News: Life in Baghdad Since Saddam

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.

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 flea market as if it were peacetime.

The United States has been in Iraq longer than it fought in World War II. Only a quarter of the US citizens knows 4,000 American soldiers were killed in Iraq. According to Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics, the war has already cost the country at least $3 trillion.

Der Spiegel published an interesting article with reflections on "Life in Baghdad" for Iraqis. Read and weep. (Full)

"E" pointed out two disturbing paragraphs, in the introduction though:

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.

This is a too simplistic "Western way" of dividing the problems into "Iraq EQUALS Sunni (= Al-Qaida) PLUS Shiite (= Al-Sadr)'. Quite contrary to the rest of the article which actually shows the day to day issues people are struggling with.

My personal experience with the war in Iraq are described in the shortstory "M" - Requiem for Baghdad.

Picture courtesy Dvorak Uncensored. Source: The Road Daily