Largo doctor in Iraq reports on progress transforming his former country
an ABC Action News report 6/01/04
previous story: Largo doctor heads to D.C. to help plan for post-war Iraq (4/04/03)
LARGO - One former bay area resident has been intimately involved in putting together the new Iraqi government that was unveiled Tuesday.
Until he was tapped to be a part of the Iraqi transition team, Dr. Said Hakky worked at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center. Now, after wrapping up his work as the interim minister of health, he's assisting with Iraq's Ministry of Religion and is deeply involved with the Iraqi Red Crescent.
When reached by ABC Action News over the phone, Hakky was ecstatic about Tuesday's turn of events.
"It's a continuation of the momentum that happened a year and a month ago when the United States liberated Iraq," he said. "For the United States didn't only liberate Iraq from this tyrant, it liberated its people, and what it did was a blessing."
Believe it or not, Hakky said most of the 13 months he's been away from the U.S. has been a blessing. That's not because he's given up the sunshine of the Suncoast for the bombs of Baghdad, but because he's seeing firsthand how the cruel rule of Saddam Hussein -- the tyrant he once grudgingly worked for and with -- is being replaced with a new democratic regime:
"The Iraqi people, they got their liberty and freedom, and it's the only country now, apart from Israel, in the Middle East that has full democracy," he added.
Dr. Hakky, who is trained as a urologist, said he probably won't be back to the U.S. any time soon because it's tough, time-consuming work setting up a government.
"We're building a nation here, you don't finish it in a year," Hakky continued. "Yes, the United States is doing a fabulous job here."
Meanwhile, his family remains in the bay area. His wife Barbara is busy trying to hold the household together, as what amounts to a single mom to six kids.
Their trip to see where Said is working is still fresh in their minds. The family has an entire slideshow of pictures from when they were in Iraq last summer.
For now, they can only speak occasionally by phone, a situation that brings both concern and relief for Barbara.
"Well, sometimes we have a bit of gunfire, but while he's talking to me, I figure he's alright, so I thank God for that," she said. "He's safe moving around."
Despite that concern, Barbara said she does share her husband's optimism for the future of Iraq.
tampabaylive.com |
