Once Hopeful Neighborhood Reels as Turmoil Persists (Iraq)

New York Times:

THE OCCUPATION
A Baghdad Neighborhood, Once Hopeful, Now Reels as Iraq's Turmoil Persists

Ghazalia is a neighborhood on edge.

Random violence and roadside bombs aimed at American patrols make the streets unsafe after dark. On the local council, Shiites and Sunnis squabble. Jobs are scarce, and prices are soaring. The electricity fails daily, and cooking gas, a necessity here, has grown scarce.

In ways large and small, life in this neighborhood of 150,000 people has worsened in the eight months since the United States toppled Saddam Hussein. Now the residents of Ghazalia, a suburban neighborhood that is in many ways a microcosm of the city, are nearly out of patience.

For the people who live here — a mix of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, rich homeowners and poor renters — the daily turmoil is exhausting and enervating. For the United States, it is a serious strategic problem, as was evident during dozens of visits to Ghazalia this fall.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/international/middleeast/14HOOD.html?pagewanted=all&position=

All the fake evidence that Bush presented to the people- you swallowed it whole- and now you refuse to expose it "Monica style" even after the fact.

THe media is just as much to blame for this mess as anyone...

The biggest mouthpiece for all of those shitty lies coming from chalabi..... :grr:

as Saddam.

The Americans did nothing for us. They just brought killing,
theft, robberies, all those things."