In a Baghdad barbershop, Obama’s words met with skepticism

As President Obama spoke, Baghdad barber Raymun Butrus trimmed eyebrows and clipped hair. His customers listened to the president’s words between the clicking of scissors and the helicopter-like buzz of the generator that kept the shop lighted.

Their feelings about America varied widely, and most said they had made up their minds about the speech beforehand.

Atheer Dabagh, a welder with dirt-smudged hands, sat in the brown barber’s chair, puffing on a cigarette. “The left shoe is the same as the right shoe,” he said, referring to Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush. “. . . America’s real intention is to destroy Muslims and Islam.”

Dabagh was looking for an apology for America’s actions in Iraq, though he added that he didn’t want U.S. troops to leave until they had thrown out the politicians they have helped empower since 2003. “If someone throws you in the sea, should they let you drown or should they bring you to shore?” he asked.

Others had a kinder view of Obama. “He wants to establish peace between Muslims and the West,” Ammar Ani said.

But he called for the Americans to leave Iraq “sooner than later.”

The room had been scarred by war: two street bombings and a mortar attack since 2003. One client had been hit by shrapnel as he sat down for a haircut. As they watched Obama, Raymun noted a car had double-parked for about five minutes outside the shop. He worried aloud about the driver, who glanced inside.

-- Ned Parker and Usama Redha