Once again It looks like I owe my faithful visitors yet another apology this time for neglecting during the last week to update this website. My family and I have been embarking on quite an adventurous journey, we were moving my son Nazar to Amman, Jordan hoping for a better medical care than what he was getting in Iraq for the last 15 months. Our move to Amman was made possible as a result of an astonishing gesture from a man I have not known or heard of him before, his help was extremely generous and allowed us to make the move to Amman. I have not had the honor to meet him yet, because he still insists on a total anonymity. I owe him a tremendous debt, I wish him and all his loved ones the best of health and prosperity and above all God's blessings and guidance.
Iraq the land and its people have been tragically drawn into a nasty struggle between very powerful and extremely selfish forces. I have on more than one occasion talked about the situation there, a terrible situation which is to a very great extent the result of the failure of the naïve and short sighted policies the Americans have pursued in Iraq and the colossal blunders and mistakes they have committed there. The promises of helping in the rebuilding of the country and the rejuvenation of its moribund institutions and infrastructure have been nothing but a mirage. Saddam has been toppled and his rotten regime dismantled, but it was not replaced by anything that is worth talking about. Saddam and his regime were corrupt and rotten, but they were able to provide a reasonable degree of security, a few essentials and some services, which are lost now. The situation in Iraq is creating a very serious backlash against the Americans. In the beginning of the war, there was a good deal of goodwill and support to their move in Iraq against Saddam and his tyranny. Nowadays, the Iraqi people are becoming increasingly disappointed and disillusioned with the Americans and their plans. There are increasing numbers of people who are claiming that even Saddam and his cronies and his murderous regime were better than now.
The failure of the Americans to establish a credible alternative to the Baathist regime has resulted in a total political and administrative vacuum, which has degenerated into a state of total chaos an almost total insecurity. A complete failure in providing the essential services and the mediocre political structure which has been put in place after the fall down of Saddam Hussein and the dismantling of his regime. This current situation is terrible, no security, no water and no health services, which was the reason we had to take my son Nazar to Amman with the hope that something could be done about the various clinical problems he is suffering from as a result of the inquiries he sustained when he was shot by an American soldier fifteen months ago. The journey was a very difficult undertaking, the distance between Baghdad and Amman is about a thousand kilometers, across an ending desert. We finally made it to Amman after a lot of problems and trouble and were able to deliver my son to one of the myriad private medical facilities in Amman.
Amman is a very young city; twenty-five years ago it was no more than a big village. Amman started to grow very rapidly during the Iran Iraq war years, Jordan provided the only inlet into Iraq of most of what it needed during the war years which brought into the kingdom a lot of cash in custom duties, insurance and many other services which Iraq needed during the long war years. The money was pent very sensibly and cleverly under the guidance of the late King Hussein, which allowed the city to grow very rapidly and intelligently and is still growing city. Amman is one of the best cities in the whole Middle East, the city is clean, well provided for and very sensibly and efficiently administered. Amman is trying to replace the old Beirut, the one before the Lebanese civil war as the tourist center and the place were it is possible to get a better medicine than what is available in most of the Arab world and for higher education. The city's two million inhabitants are made up of an extremely diverse mixtures of ethnicities, religious and political affiliations, the two most important groups are the original Jordanians and the Palestinians who arrived there after their forced migration from Palestine during the early years of the Arab Israeli conflict, there are some very definite problems, but these problems are being kept very cleverly under the surface. The Jordanians seem to have learned a very good lesson from the tumultuous years of modern Arab history, the value and the need for compromise.
I have not mentioned the situation at home, because I have been totally engaged in the problems that were associated with the transfer of my still very critically sick son to Amman. Another very important reason, I have always insisted that anything which is written about the current situation in Iraq from outside the country is to treated with great care and should not be accepted at its face value only those who are in a direct daily contact with what is going on in the country can talk rationally and credibly about the situation. I am finishing this update of The Hanoudi Letter with a personal message from an excellent colleague and a very dear friend, the neurologist who was in charge of my son when he was under treatment form his injury in the American military hospital in Baghdad. Dr. Jamie Grimes, is a very dedicated an extremely efficient physician, I very sincerely hope that she wouldn’t mind sharing her message with you.
The following is the email she sent me on July 7, 2005.
Hello, Dr. Hanoudi,
I did get your email message, sir, but just before I went on vacation with my family and erred in not writing back, forgot once back to unending work at the hospital here. My deepest apologies, sir, to you. I do so admire your family. I don’t know what you’ll do if your angel daughter relocates to America but I am confident you have this all worked out. I was amazed to read Ms. Lyden’s note that Nazar is waking up more, seems to interact and respond to jokes; the brain is an amazing organ, nearly as amazing as the eye….but tragically he is still dependent in all things on you and your family. I think of you and your incredible family every day it seems, especially when I listen to the news on NPR about Iraq but also when I talk to ophthalmologists at work, when I give my youngest son a bath and when I reflect on my great life experience in Iraq. It is so tragic to hear that the violence is increasing there in Iraq and I honestly don’t know how you and your family can bear the strain. I have to believe that those that continue (and commit) the violence in Iraq are people without families or loved ones, as violence, destruction, murder, maiming accomplishes nothing good and destroys all hope for Iraq to return to being a desired place to raise a family, earn a living, pursue a profession, pursue an education, have a healthy, joy-inspired life. I am sad to hear your frustration with the military there in Green Zone. Feel free to let them know that I was one of the doctors that took care of Nazar and if they need information from me, please give them my email
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. I am so sorry to not have kept better in touch; it is not a reflection of your (and your family’s) importance to me, sir. You have endured more than I could bear, and still you extended your hand in such sincere friendship and trust to me. I did recently show the picture of you, your daughter Nadia, and myself taken in the 31st ICU at a talk I gave at my church. I want you to know I am so proud to have met and helped care for your son, I wanted to share your strength and faith with my fellow church members whose lives have never been touched with tragedy such as yours has. You have the strength and faith of Job. Please let me know what I can do for you.
God bless you and your family.
Very respectively,
Jamie
Dr. Najeeb Hanoudi
Amman, July 14, 2005
email:
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