A worker unloads cardboard boxes from a bus carrying returning Iraqi refugees at Baghdad's international bus station, Nov. 9, 2007
Shaheen left Iraq as a teenager to attend school in the United Kingdom. After graduation, he returned and served in the Iraqi Army as an officer for three years. He began working as a translator when U.S. forces invaded in 2003. He currently works as TIME's Baghdad bureau manager.
On Living Apart From His Family
I had a family — I have a wife and
three kids — two daughters and one son, he is the youngest. I had to
ask them to leave the country because I was worried about them,
honestly. I was worried myself too, because I am in this line of
business. Not just this line of business, I mean, in Iraq, you don't
know when you're going to be killed: a car bomb, an accident, all these
kinds of things, the militias. You have to minimize your appearance in
some situations so I was worried about them. So I decided to send them
to Amman in Jordan. I hope that the situation will get better and that,
one day, I'll ask them to come back.
On both Gulf Wars
After the war with Kuwait — the first
Gulf war — the economic situation went bad. There were a lot of
people suffering. And it kept on. We stayed in Iraq. We didn't go out
like other people because we managed to keep with it. We expected things
to be good, because people had started talking that the Americans were
coming, and we expected things to be good for us. Well, it's happened,
and in the early days, it was good. You had freedom. You could talk, and
then suddenly things started coming down. This is the way I would put
it. It kept going down. And it didn't go the way America had promised it
would happen, if you know what I mean. I don't know [what went
wrong], but I will tell you something: America did plan the war very
well, but they didn't plan to govern Iraq. And this is a problem.
On the idea of leaving
With this age of mine, I don't want
to leave the country without having something in my hand. I'm trying to
sell, not just me, all my brothers, are trying to sell the family
heritage — land and some houses here and there. I personally don't
believe I'll be living here in 10 years.
On the military presence
In the early days of the presence
of the coalition forces, in Baghdad especially because I am from
Baghdad, the military were welcomed. The Americans were seen in the
streets and everybody cheered them. In 2004 and 2005, people started
looking at them with another eye. They think, even now, the presence of
American and coalition forces are trouble.
On troop withdrawal
It would be chaos in the country. A
country with no power or control. I don't think America will leave the
country. Out of experience, I don't think America will leave very soon.
A regular Iraqi force that can keep the country, the army and the
police, is in the process of building step by step. And as you know,
there is the presence of a lot of militias — Shi'ite militias, Sunni
militias and the presence of al-Qaeda. I think if the Americans were to
leave in the next few months, everything will collapse.
On the surge
As an Iraqi, I believe the surge [had an
effect]. But I cannot say it's only the surge. It was three things that
really put the violence down: first, the Sunni awakening, second, the
concrete barriers closing up areas in Baghdad. And the third is that
Moqtada al-Sadra ordered his troops to stop their operations against
multinational forces.
On the barriers around Baghdad
They're concrete walls like
on the western bank. Areas cut from areas. It's not a very nice view to
look at. You see all the people behind the barriers. Even in the area of
the green zone, there are concrete barriers so high you wouldn't believe
it. Probably about 3 or 4 meters. When you see this, you don't feel
welcome. They wouldn't give you the impression that things would be
good. Segregation of the areas won't give me, personally, a feeling ...
of hope for the future.
On the war's fifth anniversary
I'm not really optimistic
about what's going on. Personally, I believe the violence will pick up
within the next 6 to 8 months. We can see car bombs coming back to the
city. We can see a lot of suicides. There's a lot of assassinations. We
had a period of a month or two of quietness, but it's picking up. I hope
that my country will be safe again to bring my family back and live with
them together in our house and nobody will harass them or hurt them,
that's all I hope.