By George Capaccio

Suha and I have been good friends for several years. I met her the first time I went to Baghdad. Now, after many visits and many shared experiences, we have become like brother and sister. In the winter of 2002 I was able to live with her and her family and to experience their daily struggle to survive under the oppressive weight of sanctions, imposed in 1990 and still in force twelve years later.

The family lives in a respectable neighborhood about one mile from the Tigris River. Suha’s husband Suhail used to work as a driver but now is retired because of a serious heart ailment. Their home belongs to an absentee landlord who was once Suhail’s employer. In exchange for looking after the house, he and Suha are able to live there rent-free. Their income, such as it is, amounts to about fifteen dollars a month. They have four boys, the youngest of whom, Omer, is three-years-old. Omer’s brothers are exceptionally well-behaved, polite, and loving, though they can get a tad crazy when playing or talking about their favorite sport–soccer.