Iraq’s ambassador thanks soldiers for service

CHARLESTON — Iraq’s ambassador to the United States thanked veterans for their service to Iraq Monday during an appearance at Eastern Illinois University.

Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaid’ie said he always makes it a point to express gratitude to the soldiers that helped free Iraq from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.

The Times-Courier in Charleston reports more than a dozen veterans and family members of those who served in Iraq shook hands with the ambassador during a reception in Dvorak Concert Hall at EIU’s Doudna Fine Arts Center.

“You get a lot of thank you’s from the American public, but this is probably one of the first thank you I have gotten from an Iraqi,” said Adam Hodson, a Lerna resident who was deployed in Iraq with the Illinois Army National Guard in 2006-07.

Sumaid’ie, who has been Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. since 2006, was in Charleston to also serve as keynote speaker at a Mideast conference.

“It’s always a good thing to remember what they did and say thank you,” Sumaid’ie said earlier Monday. He said this event was the first time he has met with veterans in the Midwest.

Army veteran Blake Leitch of Mattoon said the event was a great opportunity to meet a man whose love for his home country of Iraq is evident and who wants to do all he can to help it move forward.

Leitch said Sumaid’ie’s passion for Iraq means a lot to him because of those in his unit who died for that country. Leitch said if he were asked two to three years ago to attend such an event, he would have said “no way” because the memories of his service were still so raw.

Since then, Leitch said he has experienced healing through the passage of time and by speaking with other service members.

“The more I talk about it, the easier it is for me to talk about it and the easier it is for me to carry on with my day to day life,” Leitch said. He is a junior communications studies major at EIU and a state coordinator for the Student Veterans of America.