Despair deepens for Iraqis.

[LynnTheDem]

BAGHDAD - When the U.S. occupation authority transferred power to the interim Iraqi government a year ago, Dhiya Nour al-Deen could not have been more optimistic about the future of his country.

But as Iraqi and U.S. officials mark a year of Iraqi sovereignty today, Deen says he has lost all hope for his country after living through a treacherous year in the new Iraq.

In the past 12 months, his brother was killed in an assassination attempt on the Education Ministry official, his restaurant was badly damaged by three car bombings targeting the neighboring police station, and he has lost confidence in the U.S. military to effectively fight the insurgency.

"Nothing will change until the Americans leave," Deen, 33, said at his home in Baghdad's Saydiyah neighborhood. "The resistance will not stop until the Americans go away. Once they leave, we can then only figure out if there is any hope of the Sunnis and Shiites coming together."

"This is not a democracy," said Sarah Abdul Kareem, 21, a Shiite. "This is chaos."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0628iraq-anniversary28.html

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Dont worry

heh heh 12 years ok heh heh

[Burried News]

2. Another article that paints a bleak picture.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=650186

"The news now from Iraq is only depressing. All the roads leading out of the capital are cut. Iraqi security and US troops can only get through in heavily armed convoys. There is a wave of assassinations of senior Iraqi officers based on chillingly accurate intelligence. A deputy police chief of Baghdad was murdered on Sunday. A total of 52 senior Iraqi government or religious figures have been assassinated since the handover. In June 2004 insurgents killed 42 US soldiers; so far this month 75 have been killed.

The "handover of power" last June was always a misnomer. Much real power remained in the hands of the US. Its 140,000 troops kept the new government in business. Mr Allawi's new cabinet members became notorious for the amount of time they spent out of the country. Safely abroad they often gave optimistic speeches predicting the imminent demise of the insurgency.

Despite this the number of Iraqi military and police being killed every month has risen from 160 at the handover to 219 today.

There were two further supposed turning points over the past year. The first was the capture by US Marines of the rebel stronghold of Fallujah last November after a bloody battle which left most of the city of 300,000 people in ruins. In January there was the general election in which the Shia and Kurds triumphed.

Both events were heavily covered by the international media. But such is the danger for television and newspaper correspondents in Iraq that their capacity to report is more and more limited. The fall of Fallujah did not break the back of the resistance. Their best fighters simply retreated to fight again elsewhere. Many took refuge in Baghdad. At the same time as the insurgents lost Fallujah they captured most of Mosul, a far larger city. Much of Sunni Iraq remained under their sway."

[welshTerrier2]

3. the question is very simple ...

why will more of the same yield anything but more of the same?

the US, regardless of its motivations in Iraq, is an occupier and the violence and destabilization of Iraq's infrastructure, its government and the lives of its people are the only possible consequences of continued occupation ...

we have to get out of Iraq, NOW ...

[Bluebear]

4. DR Rice just said Iraqis don't support the "insurgents"

and once the "insurgents" lose support of Iraq we are winning! Surely this article here is lying? You know, liberal media and all? :eyes:

[magellan]

5. Nothing will change for the better until the US does

Many Iraqis interviewed said they believe U.S. officials have too much influence in the nation's important decisions and the government is far too dependent on the Americans for Iraqis to place much stock in their sovereignty.

It's really a no-brainer.