Life under Saddam Hussein

Editor's note: Capt. Patricia Cika, a Liberty native, served with the 82nd Airborne Division in Ar Ramadi, Iraq until March, when she returned to the United States. She has been writing each Thursday about her experiences as part of the military occupation force in Iraq. This is her final installment.
By CAPT. PATRICIA CIKA
SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR
One thing that enters every American soldier's mind at one time or another on a deployment is the sense of wonder at the sheer chance by which we were born American.
It would be wrong for an American who was not here to describe Iraqi life before this war, so I talked to some of the Iraqis I have met to help give the people back home an idea of what Iraqi life was like for the average Iraqi before the war began.
No matter how many times your parents tell you that some child somewhere is starving for the meal you are currently refusing, you never quite appreciate their point until you look in the eyes of the people they were talking about.
All grown up and still surviving, they are Iraq's young professionals. Many work with U.S. forces in hopes of one day living in America.
"I am aching to see the U.S.," says one of our interpreters, Osama. "What amazes me about the American style of life is how they deal with their problems. They disagree, but keep peace. I have spent only five months with these soldiers and we have become close friends, even like brothers. Americans are open-minded and are easy to acquaint with. Maybe it is because U.S. is a melting pot of all different creeds and nationalities."
No choice in career
One of these young Iraqis, Mustafa, is a bitter old man in his 20s. "I studied what they made me study. I hate computers." He is a computer engineer.
The thought of being forced to study a particular discipline (read: anything that has to do with math) made my stomach sink. From the time we are little in America, we are asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" It was not until I met Mustafa that I stopped to think that for some, there is no choice.
Some of our translators wear Army uniforms and boots when they work with us. "I am so proud to wear this uniform," one such interpreter says.
Once his dream of escaping Iraq for America came true via illegal emigration (Iraqis were not permitted to travel under Saddam Hussein). He made a harrowing journey to the United States as a refugee. He named his first daughter after the woman at the American embassy who helped him get to the United States. He is working here because he says he owes America a debt for the freedom America has granted him.
On his first trip off base, his convoy struck an IED (improvised explosive device) so large that we who remained back all heard the explosion.
Though no one was hurt seriously, our interpreter later said, "It is scary to be here, but I am willing to give even my blood for America."
Cut off from world
So what was life like for Iraqis before U.S. troops arrived? During Saddam Hussein's tenure, he went through elaborate efforts to insulate the Iraqi people from factual information about how Iraq was faring.
"We were not permitted to have satellite TV," says Osama. "Without media we felt like we were the only country not knowing what was happening and we felt like the world would never know what was happening to us." Daring people would cover their satellites in elaborately camouflaged Styrofoam boxes.
Other times, Saddam encouraged TV viewing and would set up large broadcasts all over the cities. When it was convenient for him, though he was not a religious Muslim, Saddam would have himself photographed praying and would portray Americans as anti-Muslim crusaders.
Saddam's face is everywhere here in Iraq -- always painted younger and fitter than he actually was.
Pro-Saddam propaganda
From the time they woke in the morning to the time they went to bed at night, Iraqis were fed nothing but a steady diet of pro-Saddam messages. Now that the war is a year old, these images are either destroyed or mocked by the local populace.
The 3-505 Airborne Infantry of the 82nd has hired Iraqi artists who were often forced to paint large murals of Saddam for free to replace old images of Saddam Hussein with murals of more hopeful images.
Before the fall of the regime, it was illegal to speak critically of Saddam Hussein or the Ba'ath political party.
"There are Iraqis whose tongues were cut out for such offenses," says Osama. "We rarely spoke freely. When we did, it was only around our immediate family, but not in front of the children."
While Saddam's people were starving and unable to receive medical treatment for anything from colds to cancer, his sons amassed fleets of expensive cars and spent lavish amounts of money on liquor and women.
Deprived of food
Every doorway bears Saddam's initials in marble or wood etchings. All of this while there was no clean drinking water and the electric system could operate for only three or four hours a day. The per capita caloric intake was cut in half by the mid-1990s and birth rates dropped dramatically. Saddam's response was to blame the Americans for enforcing the trade embargo.
Yet coalition forces have found stashes of U.N. rations hidden by the former regime for their own benefit. Saddam spent millions upon millions of dollars on enormous marble-laden palaces in every city on the chance that he might visit.
They were staffed and maintained whether he was there or not. Now each one of them is staffed full time by coalition forces. I work in one of them.
Almost every Iraqi has known tragedy at the hands of the former government. One of Osama's relatives was a devout Shi'a Muslim. He was a follower of a particular imam (Muslim religious leader) who was generating intellectual debate among the Shi'as.
Whole families arrested
"When Saddam arrested a man," says Osama, "he would also arrest his whole family. In the same vein, when he arrested a holy man, he would arrest all of his followers. It would be like taking a whole church away because you are angry at the priest."
One of the victims of this particular roundup was Osama's cousin. "They interrogated and tortured his whole family -- even my aunt -- by hanging them from ceiling fans and beating them, electrocuting them, or throwing them to starved, wild dogs," he said.
Osama's aunt went to the headquarters of all security organizations asking for her son. No one would give her any information.