Editor's note: Tom Morgan, associate professor of Russian and director of the Alworth Center for Peace and Justice at the College of St. Scholastica, is part of a group hoping to establish a personal relationship between Duluth and Rania, Iraq. Morgan is accompanied by Brooks Anderson, a retired Lutheran pastor; Marv Heikkinen, a retired high school teacher; Donna Howard, chairwoman of the International Governance Council of Nonviolent Peaceforce; Arno Kahn, general manager of Builders' Commonwealth; and Salima Swenson, a mental health worker.
To read more about the Duluth-to-Rania trip, go to duluthnewstribune.com, and look for updates in the Duluth News Tribune.
RANIA, Iraq -- It's an understatement to say that they love us in Kurdistan. It may be more accurate to say that they adore Americans and that they practically worship us.
Shopkeepers want to give us big discounts on their wares. Or give us their goods as gifts. Policemen, workers, business people and government officials can't seem to do enough for us. For example, the young man at the Internet Center where I'm writing this report refuses to take my money for the use of the computer.
"American forces are the protectors of the Kurds against the terror of living under Saddam," said Ali Hamad Baag, mayor of Rania, through an interpreter. "When the American troops came here after the invasion in 2003, our children welcomed them with flowers."
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"Without the U.S. and George Bush, we never could have destroyed Saddam and got our freedom," said Zrar Tahir, member of the Kurdistan National Assembly, through an interpreter. "We are so grateful for what you have done for us, so please don't leave us now.
"We are ready to do anything you Americans want us to do if you will stay."
Qarani Aga Abdulla represents the PUK party in Rania and said through an interpreter that the United States is the leader of the free world, not an imperial power as some say.
"I would have voted for George Bush if I were an American," he said. "We all hope that President Obama will complete the task that Mr. Bush began in Iraq and Kurdistan."
"Meanwhile, it's our duty as Kurds to treat Americans with the greatest respect. More than 4,000 Americans gave their lives to help liberate us from Saddam. That proves that America really wants to liberate people."
When American Brooks Anderson suggested that Bush's liberation of the Kurds may have been an accident, that the American invasion of Iraq wasn't intended to liberate the Kurds, Qarani responded through an interpreter that he knows that the Americans may have had other motivations.
"Still, the invasion got rid of a tyrant, and that was good for the Middle East. We know that Bush didn't invade Iraq just for us, but what do you do when a person gives you a light in a dark mountain road?
"You can only say 'thank you.' We are very afraid that the Americans will pull their troops out of Iraq too soon, and then darkness will return."
