Iraqis Fear Getting Caught in Crossfire

When Faris Hadi started selling televisions, it was like dealing in contraband. The Iraqi businessman hired crews that bought them abroad, loaded them onto small boats and then dashed for an Iraqi port hoping to avoid U.S. military patrols. Sometimes the boats were caught.

That was in the early 1990s, when Iraqis were still trying to figure out how to deal with the crushing U.N. sanctions slapped on their country after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Today, with support for sanctions eroding in much of the world, Hadi is a legitimate Samsung representative. His trucks cruise across the Jordanian border with permission from the United Nations. He sells about $3 million in electronics annually and employs 50 people.

Life isn’t good in Hadi’s Iraq--but it’s better.

In fact, Iraq has been enjoying a boomlet, not enough to lift its people out of poverty or to fundamentally improve the quality of their lives, but enough to spread a degree of optimism not felt here in a decade.

That all changed Sept. 11, when terrorists attacked the United States.

Suddenly, Iraqis fear that bombs will drop again on Baghdad, that their nation’s emergence from isolation and pariah status--no matter how slow--will be undermined, and that the United States will try to settle an old score. As U.S. officials examine whether Iraq played a role in the attacks, people here insist that it isn’t possible. They point to the improving chances for a collapse of the sanctions, a development that would be jeopardized if an Iraqi role were suspected.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Hadi, 60, general manager of Qareeb Trading Co. “It is not in the interest of the Iraqi regime to be involved in such actions. Definitely. It is not only what I am saying, it is everyone.”

When Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait a decade ago, the nation became a villain of international proportions. The United States managed to pull together a coalition that included even anti-West Syria. When the coalition expelled Iraqi troops from the oil-rich country, it supported a broad range of punitive sanctions that in effect sealed off Iraq from the rest of the world.

A lot has changed since. With few exceptions, Iraq is now viewed in the Arab world as a victim rather than an aggressor. That view is fueled by the belief that sanctions have done nothing but punish innocent civilians, a belief also held by Osama bin Laden. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who appears as strong as ever, is seen in the region as a hero for standing up to the United States.

Regional leaders warn that feelings for Iraq run so deep that a strike on the country will undermine the U.S. anti-terrorism coalition and possibly crush whatever good feelings remain for the U.S. among the Arab public.

“In case Iraq will be hit, it will be a blow to the coalition,” Jordanian Prime Minister Ali abu Ragheb said in a recent interview. “It will really raise the street. It might affect the participation and cooperation of Arab countries.”

As many as 70 foreign embassies are open in Baghdad, up from a handful a few years ago. Egypt, Syria and Jordan have signed free-trade agreements with the Iraqi government. Most important, time has appeared to be on Iraq’s side, as much of the world has grown tired of the sanctions. Dozens of flights were coming into Saddam International Airport every day. For every truck carrying permitted goods across the Iraqi border, as many as 200 trucks were smuggling goods.

That all appears to be threatened now. Flights to Baghdad have been grounded. The few Iraqis with money have stopped spending. The government and people are clearly on edge, with many convinced that the voices in Washington calling for a strike on Iraq have a good chance of prevailing.

“What happened Sept. 11, Iraq had nothing to do with it,” said Abdel Razak Hashimi, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee of the ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party and an advisor to the president. “But will the U.S. use that to attack Iraq again? I say as an Iraqi, I hope to God they don’t do that, but I am prepared.”

Iraq didn’t condemn the attacks on the United States, and Iraqis don’t understand why that surprises anyone. After 10 years of sanctions that have been blamed for thousands of deaths caused by malnutrition and poor health supplies--and 10 years in which the country has been cut into thirds, with “no-fly” zones in the north and south--there is little sympathy for America.

“I admit some innocent people were killed in the [Sept. 11] attack, and I don’t support that,” said Ramsey Mahmoud, 58, a retired carpenter who attended a rally this week decrying the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan. “But sometimes, when the government has a double standard like the U.S., it is their fault.”

The rallies appeared motivated as much by concern over how the U.S. will deal with Iraq as by support for Afghanistan.