Iraqi speaker urges U.S. to withdraw troops from Iraq
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/14059688.htm
STEVENS POINT, Wis. - A longtime American businessman
who returned to his native Iraq after Saddam Hussein was
ousted from power nearly three years ago says the U.S. needs
to pull out its troops immediately for violence in Iraq to cease.
"The latest war has been devastating Iraqi life, and they don't
see the light at the end of the tunnel," Sami Rasouli told students
during a presentation Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
"We failed to make Iraq secure, we failed to reconstruct Iraq
and we failed to defeat violence," he said. "Violence is increasing
and not only in Iraq. The war on terror is not succeeding."
Rasouli returned to Iraq in November 2004 after selling his restaurant
in Minneapolis. He had moved to the United States more than 20 years
ago to seek medical treatment for his deaf son and became a U.S. citizen.
Rasouli, a Shitte Muslim, said he has traveled throughout Iraq, working
with different communities, and recently returned to the United States to
share his stories and experiences with Americans.
Hussein was a brutal dictator in Iraq, but U.S. efforts in Iraq have failed,
leaving his homeland worse off than before by encouraging the division
of Iraqi people by sects, religions and ethnic backgrounds, Rasouli said.
_______________________________________________________
.
|
