Posted on 08/25/2006 7:08:36 AM PDT by SJackson
Business has been so good, that business owners like Taha are having a tough time keeping up with the growing demand. He sells everything from dime-a-dozen Nokias to high-end camera phones.
Taha said, "During Saddam's time, we only had government-run land-lines. Cell phones were illegal. Now almost everyone has a cell phone."
The internet and satellite television were also illegal during Saddams time. Not anymore.
"We have so many stores that sell satellite televisions today. There's a growing demand for such items," said store owner Avad Nashaat.
Taha said he's proud that Iraq is slowly becoming a modernized country.
More than three years after Baghdad fell to U.S.-led forces, many Iraqis across the country are trying to get on with their lives. Schools, hospitals, roads, and other critical infrastructures are slowly being rebuilt. But it has not been easy.
These are very challenging times today in this nation, especially in Baghdad. Although there is relative peace up in the northern part of the country as well as in southern Iraq, in Baghdad there is a tremendous amount of tension.
..."We still have water shortages, there's no electricity and the security situation is just getting worse. Sometimes, we have to wait three days in line just to get a few gallons of gas," said yet another resident.
A shopkeeper said, "I don't think anyone here is happy. So many people have lost hope. God willing, the Americans will stay until the situation gets better. Thursday, August 24, 2006
Just a joke...
His email was eight "letters" from a person who said he was a civilian employed by the Army named Kurt Wolfe U.S. Army 3rd ID/ PAO/Civ.
From his writing he seems to be a journalist of some sort. I actually couldn't stomach much of the letters since they are obviously written by someone who thinks war is a video game or paint ball experience where no harm should ever befall anyone.
It's insane that we have to blow a country to hell to get it into the 21st century. Don't people WANT to move into the present? How come we have to go through these fiery catharses to get these idiots to come around?
bump
Think proxy war, or drain the swamp. Al Queda types came from far and wide to fight us there. Now we are dealing with Iran everywhere. But you run into vested interests and dead enders no matter what you try to do. Check out the WTC site. It is still just a big hole in the ground for the same reasons.
Exactly.
It's an age-old military strategy called a 'bridgehead'.
You put a strong force close to their base, in a strong defensive position. That way the enemy forces concentrate on attacking the bridgehead, instead of using their resources to attack areas strategically important to us.
Also sometimes referred to as choosing the ground to fight over.
Yes.
That's interesting, especially considering that I hear a lot of liberal dopes saying that the whole "We need to fight them there before they attack us here" is bullcrap. I find it fascinating that this is a tried and tested military strategy while they would have us believe it's just "rhetoric".
Dictatorships do not ban cell phones and satellite TV to keep their people in the 19th Century. They ban such things to control the flow of political information.
In regards to "wants", raw military power in the hands of a dictator will trump the "wants" of an unarmed population every time.
More bad news for John Murtha.
It is so nice to hear this from someone besides myself. God bless you.
We are not "blowing the country to hell". Iraq is coming out of 30+ years of misrule by Saddam and the Baathists, who basically raped the country.
Don't people WANT to move into the present?
(no flame intended) Do you understand how dictatorships work? They sow distrust among people so that it's very very hard to to plan the overthrow.
Iraq is like a woman who has been gangbanged...for 30+ years. And they have issues they need to work out, and that's what they are doing.
See reply 14
Thought you'd like to see this:)
Yeah, I know. I'm hearing this in my own house. Two years of travel abroad should be mandatory. Opens your eyes a bit.
Yeesh. Talk about a harsh analogy. Still, I'm not trying to be naive, but I still believe on some level that people get the government they deserve, even in the case of dictators. Progress to modernity, however, I would think would be universal. Guess not.
Like saying we're losing the war, when we've won all the battles and kill more of theirs than they kill of ours.
Like saying the war is a disaster, with <3000 dead.
Like saying it's a "civil war" when there aren't 2 govts fighting for control.
Like them saying "Bush said it would be easy" when all I remember are speaches from him saying how hard the road ahead would be.
:-)
I know what you mean!
It's as if the world has gone mad, isn't it?
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