Karim had time to do just one thing: burn all the documents that connected him to America\u201d\u201dphotos of him posing with Army officers, a CD from the medical charity\u201d\u201din case he was stopped on the road by militants or his house was searched. He watched the record of his experience during the period of the Americans in Iraq turn to ash, and felt nothing except the urge to get to safety.<\/p>\n
By 9:30 A.M., Karim and his extended family were crowded into his Toyota Camry, his brother\u2019s car, and his father\u2019s pickup truck. They\u2019d had no time to pack, and for the drive through the heat of the desert they took nothing but water, bread, canned milk for Karim\u2019s two-year-old son, and their AK-47s. At first, Karim\u2019s father refused to go along. A stubborn man, he said, \u201cLet them kill me in my town, but I will never leave it.\u201d\u009d Fortunately, the father\u2019s paralyzed cousin, who had been left behind by his family, pleaded with him, and at the last minute the two old men joined the exodus. Karim\u2019s twenty or so family members were the last to get out of the area by car, and they joined a massive traffic jam headed northwest. Thousands of other Yazidi families had to flee on foot into the mountains: \u201cThey couldn\u2019t leave. They didn\u2019t know how to leave. They waited too long to leave,\u201d\u009d Karim said.<\/b><\/p>\n