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‘Most Iraqi People Say President Bush Is a Hero,’Immigrant Says

By: Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer

Posted: Wednesday, October 01, 2008
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Benny Aldosakee, left, who worked as a translator for Will Breazeale in Iraq, now is campaigning for the Iraq veteran's congressional campaign in North Carolina. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

(CNSNews.com) – Benny Aldosakee left Iraq five months ago, after getting special immigration status through a federal law that allows some translators who worked with the United States in Iraq or Afghanistan to come to America.

Aldosakee said that most Iraqis are grateful to President Bush and the U.S. military for removing dictator Saddam Hussein and that the many in the major media, here and abroad, are misinforming people about Iraq and the Middle East.

Aldosakee’s journey from his hometown of Dahuk in northern Iraq to his home today in Elizabethtown, N.C., where he is working on a congressional campaign, reveals a portrait of Iraq and its people not often on view to Americans.

Aldosakee said before the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, he and his family were resigned to live their lives under Saddam Hussein’s rule.

“Because we couldn’t even dream that one day in our lives that Saddam Hussein would be removed from his power,” Aldosakee, 28, told CNSNews.com. “And President Bush did it within a month.”

Aldosakee said that fact alone has shaped the opinion of the majority of his countrymen.

“Most people in Iraq say President Bush is a hero,” said Aldosakee, who was on Capitol Hill earlier this month for a campaign event for Will Breazeale, a congressional candidate in North Carolina’s 7th district.

And Aldosakee, a Sunni Muslim, said that sentiment includes Shia Muslims and the Kurdish people in Iraq.

For Aldosakee, the fall of Saddam Hussein inspired him to stand up for his own convictions. In 2005, Aldosakee ran a small Internet café, a business he said was successful. Before that, he had worked for a number of years for the United Nations in Iraq, where he honed his English skills. Then he was offered a different kind of job.

“One day an Iraqi general was looking for (someone) to actually translate between him and (the) American forces,” Aldosakee told CNSNews.com. “He couldn’t find anybody, because everyone was scared. They were afraid to go and work for the military. So he asked me to go with him. I went back home, and I told my parents.”

In Iraq, Aldosakee explained, even a grown man has to ask his parents’ permission when making a life-changing decision. His parents were against his plan. But Aldosakee asked his father if he could explain why he wanted to work as a translator for the U.S. military.

“I said, ‘Dad, who do you think I’m going to work for?’ He said, ‘Americans.’ I said, “Who are those Americans?’ He said, ‘Americans are Americans.’ I said, ‘No, they are not only Americans. They are those people who sacrificed themselves, their blood, and they left their kids behind, they left their country – the greatest country in the world – and came here to give me freedom, so why shouldn’t I go help them to free my people?’ So my father looked at me and said, ‘Go, son. Go.’”

Aldosakee’s assignment involved working with a military transition team, which is a team of U.S. military in charge of training the Iraqi army. That is how he met Will Breazeale, a three-time combat veteran of the wars in Iraq and Kuwait. In 2006, Breazeale was deployed to Iraq as an army reservist who advised an Iraqi division headquarters company commander.

For one year, Aldosakee worked as a translator with Breazeale, a working relationship that led to mutual respect and friendship.

Breazeale was a witness to Aldosakee’s good work and character, which helped him to come to the United States with special immigrant status.

“I have met thousands of people,” Aldosakee said. “I have found out that the American people are the most wonderful people on this planet. I did not know that before because we don’t know anything about America. We only see bad things about America.”

Aldosakee blames the media in both countries for any ill-will that exists between his people and Americans, adding that Al Jazeera is the main source of news in his country.

“What they show us in our country is only things that are against my religion,” he said. “I’ll give you an example. In California right now there is a law that gay marriage is allowed. In my country it is totally against the law, and it is totally against my religion. So people hate those people who make the law.

“The government is the one (that) makes the law, so we say all of American government is corrupted,” he added.

“The media gives Iraqi a terrible picture of American people, and the media gives you guys a terrible picture of the Iraqi people,” he said.

Aside from his campaign work, Aldosakee is also studying to earn his high school diploma. He said he has no plans to go back to Iraq.

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Showing 1-2 of 2 Comments

denialator at 08:05 AM - October 02, 2008

This testimony leaves me totally speechless. How can one argue that we need to take a close look at ourselves and the negative attitudes promoted by leftwing, socialists and Marxists in our country. I pray this inspiring story will penetrate the hearts of the Blame-America-First crowd (you know who you are) and fuel real "change" across this nation to return to reality. America, its Founding Fathers and the Constitution are what inspired the courage and sacrifice of our veterans and heroes in our military to change the world's view and reveal to such people as Aldosakee the enlightened truth of what America is all about.

Let us seek to put such people with these qualities of wisdom and leadership in our government. Too bad this one does not qualify for the candidacy for President, based on his place of birth.

God bless you, Aldosakee. Your decision has changed the lives of many for good, possibly the whole world.

aj at 03:31 PM - October 01, 2008

May God Bless this man and his family. I hope he writes a book so that the whole country can know his story. Many libs need to hear it.

Proverbs 29:27 - “An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he
that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.”

“The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception;
the one who lies with sincerity.”