Don't know where you get all your news... oh wait, Fox.. but just to let you know the 'Real World' doesn't quite agree with you...
You know what happens when you assume? LOL NO, Fox news isn't my main news source!
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/arti...ew/3420/1/167/
Three years after U.S. forces captured Baghdad, Iraqis are suffering from unprecedented violence and misery. Although Saddam Hussein was indeed one of the world's most brutal tyrants, the no-fly zones and arms embargo in place for more than a dozen years prior to his ouster had severely weakened his capacity to do violence against his own people. Today, the level of violent deaths is not only far higher than during his final years in power, but the sheer randomness of the violence has left millions of Iraqis in a state of perpetual terror. At least 30,000 Iraqi civilians have died, most of them at the hands of U.S. forces but increasingly from terrorist groups and Iraqi government death squads. Thousands more soldiers and police have also been killed. Violent crime, including kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery, is at record levels. There is a proliferation of small arms, and private militias are growing rapidly. A Lebanon-type multifaceted civil war, only on a much wider and deadlier scale, grows more likely with time.
Now that shit is funny! This is NOTHING like Lebanon! There is an insurgency but one by one the groups are giving up and the people of Iraq are the ones forcing them to.
Over 50,000 Iraqis have been imprisoned by U.S. forces since the invasion, but only 1.5% of them have been convicted of any crime. Currently, U.S. forces hold 15,000 to 18,000 Iraqi prisoners, more than were imprisoned under Saddam Hussein. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have cited U.S. forces with widespread violations of international humanitarian law, including torture and other abuses of prisoners.
The U.S. is in charge of very few prisoners of war these days, it's the Iraqi government! Let them handle their justice in their own way.....like you stated, we shouldn't try to "Americanize" that area. Let them do it their way!
It is not just the fear of arrest and torture that have worsened since the U.S. conquest of Iraq three years ago. Although the destruction of the civilian infrastructure during the heavy U.S.-led bombing campaign in 1991 combined with the subsequent economic sanctions led to enormous suffering among ordinary Iraqis, the United Nations' Oil-for-Food program, despite the abuses, did substantially improve the quality of life in the years preceding the U.S. invasion. Now, deaths from malnutrition and preventable diseases, particularly among children, are again on the increase. The supply of drinking water, reliability of electricity, and effectiveness of sewage disposal are all worse than before the invasion.
Another joke! The only places that the infrustructure isn't better than before is in the three providences that had ALL the electricity, sewage, etc...and the insurgents blow up anything new being built. Even in the face of that, USAID has given Sadr City it's first running water, sewage system, and electricity. OH NO....the Bathists have to share!!!
As much as half of the labor force is unemployed, and the cost of living has skyrocketed. The median income of Iraqis has declined by more than half. The UN's World Food Program (WFP) reports that the Iraqi people suffer from ??significant countrywide shortages of rice, sugar, milk, and infant formula,? and the WFP documents approximately 400,000 Iraqi children suffering from ??dangerous deficiencies of protein.? Oil production, the country's chief source of revenue, is less than half of what it was before the invasion. And despite Bush administration promises to infuse billions of dollars worth of foreign aid to rebuild the country's civilian infrastructure, only a small fraction of these ventures have been completed, and most projects have been cancelled. Close to one million Iraqis, most of them from the vital, educated middle class, have left the country to avoid the violence and hardship brought on as a result of the U.S. invasion.
Oil production at the present time is at 1.6 mb/d as opposed to the 2.5mb/d pre-war. One of the reasons for this is the reconstruction of a neglected oil infrustructure and also insurgent attacks. At the present, the northern pipeline is down for repairs witch contributes a minimum of .5mb/d production. A Norwegian oil company has found a new vein in the Kurdish area which has spurred great interest for investment from the Brits...etc.
Pre 1991 thier currency exchange rate was at 3.29US:1IQD before the last war it was at 2000IQD:1US now after 80%-100% of the $120 billion debt has been forgiven they are looking at a revalue of their currency which could be VERY soon.
How did they deposit an additional $2 billion into foreign banks if their in such desperate times?
Despite all this, a Harris poll at the end of December showed that a majority of Americans believe the Bush administration's claims that Iraqis are better off now than they were under Saddam Hussein. Most Iraqis polled say just the opposite.
