For exiled Chaldeans, Iraq war is far from finished

By Roxana Popescunoon
Noori Barka, Ph.D, President of the Chaldean American Institute, discusses Chaldeans in San Diego on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War during a visit to St. Peters Chaldean Catholic Cathedral. Noori Barka, Ph.D, President of the Chaldean American Institute, discusses Chaldeans in San Diego on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War during a visit to St. Peters Chaldean Catholic Cathedral. — Howard Lipin

They come for the fish, they come for the Arabic music, but mostly they come for the memories. Nahrain Fish and Chicken Grill, in a sun-parched strip mall in El Cajon, is one of the only places in San Diego where you can get masgouf, the Iraqi style of fish wood-fired in a clay oven.

The restaurant on El Cajon’s Main Street, next to a Middle Eastern bakery, is thriving these days.

East County is home to the country’s second largest Iraqi immigrant community, after Detroit. At least 40,000, and perhaps more than 50,000, Iraqis live in El Cajon. More than 13,000 of them have moved here since the Iraq War began in 2003, according to the State Department.

San Diego’s Iraqis have different feelings about the 10th anniversary of the start of the war, which falls this week. Some say it caused their diaspora. Some are grateful because it led to Saddam Hussein’s death. Some are angry because of the aftermath: the Shia government takeover, Christian persecution, the rampant corruption and lawlessness.

The U.S.-led invasion was “the worst day of Iraq’s life. A million people left their country, where everybody was comfortable, and now they are on Main Street looking for a dime,” said a man eating at Nahrain, who called himself Naz.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/17/chaldeans-el-cajon-iraq-war-anniversary/