And again...nice of some of you to speak for the Iraqi people.  That would be
    the Iraqi people who are going to welcome us with open arms...but I guess you'd
    rather be on the side of Saddam than the Women For A Free Iraq.
So let's try this again. From the LA Times:

    'They Don't Speak for Me'
An Iraqi refugee says stars who decry action against Hussein prolong the abuse
    of a people
By Esra Naama
    Esra Naama of San Diego is a member of Women for a Free Iraq. Web site:
    http://www.womenforiraq.org.
March 17, 2003
I am a refugee from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
When Martin Sheen, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Barbra Streisand speak about
    the Iraqi people, they are not speaking about people like me, who are Shiite
    Muslims -- the largest religious group in Iraq that is nonetheless forced to
    live as second-class citizens under the Sunni regime of Hussein and his Baath
    Party.
When I was 10, I fled Iraq with my mother and four siblings after the failure
    of the 1991 uprising against Hussein. My father, a former Iraqi army colonel,
    was one of the leaders of the uprising and helped organize the resistance
    forces that fought against Hussein. As a pharmacist with knowledge of military
    bases in the southern part of Iraq, he took crates of medicine and supplies
    from army hospitals to the local civilian hospitals. And he attacked every
    vestige of Hussein's control in my hometown of Al-Diwaniya; he tore down
    posters of Hussein and restored the old names on the hospitals and public
    buildings that had been named for Hussein.
At that time, we believed that the coalition forces would come to our
    assistance. But within a few short days, Hussein brutally crushed us. In the
    months that followed, tens of thousands of my fellow Shiite Muslims were
    executed. Entire families were killed. Bodies were left to hang on trees and
    men were tortured in public. These are the scenes that I relive in my
    nightmares.
My father went into hiding to escape execution. My mother had no idea whether
    he was dead or alive. She knew that if Hussein's security forces could not find
    him, they would come after her children, and we would be imprisoned and
    tortured to lure my father out of hiding. When they took away my 18-year-old
    cousin, my mother decided we had to leave. We set off on a long journey, moving
    to new safe houses every night, until we finally reached the Rafha refugee camp
    in Saudi Arabia. The camp embodied all the indifference and cruelty with which
    Arab dictatorships treat their people. We stayed there for nearly two years. We
    were lucky.
Eventually, my father found his way to the same camp and we were blessed to
    receive refugee status in the United States on Sept. 17, 1992. My family
    celebrates this date as our new birthday, the day that we were able to begin
    our lives as full human beings, with dignity and hope. Growing up in the United
    States, I often thought about the people we left behind. We lost three
    relatives. My best friend's father, an army general, was executed for unknown
    reasons. I have friends who have lost 50 relatives.
Like many others, I am dedicated to ending the suffering of the Iraqi people.
    They are prisoners in their own land and they yearn for freedom and the simple
    things that we take for granted -- democracy, freedom of speech, the right to
    vote. America is their model for the future of Iraq, if only America and the
    world would help them build it.
I am an American now, and I have been educated to respect the right to free
    expression by any citizen, a right no member of my family enjoyed when we lived
    in Iraq. I know from personal experience that the Hollywood actors who decry
    action against Hussein are really opposing the liberation of the Iraqi people.
    I wish they would praise the American troops in the field or just stay silent.
There is only one measure of comfort to be found in their statements: When Iraq
    is finally liberated, these actors will learn that they have never spoken for
    the people of Iraq.