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Monday, November 7, 2005
Risking it all for family
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Camp Taji, Iraq — Agent Q said he trades in his car almost every month. He paints his license plates white, so they are harder to see from a distance. And he has learned to drive fast to and from this base. Real fast.
Q is an interpreter for U.S. soldiers here. And he knows being seen near this base could mean trouble. Insurgents killed a fellow interpreter, he said, for cooperating with the U.S. military.
“I don’t stop. I don’t want to be stopped,” said Q, who asked that his real name not be used for his safety.
Q is paid $900 a month to risk his life. When the soldiers give him candy, he brings it home to his four children. But he never throws the wrappers away in his neighborhood. He wears a scarf over his head sometimes to disguise himself on the way to work.
Q said he took the dangerous job because he was unemployed following the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And he needed the money to support his wife and children. His daughter has cancer and needs a bone marrow transplant, he said.
His dream is to move his family to the United States, where he said his daughter could get the transplant. He is now looking for an American to sponsor him and help him get U.S. citizenship. “I want to take my family away from this country until it is good,” he said.
Perhaps one day, when Iraq is peaceful, he said, he would move his family back.
