Azad Yousif, an intern with AFSC Iowa in the summer of 2011, researched various costs of war.
By Jon Krieg, AFSC Senior Administrative Associate
An engaging young man with an irrepressible smile, Azad Yousif knows firsthand the costs of war. This summer, during an internship with AFSC, Azad took a closer look at various ways in which the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are draining our human and fiscal resources.
A native of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, Azad’s family fled their home when he was seven. Azad’s dad worked as a chef for the army, and Saddam Hussein had hired agents to kill his father and others. President Clinton brought 3,500 Kurds on a long journey to the U.S. Azad recalls they spent two days in Turkey, and then two months in Guam at a processing center.
Based on a lottery, Azad’s family ended up in Des Moines, Iowa, where three feet of snow lay on the ground. Churches sponsored them with groceries and other supplies. One month later, Azad enrolled in the first grade, knowing no English.
Fifteen years later, Azad is now a senior political science major/history minor at Grand View College in Des Moines. He says he has a passion for politics and an interest in ending corruption in his home country. He’s hoping to acquire a master’s in public administration from Drake University, after which he wants to return home as an instructor or government worker.
“No matter how much you may like the United State,” Azad says, “it’s still not home.” He urges people, “Never forget your roots – it’s what makes you different.”
Azad describes his AFSC internship as a “fascinating experience and very educational.” He says he’s enjoyed meeting people from different organizations and with different perspectives. Prior to the internship, he had a sense of the work of AFSC and Friends House, but he was glad to learn more about AFSC’s immigration legal services work and the counseling work of therapists in Friends House.
Along with fellow intern Lydia Kirior, whom he refers to as “an amazing person,” Azad researched the costs of war and how military overspending and domestic budget cuts were impacting our society. The trillions of U.S. taxpayer money spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could have been spent, instead, on education, human welfare, and health care. Azad said that his fellow Grand View students were interested in his presentation about his work.
Azad describes Kathleen McQuillen, AFSC Iowa Program Coordinator, as an “influential person who wants you to get to the core of the subject and put your research into context.”
One of the human costs of war which Azad and Lydia researched together is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which was addressed in an AFSC forum this summer. According to Azad, we’ve known about PTSD for a very long time, and yet soldiers receive very little treatment for it. This is de-humanizing for soldiers and their loved ones. Veterans, especially those with PTSD, suffer from exorbitantly high rates of suicide and homelessness.
Having lived through and studied the various costs of war, Azad makes it very clear that he values peace the most.
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