Full article from abcnews.com
Into the Fire
Iraqis Working in Jordan Defiantly Board Buses Back to Baghdad
By David Wright
A R R U W A Y S H I D, Jordan, March 31 ― At a dingy bus stop near the Iraqi border, streams of people have been loading their bags, saying their goodbyes and resolutely heading back to their hometown: Baghdad.
The crowd at the Ar Ruwayshid bus stop hasn't thinned since the war in Iraq began. If anything, it has grown, even though coalition strikes have continued to pound targets in and around the Iraqi capital.
Some 400,000 Iraqi citizens live and work in Jordan. So many of them are clamoring to leave, there's a waiting list at the Iraqi Embassy to obtain the necessary permits to cross the border. Most people had expected the traffic to flow from Iraq to Jordan, as happened during the first few days of the Gulf War, when more than a million refugees poured into Jordan. But the Amman camp that served those refugees is now a ghost town.
Not one person lives there. The soup kitchen is empty and so are the tents.
Yet the buses going the other way are full. A ticket to the border costs $10, and a bus on the Iraqi side takes the Iraqis who work in Jordan the rest of the way home.
‘I Must Go’
They know it could be dangerous, but these Iraqis are desperate to get home ― to help their families and their country.
"To prove that I am a real Iraqi, I must go," said a baker from Basra. He has six brothers who are fighting coalition forces in Basra.
British forces have surrounded Basra, a city of 1.5 million people, hoping it can be wrested from the control of President Saddam Hussein's government without the need to fight street by street.
"If I had to walk to Basra, I'd walk," the baker said.
Thare Ode, from Nasiriyah, hasn't been able to reach any members of his family in Baghdad to see if they're OK. His brother, his nephew and two friends made the decision to go together.
"I will fight, and be one from the army," said Ode, who is 43. He is very worried about going back, but feels he has a duty.
"That's my home and my country, and she needs me," he said.
Most Bus Riders Poised to Fight
Most of those heading to Baghdad are of fighting age, with every intention of joining the military. At a roadside restaurant near the border, they sing defiantly about what a fine thing it would be to be martyred in their homeland.
"Look at these young people," said Nahida Rashid, wiping away a tear. "They're leaving jobs, leaving everything. They have hate and sadness inside them. And they're leaving for Baghdad."
Rashid too, was on the bus, with her daughter. She has no love for Saddam Hussein or George W. Bush, but is headed home to be with her family. And if that means she will die with them, so be it, she said, breaking into tears.
"You are human beings, and we are human beings," she said. "That's why I'm crying."
