[Mb-civic] Freedom, Yes, Iraqis Say, But at Great, Grave Cost - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Freedom, Yes, Iraqis Say, But at Great, Grave Cost
Contrasts to Hussein Era Leave Some Hopeful, Others Bitter

By John Ward Anderson and Omar Fekeiki
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 21, 2006; A13

BAGHDAD, March 20 -- By almost any standard, Bashar Muhammed, the owner 
of a thriving Internet cafe, is a Baghdad success story. Three years 
after the United States invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein, the 
Internet business here is booming, and Muhammed has what most Iraqis 
could only dream of under Hussein -- freedom, a cutting-edge job, lots 
of customers.

But when conversation turns to his life and prospects, he sighs and 
voices frustration that Americans just don't get it.

"It is true that we got freedom after the war, but uncontrolled freedom 
-- chaos and violence," he said in a cool, deliberate tone. Five of his 
relatives have been killed in car bombings and assassinations, Muhammed 
said, noting that most recently an uncle was killed for being a Sunni Arab.

"The new generation is growing on violence and sectarian ethics, and 
this will affect Iraq for many years to come," he said. "We are living a 
more devastating war every day."

As Iraqis on Monday marked the third anniversary of the U.S.-led 
invasion, there was a stark difference between their pessimistic outlook 
and some U.S. officials' upbeat assessment of the situation. With 
insurgent violence grinding on, essential services sagging below 
pre-invasion levels and the prospect of civil war looming, many Iraqis 
question whether Hussein's ouster was worth the cost.

Many thousands of their countrymen have been killed. In December, 
President Bush estimated the Iraqi toll at 30,000.

Laith Muhammad, 32, a student in Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, 
listed the risks Iraqis face these days. "We either die by the 
Americans, the insurgents in the name of jihad, the security companies, 
which kill you and leave you laying in the street, the Iraqi police or . 
. . the death squads," he said. Such squads are widely believed to be 
operating from within the country's Interior Ministry. Muhammad cited 
private militias as yet another threat.

"Three years after the American invasion of Iraq, I have only one wish," 
he said. "I do not want democracy, food, electricity and water. I just 
do not want to die."

Other Iraqis, however, are less quick to blame the United States.

Sardar Muhsin Maheed, 25, a student at Mosul University, said too many 
people blamed the occupation for all of Iraq's ills. He traced most 
problems to Hussein, suggesting that issues such as the poor economy are 
legacies of the ousted president.

"The U.S. has liberated us from Saddam and his oppression," he said. "We 
are not ready to form a democratic state, and that is because of the 
burden left by Saddam's regime."

Another of Hussein's legacies, he said, was sectarian tension in the 
country. An Iraqi government has been democratically elected, but the 
politicians and their parties are creating a new Iraq based on religious 
and ethnic interests.

Luay Mohammed, a 57-year-old Sunni Arab who spent 35 years working for 
the Education Ministry, said he was forced to retire because the 
government and the ministry are now run by Shiite Muslims. His son could 
not get a job "because he is not a Shiite and he did not suffer" under 
Hussein, Mohammed said, his voice laced with bitterness and sarcasm.

"We've been waiting for years for true democracy to come, a democracy 
that makes everybody live and work together with respect and love. But 
here it is: a democracy with maximum chaos," he said. Now, all of his 
sons have cellular telephones -- not because it is hip or because of a 
communications boom, but because the security situation demands it. 
"This is what democracy has brought us."

The U.N. sanctions that had been imposed on Hussein's government have 
been lifted, and a vibrant free press has emerged. But unemployment is 
stuck between 27 and 40 percent, while oil production -- which the 
government counts on to generate 90 percent of its revenue -- remains 
below prewar levels.

"The toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime was worth everything," said 
Fakhri Fikry Kareem, owner and publisher of the daily Meda newspaper, 
one of more than 100 newspapers that have begun publishing in Iraq since 
Hussein's fall. Despite a rocket attack on his office, a bomb attack on 
his car and the killing of three of his reporters, Kareem said: "I have 
never felt as free to speak any day in my life as today. If George Bush 
did anything good, it was toppling Saddam Hussein."

Kareem, 63, said he opposed the war. While drinking Turkish coffee and 
fingering a long string of worry beads in his Baghdad living room, he 
talked of what might have been, suggesting that perhaps the United 
States could have removed Hussein without starting a broader conflict.

"I am not pessimistic," he said. "But I'm upset, because the war and the 
occupation, which could have led to a new situation in Iraq, were 
squandered by the stupid mistakes committed by the American 
administration and military and the U.S. representatives in Iraq."

Subhi Nadhem Tawfik, a professor at Baghdad University's Center for 
Strategic Studies, said people no longer believed that helping Iraq was 
foremost on the U.S. agenda during the invasion. "The U.S. has won a 
tremendous strategic victory," which has come increasingly at the 
expense of Iraq, he said.

"With the occupation of Iraq, the strategic significance of all the 
states in the region was diminished," Tawfik said.

The war and its aftermath have so far cost the United States about $250 
billion. Congress allocated $21 billion to repair essential 
infrastructure and revitalize the economy, and to establish programs for 
good governance and democratic institutions. As much as $3.5 billion has 
been diverted to pay for better security, but Iraq remains the largest 
U.S. government reconstruction effort since the Marshall Plan following 
World War II.

Meanwhile, many Iraqis -- especially in Baghdad, home to almost a 
quarter of the population -- said they don't see much evidence of the aid.

"We hear about tens of billions of dollars spent on reconstruction," 
said Bashar Muhammed, the Internet cafe owner. "The only reconstruction 
in the country I see now are the cement barriers. There are lots of them."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001568.html?referrer=email
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