![]() Safaa Rashid, 26, is a ponytailed writer who talks politics with friends at a cozy coffee shop in the Karada district of the capital. ![]() Yet, speaking to younger Iraqis, one senses a generation ready to turn a page. Conversations begin with bitterness that the ouster of Saddam left the country broken and ripe for violence and exploitation by sectarian militias, politicians and criminals bent on self-enrichment or beholden to other nations. “If they’re a little bit patient, I think life will improve drastically in Iraq.” Iraq is rich peace has returned, he said, and there are opportunities ahead for young people in a country experiencing a population boom. The world’s perception of Iraq as a war-torn country is frozen in time, he told The Associated Press in an interview. In a marbled, chandeliered reception room in the palace where Saddam once lived, seated in an overstuffed damask chair and surrounded by paintings by modern Iraqi artists, President Abdul Latif Rashid, who assumed office in October, spoke glowingly of the country’s prospects. They returned 20 years later for this special report on how the country has changed over two decades - especially for its young people. ![]() They chronicled the unraveling of the country that followed, in text and photos. In dozens of recent interviews from Baghdad to Fallujah, young Iraqis deplored the loss of stability that followed Saddam’s downfall - but they said the war is in the past, and many were hopeful about nascent freedoms and opportunities to pursue their dreams.Įditor’s note: John Daniszewski and Jerome Delay were in Baghdad 20 years ago when the U.S. Today, half of Iraq’s population of 40 million isn’t old enough to remember life under Saddam or much about the U.S. The period was marred by unemployment, dislocation, sectarian violence and terrorism, and years without reliable electricity or other public services. But it also broke what had been a unified state at the heart of the Arab world, opening a power vacuum and leaving oil-rich Iraq a wounded nation in the Middle East, ripe for a power struggle among Iran, Arab Gulf states, the United States, terrorist groups and Iraq’s own rival sects and parties.įor Iraqis, the enduring trauma of the violence that followed is undeniable - an estimated 300,000 Iraqis were killed between 20, according to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, as were more than 8,000 U.S. ![]() The war deposed a dictator whose imprisonment, torture and execution of dissenters kept 20 million people in fear for a quarter of a century. Two years later, the CIA’s chief weapons inspector reported no stockpiles of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons were ever found. Saddam Hussein’s government was toppled in 26 days. Bush called the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003, a mission to free the Iraqi people and root out weapons of mass destruction. A few glitzy buildings sparkle where bombs once fell. In a suburb once a hotbed of al-Qaida, affluent young men cruise their muscle cars, while a recreational cycling club hosts weekly biking trips to former war zones. The wooden stalls of the city’s open-air book market are piled skyward with dusty paperbacks and crammed with shoppers of all ages and incomes. Iraq ‘s capital today is throbbing with life and a sense of renewal, its residents enjoying a rare, peaceful interlude in a painful modern history. It’s a world away from the terror that followed the U.S. BAGHDAD (AP) - On the banks of the Tigris River one recent evening, young Iraqi men and women in jeans and sneakers danced with joyous abandon to a local rap star as a vermillion sun set behind them.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |