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Translating Iraq: the “Unknown Soldiers” of the US Occupation of Iraq

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Translating Iraq: the “Unknown Soldiers” of the US Occupation of Iraq TRANSLATING IRAQ: THE "UNKNOWN SOLDIERS" OF THE US OCCUPATION OF IRAQ Wisam Qusay Majeed Al Baldawi A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2011 Committee: Dr. Sridevi Menon, Advisor Dr. Lynda Dee Dixon © 2010 Wisam Qusay Majeed Al Baldawi All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. Sridevi Menon , Advisor Iraqis who worked with the US occupation Army in Iraq after the war in 2003 experienced extraordinary challenges and risks as a result of their jobs. My thesis examines the experiences of these Iraqis who worked for the US Army in Iraq and who eventually immigrated to the United States. The study explores this experience by focusing on (a) the immense need to hire native Iraqis to mediate between US troops and locals due to the poor linguistic and cultural preparations of the US Army, (b) the significance of these local linguistic and cultural mediators and their critical roles, and (c) the risks these Iraqis experienced and their immigration and adjustment experience in the US. Drawing attention to the unknown destiny of thousands of Iraqis who helped America in Iraq, this study engages the testimonies of six of US-affiliated Iraqis and four US veterans of Iraq. My ethnography and data analysis reveal that these native Iraqis provided the US Army with an abundant and cheap source of linguistic, cultural, and mediation services without which the US troops would not have had the ability to function in Iraq. However, these Iraqis occupy a historically awkward and ambiguous position as natives who collaborate with invading forces. As a result, at least hundreds of them were murdered by insurgent and extremist groups. In this thesis, I provide evidence that the courage and the services these Iraqis provided qualify them to be considered as honorable members of the US armed forces and to be rewarded as the “unknown soldiers” of the Iraq war. The US government made serious and sincere endeavors to protect the lives of these Iraqis and their iv families by legislating Special Immigrant Visa programs since 2006 to allow some of them resettle in the US. However, since US forces will withdraw completely from Iraq on December 2011, I contend that the US has a moral responsibility to protect the lives of thousands of other Iraqis who assisted America and who remain in Iraq fearful for their lives and those of their families. v To my parents, brothers and sisters, and my uncle Dr. Luuai AlBaldawi who sincerely supported me. This thesis is also dedicated to the thousands of Iraqis who risked their lives to serve Iraq. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As an ethnographic research dealing with a sensitive and contemporary topic, my study required great support, efforts, and patience from my committee. I would like to thank profusely my Advisor Dr. Sridevi Menon who has adopted my interest in the topic and without her generous guidance, it would have been impossible for me to write this thesis. Dr. Menon has offered limitless help from our initial brainstorming to finalizing each chapter. I would like to thank Dr. Menon for her invaluable advice throughout the process of conducting my ethnographic research and in presenting the testimonies obtained. Finally, I am deeply thankful to Dr. Menon for her generous efforts and time in revising each chapter in detail and for always being available to help. I would like to thank Dr. Lynda Dee Dixon for her contribution to the project. Dr. Dixon’s feedbacks and revisions on each chapter were essential for my project. I would also like to thank Dr. Donald McQuarie both for his generous support as an academic advisor and his kind non-academic support. I am also grateful to the Director of the American Culture Studies, Dr. Radhika Gajjala, for her support. I would like to thank Dr. Vibha Bhalla and Dr. Phillip Andrew Dickinson who introduced me to a network of participants and offered me useful books and materials. Finally, my special thanks to the American Culture Studies secretary, Gloria Pizana, for her motherly support and her sincere professionalism as a secretary. Thanks to all of you for the support you offered me as a graduate student at Bowling Green State University. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1 Iraq: an Historical Overview ........................................................................................ 3 The Era of Baath Party Rule before Saddam Hussein 1968-1979…………………. 8 The Saddam Hussein Regime 1979-2003 …………………………………………. 12 Iraq after the US Invasion in 2003 ………………………………………………… 20 Local Iraqis Working with the US Forces .................................................................... 23 Methodology and Sources ............................................................................................. 27 CHAPTER I. LINGUISTIC PREPARTIONS AND THE IRAQ WAR ............................. 33 Sources of Linguistic Preparation ………………………………………………… 36 Multi-Billion Contracts to Provide Linguistic Services ………………………….. 39 Categories of interpreters ………………………………………………………… 43 Recruitment Process ……………………………………………………………… 49 CHAPTER II. THE ROLES OF IRAQI INTERPRETERS .................................................. 61 The Most Loyal Iraqis .................................................................................................... 61 Invisible Interpreters: Iraqi Females ………………………………………………. 66 Spinning Your Wheel ................................................................................................... 68 Linguistic Bridge, Native Informants, and Cultural Mediators …………………… 73 CHAPTER III. FROM THE BATTLEFIELD TO AMERICA: IRAQI INTERPRETERS’ IMMIGARTION TO THE US ................................................................................................. 94 Risks and Strategies of Survival.................................................................................... 94 viii The SIV Program Saved my Life .................................................................................. 105 Feeling at Home: Iraqi interpreters’ experience of adjustment in America ............... 119 CHAPTER IV. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 125 Notes …………… ..... ................................................................................................................ 129 Notes to Introduction ………………………………………………………………. 129 Notes to Chapter 1 …………………………………………………………………. 132 Notes to Chapter 2 …………………………………………………………………. 136 Notes to Chapter 3 …………………………………………………………………. 140 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………………. 145 APPENDIX A. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE RESEARCH ....................................... 149 APPENDIX B. QUESTIONNAIRE AND CONSENT LETTERS........................................ 150 1 INTRODUCTION I spent my childhood in England when my father studied for his doctorate. I went to schools in England and learned the English language there. When we came back, we got stuck in Iraq because of the Saddam Hussein regime’s military regulations during the Iraq-Iran war. In Iraq, I felt like I was losing hope in everything, as if I were dying slowly. I kept dreaming of living in the West again, and when Americans invaded Iraq in 2003, it seemed to me a golden opportunity which I was waiting 20 years for, to mix with Americans by working with them as an interpreter, to make money, and to immigrate. I never regret the experience that made some of my dreams come true, but it came at enormous sacrifices.1 I met Noor at a grocery store in the United States. A young Iraqi man in his thirties, Noor had recently arrived in the US with his wife and son. I was impressed to notice that although he had been in the US only for a few months, Noor spoke very good English and already had a job. He told me about his ambitious dreams in America and I was struck by how well he seemed to be adjusting to the US lifestyle. Later I came to know that Noor had worked as an interpreter with the US Army in Iraq for several years and that he was granted refugee status in the US as a result of this affiliation with the US Army. Subsequently, I met other Iraqis in the US who were granted Special Immigrant Visas on the grounds of their working as interpreters with US forces in Iraq. These Iraqis, like Noor, who worked as interpreters for the US Army after the US occupation of Iraq in 2003 experienced extraordinary challenges and risks as a result of their assistance of the US occupation forces. Since the US occupation in 2003, these Iraqi interpreters and their families have been targets of insurgents and extremist groups who labeled any Iraqi 2 with US affiliation as a collaborator and traitor. As a result, at least a few hundred local Iraqi interpreters were killed and thousands of them escaped to other countries. My thesis focuses on the experiences of these local Iraqi interpreters who worked for the US Army in Iraq since 2003 and who eventually immigrated to the United States through the Special Immigration Visa Legislation (SIV) program passed by Congress in 2006. My research, drawing on personal narratives, media reports, and scholarly work, explores the unique role of these Iraqi interpreters by juxtaposing the US linguistic preparations for the war and the immense need for local interpretation services with the significance of local interpreters, in comparison with other categories
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