In Iraq the U.S. opened the gates of hell
A Decade of Despair
By AHMAD SAADAWI, NYT
Baghdad — An Iraqi saying claims that those who endure one day just like the next have been dealt an unfair hand in life. During the 1990s, when I was in my 20s, this saying was frequently invoked. In those stagnant times, it seemed nothing ever changed, so much so that looking back, I can barely differentiate between 1997 and 1998.
Those days came to an end 10 years ago today, when United States forces invaded Iraq. The contradictions that had been contained under Saddam Hussein burst forth into the open. Lives were uprooted in the process. It is no surprise that, a decade later, some people find themselves yearning for the ’90s.
As I try to recall significant moments from the past decade, one comes to mind: Queen Elizabeth’s 80th birthday. In 2006, my boss at the BBC’s news office in Iraq, where I worked as a reporter, asked me to go to the Green Zone to attend the British Embassy’s celebration. I was walking down Saadoun Street when I heard, through a loudspeaker mounted on top of a taxi, that a series of car bombs had exploded across the city.
The litany of dead and wounded had become routine. After all, it happened every day: the I.E.D.’s, the assassinations, the flames of the bombs of extremist militias. Many Americans thought that they had liberated Baghdad from fear three years before; instead they had opened the gates before a hell of previously unknown terrors.
(More here.)
Baghdad — An Iraqi saying claims that those who endure one day just like the next have been dealt an unfair hand in life. During the 1990s, when I was in my 20s, this saying was frequently invoked. In those stagnant times, it seemed nothing ever changed, so much so that looking back, I can barely differentiate between 1997 and 1998.
Those days came to an end 10 years ago today, when United States forces invaded Iraq. The contradictions that had been contained under Saddam Hussein burst forth into the open. Lives were uprooted in the process. It is no surprise that, a decade later, some people find themselves yearning for the ’90s.
As I try to recall significant moments from the past decade, one comes to mind: Queen Elizabeth’s 80th birthday. In 2006, my boss at the BBC’s news office in Iraq, where I worked as a reporter, asked me to go to the Green Zone to attend the British Embassy’s celebration. I was walking down Saadoun Street when I heard, through a loudspeaker mounted on top of a taxi, that a series of car bombs had exploded across the city.
The litany of dead and wounded had become routine. After all, it happened every day: the I.E.D.’s, the assassinations, the flames of the bombs of extremist militias. Many Americans thought that they had liberated Baghdad from fear three years before; instead they had opened the gates before a hell of previously unknown terrors.
(More here.)
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