Haider Hamza of the Babylon province in Iraq is on a trip. He wants to resolve a conflict within himself.
As a 22-year-old college student in New York, he loves America. But as an Iraqi citizen, he hates the suffering his people have endured in the chaos that followed the fall of Saddam Hussein.
By meeting ordinary people in cities and towns across America this summer, Hamza hopes to quell the questions in his heart. He stopped in Fayetteville on Thursday. A five-person camera crew followed him.
The cameras were for “This American Life,” a TV show on the Showtime cable network. The television show is based on the public radio show of the same name.
As they do on the radio show, we present Hamza’s story in three parts.
Act One: The library. A little girl gives Hamza insight.
Act Two: The Chevy dealer. The sales manager tells Hamza why America invaded Iraq and why it can’t bail out now.
Act Three: Epilogue. What does it all mean?
The library
Hamza conducted 16 interviews in his “Talk to an Iraqi” booth in front of the Cumberland County Public Library. His third guest was 11-year-old Tori Allen, who said her father has been in Iraq since May 2006. He won’t be home until November, she said.
“I’ve been waiting to apologize to an Iraqi for the past three years,” she said. “I’m sorry for the way we walked into your country acting like we owned it. I’m really sorry about that.”
She said Iraq didn’t attack the United States, so the U.S. shouldn’t have attacked Iraq.
Tori caught Hamza off guard with her apology and her knowledge of world affairs. He laughed with surprise.
“As an 11-year-old, shouldn’t you be playing, I don’t know, playing with dolls? Or going to school and hanging out?” he said. “Why do you spend your time following the news that’s happening halfway around the world?”
“I just feel like I shouldn’t be oblivious. I mean there’s so much that I can do. I can make a difference,” Tori said.
When she grows up, she plans to become a psychologist and then she wants to be president. She plans to run in 2032.
Afterward, Hamza said Tori impressed him. “I just learned from her that the lives of American children have been directly affected and changed” by the war.
The Chevy dealer
All of Hamza’s guests at the library, from soldier’s spouses to a school teacher who drove about 30 miles to see him, said roughly the same thing: They support the troops and oppose the war.
Hamza didn’t expect so many anti-war feelings in a military town.
Gary Brown was so eager to give Hamza a different point of view that he invited him and the camera crew to set up at Powers-Swain Chevrolet on Bragg Boulevard. Brown is the general sales manager there.
On the sales lot, surrounded by Impalas and second-hand Corvettes, Brown and Hamza hunched over the booth in intense conversation. They raised their voices at times, sometimes with emotion, sometimes to be heard above the roar of traffic.
Brown supported the invasion. He believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and that he needed to be removed from power because he was an oppressive dictator.
Now, even though there have been serious problems, the U.S. can’t leave, Brown told Hamza.
“The Democrats are probably going to win the election next time because of this war,” he said. “I’m afraid they’re going to pull out, and the slaughter that could take place is — it’ll be disastrous. And I don’t want to see that happen.”
Americans don’t like seeing the Iraqis dying in the conflict now, “but they don’t want to see them live in hell like they were before, when you don’t have a freedom.”
“Hell is now,” Hamza told Brown. Iraq is extremely dangerous, he said. As long as there are foreign soldiers in Iraq, the insurgents will continue to fight, he said.
What Does It All Mean?
Brown was the type of person Hamza was hoping to meet on this trip, he said.
Conservatives tend to be portrayed as refusing to listen to other opinions. Brown was different. Even though they disagreed, Brown and Hamza sat together, talked and listened with respect and open minds.
“People like him are willing to talk…and accept a different point of view,” he said. “That’s very promising.”
18 years ago, on a Monday night, I was out at a club in Champaign, Illinois, nearby where I went to college. At one point during the evening, I bumped into someone who for a minute looked like my roommate at the time, but it wasn’t. At any rate, I said, “Hello, how are you?” His response, in a thick Portuguese accent was, “I went to McDonald’s.” I said, “Excuse me??” He repeated, “I waynt to make doane ahlds”. After some initial language barriers, Claudio and I became fast friends. He eventually (with my help, LOL) learned English and even got his PhD. He loved Oreo (that’s them on the left in 1990), and even taught him how to speak Portuguese. The first time I ever went to Brazil, it was to see Claudio and meet his family, and I’ve loved the country ever since. Claudio and I even lived together in Washington DC for a while. We’ve been through a lot over the years and I was thrilled recently to learn that he’s moving to California with his partner Ryan! He took a job teaching at a university about 45 minutes north of here. This morning he flew in from South America and drove up to check out his new house. Tonight we had a great dinner and caught up on old times. By the way, he will deny the McDonald’s story, and swear he spoke perfect English when he moved to the States from Brazil in 1990, but I know better. GLY Claudio! 
How’s that for irony? After this week, I hope my tongue doesn’t fall off when I take communion! Pictures tomorrow!
I met Lora & Frank for dinner tonight before we headed over to Century City for the the “
Hallelujah!!
Now I doubt there are many people left in American who don’t believe that American Idol is at least a little rigged, but this opened up a whole new can Clay Fakin’!! Speaking of 
