By Greg Jonsson Of the Post-Dispatch
Abdul Jabbar Alabady and Hadi Albuhamad hovered around a television tuned to CNN, chain smoking cigarettes and passing the phone back and forth Wednesday night behind the counter at Holyland Meat & Bakery on South Grand Boulevard.
Half a world away, Albuhamad’s brother in Basra, Iraq, reported on the safety of family members during the short, furtive phone call.
“They’re scared,” Albuhamad said as Alabady took his turn on the phone. “Scared to death.”
Many of the thousands of Iraqi immigrants living in St. Louis are scared, too.
They worry about their friends, their families, their homeland. They worry the war might destroy the things they love.
But many believe Saddam Hussein poses a greater threat to those things and support any action that might get rid of him.
“We hope our families will get a nation where they can live in freedom,” said Kadem Ali, who works at Holyland with Alabady and Albuhamad. “A new society. A new regime.”
Iraqis here worry about the danger from American bombs, but they worry even more that Saddam will turn on his own people, as he has done before.
“I worry about all the people,” said Talib Kako, a Kurd whose wife and two young children have not been able to leave northern Iraq. “Maybe (Saddam) will start to bomb and kill us again. He’s killed our people. He’s a terrible man.”
Many Iraqis here believe Saddam’s regime will crumble as American forces arrive. Some predicted mass surrender.
“Arab and Kurd, everyone’s tired of him,” Kako said.
Some plan to return to Iraq if Saddam is ousted. The future for others is here.
