Utah Iraqis have hopes for future

Utahn Susan Billings grew up in Iraq. She knows firsthand the terrible effects of war but supports President Bush's push to free the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein — a person Bush and Billings both call "evil."

It has been 12 years since Billings fled An Nasiriyah, a southern Iraq city much in the news this week, at the end of Operation Desert Storm. For nearly 10 years, she has lived in West Jordan. There she met and married Vince Billings, who adopted her three children.

She said she wouldn't trade her family and home in Utah "for anything," but longs to see her parents, sisters and brother again.

Now a U.S. citizen, Billings' American dream includes a hoped-for visit to her native country — a plan that seemed impossible less than one year ago. But Billings could be headed home within a year if U.S. soldiers are successful in ousting Saddam.

She spent her last 24 hours in Iraq walking through the desert, carrying a toddler and a baby, while attempting to cross the border with Saudi Arabia. When coalition troops began leaving Iraq without overthrowing Saddam, she feared her family could be punished for opposing his regime and fled.

"We have always been against Saddam," said Billings, whose brother has participated in rebel fights against Saddam's army for years.

In the desert, she came across a group of U.S. soldiers who carried her across the border in a tank. Billings then spent the next two years in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia, where she gave birth to a son and cared for her two young daughters.

As for this second war with Iraq, Billings hopes Iraqis will welcome the U.S. troops.

"But they probably think America is there to invade them, not help them. They have been taught this for so long it will be hard to change their minds," she said.

Ahmed Salim, another Iraqi refugee who has made Utah his home, said, "Saddam has captured Iraqis' minds with fears. It is not easy for them to look past this."

He said if U.S. efforts to liberate Iraq are successful, he will fly his family here so they can see America is not the enemy most of the Middle East thinks it is.

"I want to show them what we thought about America was wrong. What we were taught was wrong. The education system teaches them false 'truths.' Saddam has washed their brains for 35 years," he said.

Salim and Billings are so supportive of the war they have contacted military officials to offer any assistance they can provide U.S. intelligence. Neither has been asked to help as of yet.