Ja, det er ikke mig, der siger det, men de fleste irakere, i hvert fald i den arabiske del af landet: Det er muligt, at amerikanernes fredsslutning med de fleste oprørere har gjort landet roligere, men håbet om et bedre liv efter Saddam Husseins fald er stadig knust, og alt i alt er folks vilkår stadig meget værre end under Saddam.
Som Waleed Ibrahim skriver på Reuters.com:
how did it come to be that Iraqis like my father-in-law, driven to live as an illegal immigrant outside Iraq, rue Saddam’s fall?
I can say without hesitation that many Iraqis share my father-in-law’s feelings. Not because they supported Saddam, although there are many who still do, but because the hopes of a better life that were born in April 2003 have been crushed.
Iraqis today spend a great deal of time comparing their lives today to the situation before 2003. It’s not a winning comparison. Unbelievable bloodshed, a lack of basic services from electricity to clean water, and widespread unemployment have made life hellish for many Iraqis.
It is true that there is less violence today than there was a year ago, but assassinations, bomb attacks and other grim acts still occur on a daily basis. All this casts a dark shadow on the security situation in Iraq and reminds us of the fragility of Iraq’s vaunted turnaround.
After waiting for decades for democracy, many believe it has brought nothing but chaos and bloodshed, the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis and the displacement of millions more. Three successive governments that have ruled since 2003 have delivered empty promises but little more.
An Iraqi I once interviewed in Baghdad commented to me that the only thing that had changed in Iraq since 2003 was that we had replaced one dictator with many.
Even I, someone who makes a living from the printed word, cannot seem to find the right terms to describe how so many Iraqis came to long for Saddam.
With such unbelievable destruction and death across Iraq, it makes one wonder whether in 10 or 20 years we will be gazing up at statues of Saddam in an Iraqi square once more.
Hvad kan man sige – Saddam var en af verdens værste diktatorer, i alle henseender a tough act to follow. Men amerikanerne gjorde det – livet i Irak har siden invasionen i 2003 konsistent været uhyggeligt meget værre end under Saddam, og nu på sjette år er der stadig intet, der tyder på, at det bliver bedre.
Måske der er et lille håb om, at tingene kan falde lidt til ro, når den sidste amerikaner er ude af landet. Men ikke før.