THEN & NOW

Malcom Lagauche

More than three years have passed since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by the U.S. According to U.S. predictions, by now Iraq should have been up-and-running with its infrastructure repaired and modernized and the oil spigots would be flowing at such a rate that Iraq would have paid for its own reconstruction and foreign entities would be raking in the cash from oil sales. Iraqi citizens would be living in a democracy and they would be awash with consumer items that they could only have dreamed about in the past. We now know that these were fairy tales. Unemployment in Iraq is over 50%. Electricity is available in Baghdad for about four hours a day. Safe drinking water is almost non-existent. People have been forced to sort through garbage to find food. The most powerful country on Earth, with billions of dollars to spend, has left Iraq in shambles. Many Iraqis are now calling the embargo years, "The Golden Years," compared to post-invasion Iraq...

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