Nowhere Men

Back in 1998, when President Clinton ordered the bombing of Iraq, a cousin of Shallal in Baghdad had just given birth to quadruplet. On Friday, he was talking about wanting to see the girls when the TV at his restaurant began showing images of Baghdad in flames. He stared momentarily, then began to weep.

Shallal was 11 when he came to the US with his parents in 1966. He was a good student and become a researcher specialising in immunology at the National Institutes of Health. ‘‘I liked the work, but I wanted to be around people more,’’ he said. Shallal opened his first restaurant 20 years ago. He now owns several.

Such freedom and opportunity are priceless blessings, Shallal said, and his love for America has only deepened. Shallal has about 100 relatives in Iraq, and his wife, Marjan, is from Iran. So he keeps a close eye on that part of the world.

And he has come to see that America, despite its greatness, has serious flaws — especially when it comes to dealing with Iraq.

Shallal visits schools to teach about peace and holds a monthly ‘‘Peace Cafe’’ to discuss possible solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ‘‘I feel that the Iraqi people should be liberated, but not this way,’’ he said.

To Shallal and some other Iraqi Americans, it appears Iraq will be the next place for Americans to build malls and McDonald’s. Check out who is getting some of the first multi-million-dollar contracts to rebuild the country, they say, alluding to Halliburton Co, which was once run by Vice-President Dick Cheney.

‘‘Does anybody find that odd other than me?’’ Shallal asked. ‘‘How can anyone say that taking over a country with the world’s second-largest oil reserves has nothing to do with oil?’’ He appreciates his life in the Washington suburbs. But the comfort does not make his pain and sadness over the war go away. (LAT-WP)