Greater Cincinnati residents with Middle East ties grappling with unpredictable conflict zone

Opinions may differ about U.S. bombs hitting Iran’s nuclear sites, but uncertainty is common emotion.

“I think not knowing,” said Julie Leftwich. “Everybody is on edge. Nobody knows what’s going to happen.”

Leftwich, who’s building a new International Peace and Security Initiatives program at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Law, was in Israel about a month ago.

“Then I was supposed to be going back to the region in a couple of weeks,” she said.

That plan got turned upside down when U.S. stealth bombers entered Iranian airspace this weekend.

Unfazed, Leftwich hopes people in Greater Cincinnati don’t forget that families of all backgrounds in the Middle East are bearing the brunt of what feels like a global power struggle.

“It’s just not just bombs that are going off, and that, you know, nothing else is happening,” Leftwich said. “These are people, obviously, that are being affected.”

That point hits home to Kendall Luke. His son-in-law, who’s in the Army, recently returned to the U.S. after spending about a year in Iraq.