Posted by Sanaa Jasim, Baghdad on May 07, 2003 at 13:09:32:
USA Today (Baghdad)-Sanaa Jasim, 28, is bitter and worried, too. Marines shot and wounded her husband in an apparent misunderstanding after he went outside to join the crowds welcoming them to Baghdad April 9, the day the capital fell to U.S. forces. The U.S. flew him to Kuwait for medical treatment. He is expected back soon.
Word is that her husband, who had been a welder in an Iraqi government workshop, won't be able to walk for two years.
Jasim wonders how they will support their two young boys. Already, they've sold furniture for money to live on. "We hate Americans," Jasim says. "We lost our living. They destroyed our life, our happiness. Saddam Hussein was an unjust man, but he never did this."
The streets, they say, were safer, jobs more secure, food more plentiful and electricity and water supplies reliable.
The U.S. military-and the civilian administration led for now by retired lieutenant general Jay Garner-"made promises, but we have seen nothing," says Kamaran Abdullah, 35. "Everybody's afraid to go shopping. People have weapons. They take your pocket money and threaten to kill you."
"I'm sitting here without money, without a job, without electrical power," says Hussein Mohammed Ali, 52, who held a variety of jobs with state-run Iraqi companies. "How can I believe in anything the USA tells me?"
The hopelessness is breeding rage and raising fears that frustrated Iraqis could take up arms against U.S. troops. "We are angry," civil servant Mohammed Brahim, 32, says. "All Iraqis will become bombs if we don't see something from the United States."
President Bush refuses to respond to their complaints.
In interviews, Baghdad residents say they regard the U.S. officials here as remote. The Americans-military and civilian alike-are barracked behind barbed wire inside Saddam's Republican Palace. About one mile inside the vast presidential compound, the Americans sleep on camp beds behind the palace's gold-plated doors.
Dozens have tales of being shouted at by nervous young soldiers at checkpoints in a language they don't understand. A soldier pointing a gun at residents is a common sight.
Americans admit they could have moved faster. U.S. Army Capt. Todd Clark, 30, of Fort Hood, Texas, and the 2nd Armored Calvary Regiment, says the U.S. military underestimated the amount of looting and lawlessness that would follow Saddam's fall. The anarchy left schools, government offices and utilities badly damaged.
Fixing them is taking longer than expected. Many Iraqis believe:
* That Kuwaitis, in cahoots with the United States, were behind the widespread looting and the fires that swept through Iraqi government offices this month. Many believe the alleged arson was revenge for the destruction Iraqis visited on Kuwait in 1990.
* That the United States plans to steal Iraq's oil.
* That U.S. troops are allowing criminals to run free and withholding food and medical supplies in a deliberate attempt to terrorize or even exterminate Iraqi citizens.
Saddam's regime did provide basics: rations of rice, vegetable oil, tea, sugar and other necessities. His government dominated the economy, providing steady work to millions. It also policed the streets and kept traffic running smoothly.
Now Iraqis must find their own food. Most workplaces and government offices have shut down indefinitely. Criminals prey on those foolish enough to venture out at night. And, without street lights, traffic is anarchic.
"Saddam made many mistakes," Kamaran Abdullah says."But in his time, I could live in safety."
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