Life in Iraq

I’ve heard supporters of the invasion of Iraq talk about how much life has improved since the U.S. attacked. NYT writer Anthony Shadid says otherwise:

“What strikes me … is how much 2003 feels familiar to me in 2010. I think there’s often been for us in the United States this linear narrative: things unfolding one after another and we end with the withdrawal at the end of 2011. But I think what often transpires in Iraq is something more circular, more repetitive. And what you hear in 2010 is what you often heard in 2003: that there is no electricity, that the water is filthy, that there’s sewage in the streets, that they’re not sure that of the intentions of the Americans and what Iraq officials can do to better their lives. Those things were said in 2003 and they’re still said today. The lives of Iraqis — is miserable too strong a word? I’m not sure. It’s incredibly difficult and the city [of Baghdad] itself is a barricaded, deteriorating capital that is as grim as any place I’ve seen anywhere else. And Iraqis feel that. And I think it hurts their pride to see what’s happened to the city. I think it feeds the anxiety of what’s ahead. I’m not sure what the word is — sadness? — about what’s happened these past seven years.”

Shadid discusses many facets of the country in a Fresh Air interview.