Curiosity leads man on trip to Baghdad

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1206lopercio06.html

Valley resident describes visit

Chris Fiscus
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 6, 2003 12:00 AM


Last week, his biggest concern was fixing his pool pump. This week he stood atop a roof in Baghdad, talking to The Republic by cellphone.

East Valley restaurateur Mike Lopercio is part of a human rights group delegation to Iraq, grabbing a firsthand look at life after the war. He has serious concerns about the lack of progress with reconstruction and is stunned with the differences between the Iraq seen on the television news and the Iraq he sees by walking the streets. "What you see on the TV doesn't really brace you for what's here," he said in an interview this week. "The town is barricaded up, tanks rolling down the street. Visually, it's arresting. It's shocking."

The trip was arranged through Global Exchange, a human rights group that has openly criticized the Iraq invasion. Lopercio and the delegation have met with more than 15 different groups, from doctors to university and community leaders to schoolchildren, and he calls the trip "truly an unbelievable experience."

Postwar Iraq is the two hospitals he visited that didn't have any drugs, or the schools that don't have lights or heat. Some neighborhoods have trash and sewage in the street. Cars line up for blocks waiting for gas. All the while, Iraqi frustration is high.
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The truth is out there.... And it is slowly finding its way home.

I hope.

it might be "life saving" to follow orders.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-daughter6dec06,1,2932175.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Valencia, 51, born in Boyle Heights, was one of a handful of parents who traveled to Iraq this week to see their active-duty children. Another parent, Fernando Suarez del Solar, from Escondido, gathered sand from the spot where his son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solar, was killed in March.

The trip was sponsored by Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based activist group that opposed the U.S. invasion and is eager to spread its antiwar message. None of the parents had formal military clearance to visit their soldier children.

Anabel Valencia's trip provided an offbeat glimpse into the U.S. occupation in this former Baath Party stronghold.

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I admire these people so much. Speak truth to power, and bring your children home.