Reuters asks the big Q: "IS YOUR LIFE BETTER OR WORSE THAN UNDER SADDAM?"

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL541735.htm

Better or worse? Iraqis ponder life after Saddam


March 16 (Reuters) - Approaching the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Reuters reporters asked Iraqis: "Is your life better or worse than under Saddam?"

This is what some of them said:

*"Every day I feel like I am waiting in a queue for death," said one Baghdad lawyer, too frightened to be named in print.

...

*In the violent northern oil city of Kirkuk, labourer Ali Salman, said: "Before the war ... torture and killing took place in secret. Now it's all in public. The meaning of freedom is different: Nowadays you're free to live. And free to kill."

...

*"Life has no meaning at the moment and our fate is unknown," said Na'im Kadum, a 33-year-old unemployed man from Diwaniya. "I don't see any improvement and I am pessimistic."

...

*"If the percentage of the good life was one percent before, it is zero percent now," Salim Mahmood, 46, said gloomily as he sold tea and coffee near a Baghdad restaurant.

...

*"Before the war, life was better because all Iraqis, including Kurds, shared the same enemy," television anchorwoman Sara Abdul Wahid, 36, from the Kurdish city of Dohuk, said of Saddam. "Now there is more than one and we can't differentiate between friend and foe."

Heckofajob, BushCo!

[Ravenseye]

1. yeah that's pretty accurate according to my relatives there.

My grandmother lives in Baghdad. She lived through Scud missles dropping around them during the Iran Iraq war. She talked about the first Gulf War as if it was a fourth of July fireworks celebration mentioning the pretty anti-aircraft tracers in the sky, even though a tomahawk missile explosion blew out their glass windows. She lived through the sanctions, and the hardship and lack of things. We'd send her coffee. My grandfather died because they didn't have the proper antibiotics to give him (as Saddam was holding certain medicines aside).

All through this she didn't want to leave. We'd send her coffee, and money, and things she couldn't normally get. We'd bring her out for visits and she'd insist on going back home.

She lived through the invasion and occupation. Now she's done. A couple weeks ago she called up my Aunt (which was remarkable enough as phone service is still very spotty, along with electircal service, and water, and everything else) and said simply "Get me out. I want to leave. It's hell here now."

[sabra]

3. thank you for sharing this. peace be upon you and your family.

[Ravenseye]

14. Thank you

[NanceGreggs]

5. Thanks for sharing this personal story ...

... it really SAYS IT ALL, doesn't it?

[Ravenseye]

12. Yeah. I have to laugh at Bush

Whenever he does his 'things are good' bullshit I want to scream. It's just lies fed to people. I talk to freepers or conservatives who buy into the bullshit and just smack them down. It's easy for them to go up to other people and say thing sare fine becuase they have no reference, but they can't do it to me or my family.

[Canuckistanian]

8. Wow, amazing story

It takes a lot of courage to leave your home at an advanced age like that. She must fear for her life every day.

I wish her well.

[Ravenseye]

11. The first time I heard fear was last year

All through everything she was so brave that I thought her crazy. She'd brush off the Scud Missile attacks and the bombings like "bah, they were nothing." The last time she came out though was last year. She had to be driven to Jordan. We kept trying to get her a visa to get into the U.S. but we kept being prevented by the embassys. Even though 20 years ago she had a U.S. greencard, and she has 2 american citizens as children, and 4 american grandchildren, and now 2 american great-grandchildren...they wouldn't let her in.

Anyway, before she went back I talked to her on the phone and she spoke of the drive back as if she didn't know whether she'd actually make it back alive. Lots of "inshallah"s (god willing) which are very unlike her, saying things like "Well if I get back to Baghdad alive, inshallah, I'll try and call you."

Now though she's done. We think we can get her out to Jordan, and then probably into Greece where another of my Aunt's live. Once we get her there we'll figure it out and retry for an American visa, though I'd be perfectly happy with her in Athens.

She's really spry though. She's this 5 foot tall grey haird wrinkled arab woman who'd chain smoke if you let her who calls everyone 'darling' and calls everyone on their bullshit. Sharp as she was the day she was born.

[Dhalgren]

15. I've never met your Grandmother, but I love her!

The way you speak of her, the love that travels in your voice, has infected me. I hope she will be alright and I wish your whole family well. :hi:

[Ravenseye]

19. Thanks

Yeah she's a trip. The last time I saw her in person was in October 2001, I still smoked and I was out on the balcony of my Aunt's apartment, this was in Brussels, and she came out and said "Darling, give me a cigarette, your Aunt won't get me any because she thinks she's smarter than me." So then she and I hung out on this tiny balcony overlooking a treelined street in Brussels having a smoke. She definately bursts peoples preconcieved stereotypical notions of what a nearly 90 year old Arab woman should look and act like.

Thanks for your wishes. :hi:

[seemunkee]

33. She sounds like a treasure

Best of luck getting her out safely.

[LynnTheDem]

2. "Saddam was better".

Way to go, bush! WORSE than Saddam!

Jeebus fucking Cripes.

[Canuckistanian]

4. Almost uniformly bad, with one exception

The Kurdish technician.

*"Life after Saddam is better," said Imad Ahmed, 45, a technician from Arbil, capital of largely autonomous Kurdistan, which has escaped much of the violence in the rest of Iraq. "Job opportunities have increased for me and for many others."

A separate Kudistan is going to happen.

[LynnTheDem]

6. Kurds are a lot like most Americans; they're not in the war zone.

Easy to say life is better when you're not in the middle of the FUBAR.

[Canuckistanian]

10. Not only better - booming

At least in terms of a third world country. There are jobs, opportunities and a somewhat normal life for them.

I think I heard it was the fastest growing economy in the Middle East.

[neoblues]

7. One problem... they can't poll the dead.

Therefore, no matter how good the poll numbers--it's higher than it ought to be (even though the numbers are, in fact, relatively dismal). So, they can knock themselves out polling the few who are still alive...

Truth be told, I don't think we (citizens here in America) can even begin to truly appreciate what it must be like having dozens to hundreds of fellow citizens being killed/murdered/maimed on a daily basis--and precious little hope of stopping the violence. They must live in constant fear, fear of being blown up, singled out and murdered, shot either intentionally or at random etc... Where every last person knows from one to many acquaintences, family or friends who've been killed/died a violent, wrongful death--and the perpetrators are either unknown and/or will never be brought to justice... this leads to very long lasting resentments/hatred that spans generations. Little chance that things are ever going to be "okay" in IRAQ--not for a hundred or more years anyway.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. Yes, imagine how many equivalents of 9/11 Iraqis have endured

We act as if 9/11 was the greatest tragedy in the history of the world and gives the U.S. government the right to do anything it wants. Meanwhile, Iraq has suffered the equivalent of seven or eight 9/11s since the invasion, and everyone just shrugs.

[LynnTheDem]

13. Iraqis suffer the same number of dead as our 911 EVERY MONTH.

And keep in mind that's 3000 dead everymonth, NOT a per-capita. Iraq has a far smaller population than the USA. If you do the math on a per capita basis, Iraqis suffer a 911 EVERY WEEK.

Thanks to george w. bush.

[Dhalgren]

16. "Thanks to george w. bush." - and the citizens of the USA...

[LynnTheDem]

17. Half the citizens of the USA, at any rate.

The other half needs to get together and do something about this shit.

[Dhalgren]

20. Right on!

[BootinUp]

18. wow. Free to live and Free to kill

Thats a sobering way to think about it.

[Radio_Guy]

21. We need someone to do a feature story on this

Some of the TV news folks did a "six months after Katrina" showing the rubble that used to be houses, the filth still on the streets and the other stuff in New Orleans. We need someone (maybe Michael Moore?) to go into Iraq and videotape exactly what is going on over there. Show the lack of electricity, running water, the criminal activity (some probably perpetrated by Iraqi "police"). Show it all. I'm tired of the secrecy over there. Everything needs to be brought out in the open.

[neoblues]

22. Absolutely. The secrecy must stop...

but it won't. The BA wouldn't allow any journalistic exposé about IRAQ and has enough power over the media that even if one was accomplished and smuggled out, it wouldn't see the light of day. Of course, to their own detriment, there are numerous factions of IRAQIs who would pretty much kill any westerner's (journalists or otherwise) caught running around loose in IRAQ. Alas, there's precious little chance of such a thing being done on any kind of comprehensive scale.

[BootinUp]

23. I think for most reporters its considered too dangerous. n/t

[Swamp Rat]

24. MY life was better!

I had a job, house, car, full scholarship, and my city wasn't destroyed.

All of that has changed since Bushler took office, canceled the U.S. Government, and started pre-emptive wars.

[FatDave]

25. The Score

16 Negative, 2 Positive, 1 Neutral (security worse, economy better)

Of the two positive comments, one was from Kurdistan "which has escaped much of the violence". The other was a government employee in Najaf.

Of the 16 negative comments, 9 specifically say life was better "before the war" or "under Saddam". Others imply that life was better, but 9 leave no question.

[bpilgrim]

26. Reuters asks the big Q: "IS YOUR LIFE BETTER OR WORSE THAN UNDER CHIMPY?"

that's the 'BIG' question for me.

peace

[kpete]

27. thanks

k&r

[Clara T]

28. K & R

"Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war." --Donald Rumsfeld

[Hissyspit]

29. That's pretty damning. n/t

[MH1]

30. It's about time someone asked the Iraqis. n/t

[Marie26]

31. Why aren't there actual poll numbers?

Like 53% say it was better w/Saddam, & 47% say it's better now. I didn't see any polling statistics in this article, just ancedotes. And they're very powerful stories. But I don't understand why they'd conduct a poll w/o calculating the answers.

[Maraya1969]

32. This is all just so sad. What we as a country have done.