‘The Americans have liberated the Iraqis,’ ambassador to U.S. tells Bridgewater State audience

Samir Sumaida’ie, Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., said Wednesday he feels a sense of “lost pride” when he sees flags of a foreign power flying on Iraqi soil.

But while speaking to a crowd of 150 at Bridgewater State College, the diplomat said the feeling is offset by “a sense of appreciation for what that power has done for you.”

“The Americans have liberated the Iraqis,” Sumaida’ie said, as he responded to a question from a Bridgewater State student. “I repeat: The Americans have liberated the Iraqis — at great cost to themselves.

“It’s not lost on Iraqis that now they can speak freely, they can think freely, they can travel freely,” he continued. “They can vote, they can choose their leaders. None of this would have happened without the intervention of the United States.”

The ambassador spoke to students, faculty and community members for nearly an hour Wednesday after traveling to the college from Washington, D.C., at the invitation of a professor.

As unique as the visit was, college officials said, it was extraordinary for Sumaida’ie to follow through with it because Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was in Washington meeting with U.S. officials on Wednesday.

“No ambassador leaves their president in a capital to honor a commitment,” said Jabbar al-Obaidi, head of the college’s Middle East studies program who invited the ambassador for the speech at the Moakley Center.

Sumaida’ie said he came because he sees it as part of his duty to speak directly to Americans about the situation in Iraq and relations between the two countries.

Sumaida’ie, who has served as ambassador since 2006, was formerly Iraq’s representative to the United Nations and before that its minister of the interior, a job that included running the country’s domestic security force.

Sumaida’ie was born in Baghdad, but left Iraq in 1960, after it became “increasingly unsafe,” he said. He only returned after the removal of dictator Saddam Hussein following the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Since the invasion, 4,349 U.S. service members have been killed in Iraq as of Wednesday, according to an Associated Press count. The fallen include 11 service members from the Brockton area.

In a brief interview with The Enterprise after the speech, Sumaida’ie said he firmly believes America did the right thing by invading Iraq.

“I was one of the people who campaigned for it. But unfortunately, it was not managed very well after Saddam fell,” he said.

“But as to whether it should have taken place, for us, it was an absolute godsend. Twenty-five million Iraqis became free as a result of it,” he said.

At the start of his speech, Sumaida’ie offered a history lesson on the land now known as Iraq and its contributions to civilization, including the invention of writing and the wheel.

The country continued to be a pioneer as recently as the early 20th century, but everything changed when dictatorship arrived in the late 1950s, he said.

Hussein, who took control of the country in 1979, turned Iraq into a “totally destroyed country,” Sumaida’ie said.

Though huge challenges lie ahead and conditions in Iraq are often still poor, the ambassador said he is optimistic about the future.

But even though all U.S. troops are slated to leave the country by 2011, he said it’s crucial that the world continue to focus on Iraq.

“If Iraq fails, it will be a huge setback in the fight against extremism and terrorism,” he said.

When asked by The Enterprise about the impact of having Barack Obama in the White House, Sumaida’ie said Obama is “very popular in Iraq. He’s what I would say is, almost an idol. Everybody loves President Obama.”

Sumaida’ie said the Obama presidency is also helping people throughout the Middle East to feel more positive about America than in the recent past.

“I think in the Middle East as a whole, there is a new sense of warming up to the U.S., that this is now a country that is not hostile to us,” he said. “And I think it is important to make use of this opportunity.”

Kyle Alspach can be reached at kalspach@enterprisenews.com.