Psyche, Science, and Society

Is Iraq really as bad as it sounds?

October 10th, 2006

In a word, “yes!” NBC reporter Jane Arraf, in her blog piece today [Calling Bob in Baghdad] tells us that its worse, unimaginably worse:

I’m more puzzled by comments that the violence isn’t any worse than any American city. Really? In which American city do 60 bullet-riddled bodies turn up on a given day? In which city do the headless bodies of ordinary citizens turn up every single day? In which city would it not be news if neighborhood school children were blown up? In which neighborhood would you look the other way if gunmen came into restaurants and shot dead the customers?

Day-to-day life here for Iraqis is so far removed from the comfortable existence we live in the United States that it is almost literally unimaginable.

It’s almost impossible to describe what it feels like being stalled in traffic, your heart pounding, wondering if the vehicle in front of you is one of the three or four car bombs that will go off that day. Or seeing your husband show up at the door covered in blood after he was kidnapped and beaten.

I don’t know a single family here that hasn’t had a relative, neighbor or friend die violently. In places where there’s been all-out fighting going on, I’ve interviewed parents who buried their dead child in the yard because it was too dangerous to go to the morgue.

Imagine the worst day you’ve ever had in your life, add a regular dose of terror and you’ll begin to get an idea of what it’s like every day for a lot of people here.

Given this reality, its horrifying how little attention is given in the US to the hell hole the US has created for the Iraqis. Not only is it unimaginable, it’s unimaginably worse than life under Saddam, at least in the last decade of his reign. And that’s truly an amazing accomplishment, one that all of us will be reminded of for decades to come.

Entry Filed under: Iraq, Middle East, Social Issues, War and Peace