Iraq Mends a System to Treat Trauma

BASRA, Iraq — During quiet moments, Fadel Khadum Adel, a former soldier, often hears someone speaking his name into his right ear. The voice is a welcome one, usually that of his mother or father, but when he looks there is no one there.

Mr. Adel, 43, turned his head to reveal a gnarled stub of an ear — the rest was forcibly amputated, without anesthesia, under Saddam Hussein, as punishment for his desertion from the army in 1987 during the Iran-Iraqwar.

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