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    The Hanoudi Tragedy: The Saga of the Hanoudi Family
    The Hanoudi Tragedy: The Saga of the Hanoudi Family
    The Hanoudi Tragedy: The Saga of the Hanoudi Family
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    The Hanoudi Tragedy: The Saga of the Hanoudi Family

    By Najeeb Hanoudi

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    Dr. Najeeb Hanoudi, is a retired Iraqi ophthalmologist, a graduate of Baghdad Universitys college of medicine in 1957, this was followed in 1963 after two years of post-graduate work in Britain by a diploma in ophthalmology from the University of London. After returning to Iraq he worked in different parts of his country as an eye specialist, teaching clinical ophthalmology to undergraduates, and lecturing to postgraduates on retinal diseases and their treatments.

    Dr. Hanoudi has been concentrating for the twenty years before his retirement from government service in 1989 on retinal diseases and their laser treatment , he participated in many clinical meetings and conferences about the problems of the eye in Iraq and outside Iraq , after retirement he had a private practice in Baghdad until 2004 when he had to stop doing anything related to his specialty and concentrate on the care of his son who was injured a year after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, a mistaken shooting by a young American soldier which left the boy in its aftermath in a vegetative state which required bringing him to the United States In 2007 for treatment which was not successful and the boy died in Michigan on the 21st of December 2011, he was laid to rest in a catholic cemetery in Southfield, a small town in the Detroit area.

    Dr. Hanoudi lives now in Michigan with his wife and his other son, he has one daughter who is married, she has one son and lives in Toronto Canada.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateMar 18, 2013
    ISBN9781481721745
    The Hanoudi Tragedy: The Saga of the Hanoudi Family
    Author

    Najeeb Hanoudi

    Dr. Najeeb Hanoudi, is a retired Iraqi ophthalmologist, a graduate of Baghdad University’s college of medicine in 1957, this was followed in 1963 after two years of post-graduate work in Britain by a diploma in ophthalmology from the University of London. After returning to Iraq he worked in different parts of his country as an eye specialist, teaching clinical ophthalmology to undergraduates, and lecturing to postgraduates on retinal diseases and their treatments. Dr. Hanoudi has been concentrating for the twenty years before his retirement from government service in 1989 on retinal diseases and their laser treatment , he participated in many clinical meetings and conferences about the problems of the eye in Iraq and outside Iraq , after retirement he had a private practice in Baghdad until 2004 when he had to stop doing anything related to his specialty and concentrate on the care of his son who was injured a year after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, a mistaken shooting by a young American soldier which left the boy in its aftermath in a vegetative state which required bringing him to the United States In 2007 for treatment which was not successful and the boy died in Michigan on the 21st of December 2011, he was laid to rest in a catholic cemetery in Southfield, a small town in the Detroit area. Dr. Hanoudi lives now in Michigan with his wife and his other son, he has one daughter who is married, she has one son and lives in Toronto Canada.

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      Book preview

      The Hanoudi Tragedy - Najeeb Hanoudi

      2013 by Najeeb Hanoudi. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 03/14/2013

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-2175-2 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-2174-5 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013903703

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      CONTENTS

      A Note To My Reader

      Foreword

      Iraq in History: From Mesopotamia to the Iraq War

      The Iraq War

      Chapter One:   The Fatal Bullet

      Chapter Two:   The Long Nightmare

      Chapter Three:   There Was No Miracle

      The End : Death and Bereavement

      Afterword

      Acknowledgments

      To the memory of my unfortunate son,

      And all the innocent victims of the

      Tragic and Misguided,

      Iraq War

      A NOTE TO MY READER

      black.jpg

      There are moments in life so stunning, so unexpected that they are very difficult to describe. The shooting of my son Nazar on the morning of the 29th of March 2004 in Baghdad which was a mistaken act by a young American soldier is such a moment. By that time the environment in Iraq against the Americans was so poisoned it left the young American soldiers on the streets very vulnerable and in a very tense and a trigger happy state.

      This work is a an attempt to recount that moment, it is a modest striving at telling the story of my unfortunate son, his terrible ordeal and long lasting suffering. That ill-fated moment turned my life and that of my family upside down and plunged us for eight years into an endless tragedy full of agony and uncertainties and all kinds of difficulties. This work is also a very sincere effort to acknowledge the help and support we received from my friends and sometimes from individuals who were total strangers who came during our very long saga totally unexpectedly with very generous and lavish help and support.

      I have told this story on many occasions, to people who were kind enough to listen to me, but I always wanted to tell it all, and so for the last year I have been re-counting it hoping that I would be lucky enough to have it soon enough in a classical and traditional book form.

      All books are the works of others in addition to the those whose names are scribbled on the cover and this one is no exception, it is my work but it is also the work of those who shared my agony and difficulties, who encouraged me to write it as a means of letting out those agonies and frustrations, it is also the work of those who taught me by their kindness and their sympathy the meaning of love and giving and who were a great inspiration by learning about their lives and experiences. This is a journey, it is a personal story, a sad and very painful story, full of tensions and hindrances and death, but also a story about love and kindness and giving. I would like to share it with you and those who understand the morals and the real values of life who are indulgent and compassionate.

      To me, telling my story to suchwonderful people is a catharsis and psychotherapy, telling it allows me to vent out my my worries and my stresses and to ponder about our very long ordeal which was full of agony and pain. And I’d like to tell it because inside the long history there were many smaller and sometimes not very small stories each one of them was really fascinating each one of them taught me an unforgettable lesson in the meaning of love and friendship and charity.

      Now I would like to make one final point, I am using the word WAR in this narrative as a label to the Bush administration’s adventure in Iraq with all its tribulations and tragedies, I am also using—sometimes—the Bush War, the 2003 War, the Iraq War to mean exactly the same thing.

      Najeeb Hanoudi

      Southfield/Michigan

      February, 2013

      FOREWORD

      by Eric C. schwartz

      black.jpg

      Friendships are like the stars,

      They come and go,

      But those that remain,

      Are the ones that glow.

      Unknown author

      WAR is the unfortunate result of failed diplomacy. In the sullen background of war are the families caught in the cross fire of violence. They are unprotected. as battles rage throughout their neighborhoods, they become displaced and quickly forgotten, their lives are forever changed and their stories are rarely told. They are the victims in situations that are beyond their control.

      ON the 9th of April 2003 the Baathist regime in Iraq collapsed and Saddam has fled his palace, the war was a very short operation, it lasted twenty days, late on the 10th I was told that there was a huge amounts of weapons and other military hardware in one of the houses in the Mansour district in Baghdad which was in fact an office which belonged to one of the plethora of saddam’s intelegence organizations., so we went there next morning and started removing it, I was told by the officer who was in charge of the operation that the man who was living next door to were the threating stuff was kept had come to him [to my officer] and told him that a man in an Iraqi police attire had burst into his house during the day without asking and shouting in a very bad language and very obscenely, very red faced who was accompanied by a very strange looking old man demanding to have the keys to the place because he was going to establish his headquarters there he said, he was the new police chief of Baghdad.

      NEXT day I was standing at the outer door of the house of the neighbor with three officers from my staff when a tall slightly old man man came to us, I told him that the soldiers who were removing the lethal stuff from next door were under my command and that I came to apologize for the behaviour of the iraqi police officer yesterday, if we could talk to you for few minutes. The man was genuinel surprised, he said he was greatly honored by our visit and and took us into the house. We went in and sat with him on his front porch, I told him that I was a tea man, I love a cup of tea and we all had an excellent one, we sat at a small table in front of a broken window and we talked. He told me in excellent English that his name was Najeeb Hanoudi, he is an eye surgeon and that he had graduated from the medical school in Baghdad in 1957, he had a high a degree in ophthalmology from London University since the mid-sixties.

      We stayed for more than few minutes and talked about the war and religion and geopolitics, but he couldn’t stop telling about his dream of reconstruction of his country after the devastation it had suffered under Saddam and his murderous dictatorship. We were already very good friends on a first name basis. We went back to visit him again few days later, we were always very warmly welcomed and had more tea.

      15 April 2003

      BAGHDAD remains a city in utter chaos as common people swarm over ministry buildings in what appears to be revenge and destruction. office furniture, files and building materials are removed from government facilities and dragged throughout the city.

      THE city is in an uncontrollable state of panic. The city implodes as millions of Iraqis take to the streets in an effort to exercise revenge for years of oppression. American tanks are sparsely positioned in vulnerable positions. Troops are exposed to thousands of civilians who are excited about their recent freedom. These same people simply want one of life’s basic needs, security. Standing on the top of a tank I am surrounded by celebrating Iraqis, people appear in the windows as if to say what’s is next?, we are staring at each other, I can see the anticipation on their faces as they watch their neighborhoods fall further and further into lawlessness. As hours and days pass, it becomes evident to the Iraqi people that the American forces do not have the capacity, capability or intent to replace civil unrest with a basic rule of law, this only exacerbates the situation. They remain patient but widespread lootings drags on for days and in the midst of that disorder gangs take shape and the destructive nature of the lootings increases, but the focus of the violence however, remains on the former Iraqi regime. Unable to influence the situation American forces pull back

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