Outskirts of Kuwait City
IN A QUIET MOMENT some three weeks before the United States sent 40 Tomahawk missiles and several 2,000-pound bombs into Baghdad, an Iraqi-American man named Hakim contemplated his mission. He had graduated that day from a training course that the U.S. military had provided to Iraqis to prepare them for the work they are now doing, side by side with American soldiers near the Iraqi border. Why, Hakim was asked, did he choose to leave a comfortable life in America to join U.S. troops in Iraq?

Our story is the story of the 22 million Iraqis. They spent the last 35 years in total dictatorship, stripped [of] their dignity and freedom. Our mission is a mission of liberation for a free and democratic nation, got to be part of the world.

When did he leave Iraq?

I live all my life, I born there. I left the country in 1974, when I realized at a very early age that the country gonna go down the hill under such management--they are a gang rather than a leader.

Moments later, another question. "You've just completed your training of approximately one month. Do you feel as dedicated today as when you first came here?"

In fact my mission started 26 years ago, I never lay down, I never sleep. But the training within the last four weeks has just bringed that dream back to reality. And the closer I come to the mission, the more I get fired up and the more I get emotional. In fact, I think it's still with me. Every time I look at a friend here with me at training, I see a brother suffering there in the prison or torture or disappear. I see a piece of child lost his happiness and smile for years. I see a face of woman has been stripped out of their dignity for the last 35 years. I see a waste of resources of a great country and cradle of civilization has been waste. Today is the day where the mission start and I'm comforted more than ever.

This exchange comes from a series of exit interviews taped by the U.S. government and obtained by The Weekly Standard. The interviews were conducted by government personnel, and some of the questions, perhaps those above, could fairly be described as leading. But any doubt that Hakim expressed the beliefs of a great many Iraqis was shattered Friday, when Iraqis greeted American soldiers with dancing, handshakes, and hugs. Kuwaiti television captured the scene in the southern Iraqi city of Safwan, a town notable because it's where coalition and Iraqi military leaders signed the cease-fire that ended the first Gulf War in 1991.

Some cheered and chanted "Ameriki! Ameriki!" when U.S. Marines ripped down the omnipresent, oversized portraits of Saddam Hussein. One man pounded Saddam's face with his shoe. Maj. David "Bull" Gurfein started another cheer, and several Iraqi men joined in. "Iraqis! Iraqis! Iraqis!"

An Iraqi named Ali Khemy spoke to Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press. "Americans very good," he offered. "Iraq wants to be free." A young man concurred. "No Saddam Hussein! Bush!"