10 Years Later, an Anniversary Many Iraqis Would Prefer to Ignore

By TIM ARANGO, NYT

BAGHDAD — The war that arrived a decade ago is still too painful and too controversial to be taught to schoolchildren or subjected to serious academic study at universities, and the local news media are too busy reporting on the latest bombings, protests and political disagreements to care much about an anniversary.

So as historians, pundits and former government officials in Washington and London produce a wave of reminiscences on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq — symposiums have been held, books written, new studies published on the conflict’s toll, human and financial — Iraqis are more concerned with the present.

On Friday morning at the pet market in the center of this city, Hasim al-Shimari watched two roosters fighting it out and offered a rejoinder to those marking his war’s anniversary.

“You see these people,” he said. “They are here to sell birds to earn some money to help them live. People are not interested in that. They are desperate and want to see real change, so they’ve stopped looking at the news or remembering past events.”

(More here.)