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| Iraq |
| Iraq, Seven Months After US Departure |
| 2012-08-05 |
| Seven months after the last U.S. troops left their country, Iraqis are surprisingly optimistic about the future, given the horrors of war they have endured for nearly a decade. Not to mention the 30+ years of brutal, repressive, dictatorial rule. Housing developments, shopping centers and hospitals are rising from the rubble, stores that had been closed for years are reopening, and old familiar sights -- busy ice cream parlors and Baghdad's famous red double-decker buses -- are returning. Violence has dropped sharply from its height in 2006 and 2007, but people are murdered with bombs and guns every day, j Oil production and revenue are surging back to levels not seen since before former president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. Yet the government barely provides the basics of life: schools, clean water and electricity on summer days that routinely crack 120 degrees. We used to get weekly reports of electricity produced. IIRC, 1/3 of the time was pretty good in 2005. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's democratically elected leader, presides over a government that -- according to critics from international human rights groups to Baghdad bus drivers -- is ineffective, increasingly authoritarian and repressive toward its political enemies. Experts and bus drivers - they ought to know! I'd trust the bus drivers, they have their fingers on the pulse of the public... In dozens of interviews this summer across Iraq, many people said that their lives were safer and more prosperous under Hussein and that the U.S. invasion was not worth the price both countries have paid. Could we see how the questions were phrased, please? How many Kurds were in the poll? Even those who were grateful that the Americans ousted Hussein were happy the U.S. troops are gone. At least now, they said, Iraqis would rise or fall on their own. New development is everywhere. An eight-story Baghdad Mall is being built by a Turkish developer, and Maximall, a huge new department store, attracts thousands of shoppers. New car dealerships, shops, houses and offices are rising, along with a luxury spa offering expensive, trendy treatments using tanks of little fish that nibble away damaged skin. How progressive! Families play in riverfront parks with Ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds and cotton candy. Young men whiz in and out of traffic on in-line skates, grabbing rides on bumpers, dodging cars while chatting on their cellphones. Yeah, but can they text while they skate? Nearly a decade of American presence here has left a clear impression on Iraqi culture. On the sidewalks, young men are virtually indistinguishable from their American counterparts, wearing jeans and T-shirts and tattoos. Kids sport T-shirts featuring American cultural images, from "The X-Files" to professional wrestler John Cena to folk icon Arlo Guthrie. At Burger Joint, a brand new restaurant in Mansour, the vibe is as American as the burgers on the grill: The waiters take orders on iPads as Sinatra and Motown classics play in the background. Burger Joint is the first unabashedly American-style eatery in Baghdad -- and it is packed nightly. The menu, in Arabic and English, also offers hot dogs and milkshakes and apple pie. On the streets, people said they were disgusted that Maliki's government has been incapable of stopping the daily violence, and has actually created more by feeding sectarian tensions. Another American feature - Corruption is rampant, and people complain that I wonder where Champ's 'most transparent regime ever' fits in? |
| Posted by:Bobby |