<a href='http://www.zwire.com/site/tab5.cfm?newsid=12334731&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=511693&rfi=6' target='_blank'>Reston Times article</a>
Another view of war in Iraq
By Lise Hausrath Simmons
07/13/2004
Two young linguists who work for a Reston government contractor as Arabic language translators and recently returned from assignments in Iraq say most Iraqis are supportive of U.S. efforts to create a new society there. They also believe that U.S. soldiers are not getting the credit from the media that they deserve.
In a recent interview with The Reston Times, Jasmine El-Gamal, 23, and Mlyard Alzayat, 21, said the media's reporting on the Iraqi war has been biased, because people are not hearing about all the good things U.S. soldiers are doing there.
This skewed coverage, they said, motivated them to speak out—despite the criticism it might arouse from those opposed to the war, including some members of the area's Muslim community.
They said they did not necessarily have an opinion on whether the war was justified, only reflections on what they have witnessed since it began.
El-Gamal and Alzayat are both employees of SOS International, a six-year-old, Reston-based government contractor that sends translators to trouble spots in the War on Terrorism, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba's Guantanamo Bay.
They emphasized, however, that they were not speaking for their company but rather as two U.S. residents who have seen firsthand what was happening overseas.
El-Gamal, a U.S. citizen, is a new Reston resident, having moved here about six months ago. While she was born in the United States, her parents, who live in New York now, are from Alexandria, Egypt.
Alzayat, who lives in McLean with his family, was born in Saudi Arabia and attended school there, but he considers himself Syrian because that is where his parents are from. He is in the process of getting his U.S. citizenship.
Alzayat came to the United States in 1999 and is currently studying information systems technology at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale.
El-Gamal was in Iraq when the war started in March 2003 and worked there for the U.S. Army until last November. She was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, working with a civil affairs unit, she said.
Alzayat was on assignment in Iraq from April 2003 until early this year, working with the 1st Marine Division Expeditionary Force on counterintelligence matters, he said.
Prior to working in Iraq, they worked in Kuwait and Qatar for a while.
"I feel that the media is completely twisting what's happening over there" in Iraq, El-Gamal said. No one is bothering to report on "the good stuff" the military is doing there, she said.
She cited different facts to bolster her view, saying school attendance in Iraq is up 80 percent, 2,300 schools have been renovated, all hospitals in the country are now functional, immunizations are up and power generation has increased slightly since the war began.
These statistics are "not on CNN, not on the BBC, not on Fox News," El-Gamal said. "I don't feel U.S. soldiers are getting the credit they deserve."
For example, during Ramadan, a holy time for Muslims, U.S. soldiers she observed were respectful of the Iraqis, even refraining from drinking water in public despite the blistering heat. "[T]hey followed those rules. They greatly respected that culture," she said.
Citing another example, she said the soldiers she worked with would "spend hours" trying to work with people in the Iraqi schools to gauge and satisfy their needs. "Their attitude was amazing," El-Gamal said.
She also claimed that the Iraqi people, by and large, are happy that the Americans came in.
"They were so happy that we were there," she said, adding that many people would say to her and the military officers with whom she worked, "Thank you so much for coming to save us.
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