They fled war and repression in Iraq. They renewed their lives in America. Now they stand ready to help recast the destiny of their embattled homeland after decades of dictatorship. Three Iraqi immigrants in Southern California — Maha Yousif, a Muslim orthodontist; Father Noel Gorgis, a Chaldean Catholic priest; and Saman Shali, a Kurdish telecommunications entrepreneur — are among those poised to vote in Iraq's landmark democratic election. After earning her doctorate in orthodontics, Yousif and her daughter, Dahlia, came to the United States in 1981 for a dental training program in Nebraska. Her husband, who was also a dentist,...