Iraqis calmly prepare for worst

By Michael Slackman and John Daniszewski
Los Angeles Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Fearing that war could be days away, Iraqis began yesterday to stockpile food, tape over windows, load up on fuel and flee this capital city, where fighting is expected to be heaviest.

A convoy of U.N. personnel yesterday entered Kuwait City, after receiving orders to abandon the Demilitarized Zone at the Iraq-Kuwait border. Associated Press

During the many months of verbal and diplomatic sparring between President Bush and Saddam Hussein, the people of this nation never fully accepted the likelihood that their cities, towns and villages would once again be turned into battlefields. Just last week, it was still viewed by many people as a distant threat.

Not anymore.

Parents pulled their children out of school yesterday.

Businesses were closing down. College classes were emptying out. Trucks hauled computers and filing cabinets away from ministry buildings. And people began to prepare their personal weapons.

"All the people are very tense," said Abdul Adem, 38, the owner of a small factory who waited to fill the tank of his car. "We are like a patient with an incurable disease. ... We are living the worst period now."

By yesterday evening, cars packed with baggage were leaving the city. Store shelves emptied as people bought out supplies or merchants put away stock for safekeeping. Diplomats, journalists and Iraqi citizens headed for the borders with Jordan and Syria. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan ordered all weapons inspectors and humanitarian workers to get out of the country.

Governments around the world urged their citizens to leave. But for most of Iraq, there was no escaping what lies ahead. The dispute may be between their leaders and the U.S. government, but it is their lives that will be disrupted, their children who will be unable to sleep, their homes that will be in harm's way.

"My daughter asked me, 'Why do they want to kill us?' " Adem said. "She asked 'Why do they want to destroy our school?' I am perplexed. I don't know how to answer."

At Baghdad Technological University, many students were leaving for their hometowns outside the city, while others began to stock up on supplies. Their hopes of finishing the school year seemed to slip away. What concerned them most was access to food and water.

"We will pray and read the Koran," said Ahmed Hassan, a 19-year-old electrical engineering student. "We will ask God to end it peacefully. We have faith. We can face it."

Bassam Salin, 34, runs a one-room office-supply shop across from the university. It has provided him with a livelihood for 15 years. He has welded a steel wall over the storefront to protect against bombs and looters. That was the easy part.

"You have to be calm, especially if you have a wife and children," he said. "Even if you are tired and worried, you can't show your family."

If the Iraqis have come to terms with the inevitability of war, they are not at all certain why it has come to this. They hear talk of weapons of mass destruction and U.N. resolutions, but they look at their impoverished, rundown nation and wonder how it could present a threat to Americans.

"I would like to ask you a question," said Sattar Mahdi, 39, who was looking to buy a used Toyota at an open-air car market on the outskirts of Baghdad. "What's the goal of the Americans? Why are they coming here?"

Yunis Dawood, 50, who had just sold a used van, asked: "Do people in America like war?"

The car market is a place for the working poor, drawing mostly Shiite Muslims who make up the majority of Iraq's population. Iraq, however, is ruled by Sunni Muslims. Men at the market suggested the U.S. threat has united Iraqis in a way that Saddam never could. There was no one here lionizing the president. But there was talk of defending one's home, and honor, and country.

While most people were hoping to flee a conflict, scores of Arab volunteers at the Baghdad Military Academy said they welcomed a war with the United States as a way to fight imperialism and defend Islam. Saying they represented almost every Arab country, and Muslims from other parts of the globe, they told of traveling by bus, car and airplane to volunteer to fight alongside Iraqi soldiers.

"Our hearts are filled with faith, and we don't fear anything," said a Tunisian fighter, Mohammed Ali, 30. "Iraq is threatened by the big Satan America, and we all as one people will act together."

Abu Walid, 53, said he left his shop in Saudi Arabia to fight because he feels the United States is bent on dominating the Arab world.

"Mr. Saddam Hussein is now our last chance," Walid said. "This man is the last fort for the Arab countries to stand against imperialism. If Iraq is lost, that means that the rest of Arab countries are lost, too."

Iraqi Lt. Col. Ali Salman, an officer at the academy, said he heard that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had said that American soldiers would be welcomed by Iraqis with music.

"We have music," he promised grimly. "But it is not the piano. It will be bombs, bombs, bombs."