Life in Baghdad Since the Fall of Saddam

[Etta Place]

This is a multi-part article and it's really very interesting to hear from individual Iraqis like this.

03/17/2008 03:58 PMTHE IRAQ FIASCO, 2003-2008
Life in Baghdad since the Fall of Saddam
By SPIEGEL Staff

Five years after the US invasion, no one misses Saddam, but some Baghdadis are nostalgic for the relative freedom and stability they had before the Americans came.


REUTERS
Saddam's 24-year reign of terror ended in spring 2003. What followed, say Iraqis, was a brief period of freedom and prosperity before their nation fell apart.
The situation in Iraq on the eve of the anniversary of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" has both opponents and supporters of the American military campaign puzzled. The body of a Catholic archbishop is found near the northern city of Mosul, and yet the US embassy in Baghdad is holding a garage sale as if it were peacetime. There has been a slight rise in the number of attacks again, and Douglas Feith, one of the Pentagon's principal architects of the war, is about to publish a book in which he seeks to justify his decisions. The United States has been in Iraq longer than it fought in World War II. The conflict is getting long in the tooth.

In America's public consciousness, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq has stagnated since the summer of 2007. At the time, more than half of respondents to opinion polls knew that 3,500 GIs had been killed, but today only a quarter of Americans know that the number has increased to 4,000. According to Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, the war has already cost the country at least $3 trillion.

Washington has burned through two American civilian administrators, three ambassadors and three commanding generals. The last of the diplomats -- and, relatively speaking, the most successful -- has just announced his departure. Ambassador Ryan Crocker plans to leave in January. Commenting on his retirement, Crocker said: "That will make two years in Iraq and 37 years in the Foreign Service -- it's enough!"

Before they leave, Crocker and Commanding General David Petraeus, who also remains in office until January 2009, will have to deliver another report to Congress in April and explain to lawmakers what the US troop surge has achieved. After the summer of 2007, the number of attacks declined by half, but then it remained stable. There were just under 2,000 attacks every month from November to January, or about as many as in the spring of 2005.

The prognoses are relatively worthless as long as it is unclear what exactly the results of the turnaround have been. Optimists point to successes among Sunnis. Close to 80,000 former Sunni insurgents have changed sides and now work for the Americans, each of them earning $300 a month. Al-Qaida terrorism has been dealt a serious blow.

But skeptics warn against being too optimistic too soon when it comes to the Shiites. Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr has extended his Mahdi militia's cease-fire, which is indisputably the main reason for the drop in sectarian murders. But no one knows whether the cease-fire is merely a strategic move, or whether it will last.

The progress of the war has long depended on both people and developments no one would have imagined five years ago. General Tommy Franks, who directed the US invasion of Iraq, merely rolled his eyes when he was asked at the time what would happen after the war, former US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith writes in his upcoming autobiography "War and Decision." Franks' response to the question was that he didn't have time for that kind of "bull****." Indeed, there are failures everywhere Feith casts his eyes. But, as the reader soon learns, Feith is convinced that the triumvirate of planners -- then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush and Feith himself -- was infallible.

None of these retrospective quibbles appear to worry the president. "The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency," he said last week in Nashville. "It is the right decision at this point in my presidency, and it will forever be the right decision."

How the country proceeds in Iraq will be decided, at least in part, by American voters this November. If they elect Republican John McCain as president, they may have to get used to a US presence in Iraq for another 100 years, as McCain has suggested. Meanwhile, the Democratic presidential candidates are urging a pullout of US troops. But neither side has thought of a peaceful way to resolve the political problems among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

On the following pages, five Iraqis describe how their lives have changed since the invasion.

Bernhard Zand

The Iraq Fiasco, 2003-2008: Life in Baghdad since the Fall of Saddam - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

[KarolinaKid]

Well, if you want my opinion...Oh, yea, this is not the bickering thread...never mind.

[eric_t12]

political disputes between sunnis shiites and kurds aren't our concern -

supporting the war on terror is.



easier to kill people than get them to talk to one another apparently, since we refuse to talk to north korea or iran... or baghdad, before we invaded.

[Judge]

that's funny... why doesn't he talk to some of the kids that swarm the US troops when they arrive or that hide behind US troops when there's gunfire...

Or talk to the politicans, elected by the people who want the US to stay.

Wonder how hard he had to look for those five?

Originally Posted by Etta Place

This is a multi-part article and it's really very interesting to hear from individual Iraqis like this.





The Iraq Fiasco, 2003-2008: Life in Baghdad since the Fall of Saddam - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

[Frenchy]

Of course your take on the war trumps everyone elses, doesn't it Judge.
I'm sure I can find a Chucky Cheese pizza party going on in Baghdad if I tried.

[XDTALK]

i think that if most iraqis wanted us out then we wouldnt see attacks going down

just my2cents

Brent

[AZXD]

Originally Posted by XDTALK

i think that if most iraqis wanted us out then we wouldnt see attacks going down

just my2cents

Brent

And the ratio of attacks against the troops versus attacks between Sunni and Shia is ???

They obviously don't care if the police (Coalition Forces) are around. They are fighting with each other as we play referee.
Nothing will chane until the Iraqi government gets it's act together.

[Judge]

Why the personal insult Frenchy??

Can you simply not address the point?

Originally Posted by Frenchy

Of course your take on the war trumps everyone elses, doesn't it Judge.
I'm sure I can find a Chucky Cheese pizza party going on in Baghdad if I tried.

[AZXD]

Oh, I'm sure it was a joke
Remember ..... Everything is a joke
Calling someone an Anti-American Communist is a joke! You taught us that.

So who cares if an opinion trumps everyone elses. It's a joke!!
It's not an insult!
It's a joke!!
Remember that

[Judge]

only for those who understand context... some do, some don't. Some things are also contradicted by other posts - from which can be inferred the true meaning. Some understand, some don't.

I'm just trying to keep this board from being shut down again. I know I've contributed some things which I wish I'd worded differently but....