While traveling recently I found myself laid over in Milwaukee for five hours. While the airport was nice it wasn't my idea of a place to spend my time. So I walked out to the passenger pickup and climbed into the next cab in line. The cab driver was from the Middle East by the looks of him and by his accent. He was very friendly and talkative. It turned out that he was from Kuwait and was finishing up his Doctorate in Milwaukee. I asked if he was going back to Kuwait and he answered very directly and quickly: "NOW, I will be going back. Now that Saddam is out of power, I will be going back."
"Why?" I asked. "You are from Kuwait?"
He then showed me what I was too blind to notice before. He raised his right hand and showed me that all four fingers and his thumb were missing. He told me that he had been in college in Kuwait City when Iraq invaded Kuwait. All college students were put in jail and "interrogated" by the Iraqis. When they found out that he was a computer science major and he played the piano they cut off his fingers on his right hand. When they were freed and he found that Saddam was still in power after the first Gulf War he applied for school in the States and was accepted. He was now driving a cab while he finished up his studies.
This man tells me that the biggest problem in Iraq and Kuwait was not the war or the terror but the biggest problem is the loss of intelligence in the Middle East. All the smart people, college people, professors and professionals are leaving or have already left. That intelligence drain will be the biggest obstacle we will face in the future. But he said, "NOW, I will be going back." I have his email and will track his return ... best of everything Moamir (Michael). I was at my destination and we talked longer with the meter turned off but my tip making up for it.
Whether you agree or disagree with what is happening in Iraq. Whether you think they are better off now or whether we should have left them alone. No matter what you think of the politics, I got a vision of the shoes they walk in and found myself changed.