasser had raised them as his own, their natural father refused to allow them to leave the country. This left Sheherezad with a terrible choice. Leaving Iraq could mean never seeing two of her kids again, but staying would gravely endanger the three others. She and Yasser decided to leave without the teenagers. Yasser had to sit down with the younger children and have the conversation he had hoped to avoid until they became adults...
...Yasser retains the optimism that allowed him to see hope amid the explosions of March 2003. He regards himself as lucky. Unlike most Iraqis, he has moved his family out of danger. He knows Amman isn't a permanent shelter: Jordan has been generous to Iraq's exiles, but their sheer number is straining the resources of the tiny kingdom. For the moment, however, Yasser is dwelling on small mercies. "My children are alive, and these days, that is enough to ask," he says. If a new life is no longer possible, he'll settle for just life...
...life bereft of expectation and ambition. So much of the discussion about the war's toll on Iraqi society centers on the numbers of dead and wounded - victims of Sunni suicide bombers, Shi'ite militias, American arms. Yasser's story is a reminder of the millions whose lives have been destroyed without a single drop of blood shed. Who keeps count of wounded hopes and dead dreams...