Hope in a Land of Uncertainty:
The Untold Story in Iraq

Sloan Mann

The Iraqis talking with me were barely fazed by the intense afternoon heat, but I could taste the salt streaming down my face as I tried to concentrate. Sweat was soaking through my pants, and dehydration was beginning to take its toll. In spite of the heat, I realized that the Iraqis were offering me valuable information about their remarkable perspectives. They told me that Iraq did not need to be reconstructed; instead, it was their souls that needed repair. Restoring buildings, fixing roads, and even developing an infrastructure seem relatively easy when compared to the difficult task of mending spirits crushed by over thirty years of Ba'ath Party rule.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, stories from Iraq highlight economic ruin, poverty, and attacks on American soldiers. Pictures show angry protests against U.S. occupation and a country devastated by war, but few stories relate how years of state-sponsored fear, violence, and murder have affected Iraq's citizens. News reports do not show the faces of the Iraqis up close-full of thankfulness that Saddam is gone, hope for the future, and determination to improve their lives. Their untold story of resilience leaves me optimistic about the future democratic transition of Iraq.

As a member of a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), I spent nearly four months, from March to July 2003, working in Iraq. My specific job on the DART was to identify, monitor, and respond to human rights abuses in the immediate post-war context.

Sloan Mann works for USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives in Baghdad. He will finish his Master of Science in Foreign Service at Georgetown University in the spring.