Hiba Al-Zahawi remembers hearing the sirens and running to huddle in the corner of her home with her family, hearing the bombing get closer and closer to her neighborhood.
She was 8 years old, and living in Baghdad, Iraq, during the Gulf War. Now she's studying computer science at the U.
Al-Zahawi remembers the chaos in Baghdad: 40 days of no running water, no electricity, no work. Her home was dangerously close to an oil refinery, which was a prime target for the U.S. military, she said.
School and work were canceled, and the markets were only open for limited hours each day.
"We were warned ahead of time that we would be in these conditions, so we stored up basic foods and water, and we had gas masks in case of chemical weapons," she said.
Nearly every night, sirens would sound bomb warnings.
"I didn't know if I would be alive in the next minute or not. My family lived in constant fear," she said.
That fear is what Al-Zahawi wants to avoid for a second time in Iraq. But she's not too hopeful with President George W. Bush pushing the United Nations to get weapons inspectors in Iraq and step aside to allow the United States to invade the country.
"I think military action is unnecessary. I don't believe Bush's reasoning, because if Iraq were a threat for the safety of the United States, Saddam Hussein would be moving to create weapons of mass destruction, but right now he's struggling to stay in power," she said.
While she disapproves of the idea of military involvement, she does not agree with Hussein's leadership.
"He's surviving right now, but I don't know how. It's time for a regime change, but war is not the answer to that change," Al-Zahawi said.
She says Bush's reasons are to save the United States' suffering economy, and not to bring democracy to Iraq. She's also cautious about pushing Western ideals onto Iraqi citizens.
"The United States just can't come in and force or apply its western mindset on a people who have lived their lives in a completely different way," she said.
She says she believes Bush wants to go to war for political reasons.
"It's very suspicious to me that Bush is trying to start a war so close to the elections," she said.
She's also upset about U.S. citizens' reaction to the talk of war.
"There doesn't seem to be much concern or reaction from the U.S. people. It seems to be something in the background right now," she said.
Al-Zahawi's main concern is for the people of Iraq.
"What Hussein doesn't seem to see is that his actions just don't affect him, they affect the 22 million other people in his country. For people who have been through so much suffering, there will be nothing left if they go to war again," she said.
While opposed to war, Al-Zahawi doesn't have any definite ideas to help the people of Iraq.
"The United States needs to be sincere in its actions, and not just invade Iraq for political purposes."
smcfarland@chronicle.utah.edu
