Free Children of War by Deborah Ellis Page B

like it very much. I don’t have a
     good friend here, so I am a little lonely.
    I don’t know how to make the world better. It’s hard to
     imagine. There is so much that is wrong. I don’t know what I would say to American
     children, but I do know what I would say to George Bush. I’d look him in the face
     and say, “I hate you.”

Shahid, 10

    When the Americans overthrew the Iraqi government, they needed
     to replace it with a new one. To do this, they needed the assistance of the Iraqi
     people. Many were hired as drivers, interpreters, clerks, guards, and so
     on.
    Those Iraqis who signed on to help the Americans sometimes became
     targets themselves of people who see the Americans as an occupying force that should
     be kicked out. Many have been killed, kidnapped or forced to flee
.
    Sometimes the Americans or British are able to provide some
     measure of protection for those who work for them. Other times, they are not.
    Shahid came to Jordan from Baghdad in March2005. She lives with her parents and her little brother, Mohammad. Their father
     worked as an interpreter for the US army, helping the Americans to train new police
     at the Iraqi police academy. The family is now waiting for permission to live in the
     United States, although the countries that invaded Iraq have so far taken only a
     small number of Iraqis, even those like Shahid’s father who risked their lives
     to help them.
    I remember Baghdad very well. I miss it. I miss my grandparents,
     and I miss my friends. I wrote a letter to my best friend in Baghdad, but I can’t
     mail it because there is no mail delivery service to Iraq yet. Here is the letter. Maybe
     she’ll read this book and will know that I am thinking of her.
    My dear friend:
    I hope your day is full of flowers. I love you and miss you too much.
     I hope you will forgive me for not sending you a letter sooner. I write you letters, but
     then I just put them in a bag because I don’t know how to send them.
    What are you doing now? Do you still play the same games that we
     played together? Do you remember me and miss me? We had a lot of fun.
    I hope that we will come back to you soon, back to our homeland. I
     have good news. I believe that when I get into the fourth grade, we will go back to
     Iraq,because in the fourth grade I will learn many new and
     important things. So, maybe I will see you soon. Inshallah.
    My mother says hello to you, and that you should be well, and not
     cause your mother any worry.
    I am out of room, so I say goodbye for now.
    Your friend,
Shahid
    If we learn of someone going back to Baghdad, maybe they can take my
     letter and deliver it for me.
    The neighborhood where we used to live in Baghdad was very beautiful. It
     was full of shops, the sort of shops people would want to go to. They could buy dresses
     and new televisions. They could go to a furniture shop and tell a carpenter what they
     wanted, and the carpenter would go right to work and make it for them.
    And we had the best food in Baghdad, too, in our neighborhood Al Ameed.
     The best kebab, the best baklava, the best restaurants.
    We are Sunni Muslims. My father was a first lieutenant in the Iraqi army,
     but he hated Saddam. He left the army for medical reasons before the Americans came, and
     he was very glad to see Saddam gone and be killed.
    â€œIraq will be better now,” he said. “We will have
     freedom and good laws and proper leaders.” He was glad that my brother and I would
     be growing up in an Iraq without Saddam. He was very disappointed that everything did
     not work out as he wanted. But even after things started to fall apart, he kept thinking
     that they would getbetter. “We shouldn’t expect the
     Americans to fix everything for us,” he said. “This is our country. Iraqis
     have to do the work to make it better.”
    That’s why he volunteered to work with the Americans. He thought he
     could do