Better and worse: a progress report on Iraq

In part this may reflect coalition successes. According to the CPA, oil production capacity is up to 2.5 million barrels a day from 2 million before the war. Accurate figures for prewar levels are hard to come by because of the secrecy and poor records of the former regime. The Brookings Institution in Washington estimates Iraq's 2002 production was 2.9 million barrels a day.

Electricity production is averaging about 4,200 megawatts a day, slightly lower than before the war. Fixed telephone lines are now at about 700,000 from 833,000 before the war, though lines are now supplemented by roughly 300,000 phones in Iraq's new cellphone system. Cellphone possession was illegal under Hussein.

But there remain large pockets of dissatisfaction and resentment, particularly among the estimated 25 to 45 percent of Iraqis who are unemployed.

Outside the gates of the Green Zone Wednesday, about 200 Shiites gathered in a rowdy but peaceful protest arranged by Iraq's communist party. They vented their anger at the US over coalition plans to evict them from government buildings they've squatted in since shortly after the fall of Hussein's regime.

"The Americans haven't done anything for us, now they're just causing trouble,'' says Khalid Hussein, a unemployed 35-year old. "I don't have any work, prices have gone up, and now they want to put us out onto the street. Saddam was a bad leader, but he never took my house away from me."

Nevertheless, Khalid and his fellow protesters, many waving posters of Shiite religious leaders like Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, say they were delighted by Hussein's ouster. But their attitude is: "What have you done for me lately?"

"America is the most powerful country in the world, but they're making our lives harder,'' says Hussein Khadim, who complains that soaring rents after the US invasion ended price controls drove him and his five children to squat in a building on the edges of a Baghdad airport. "They refuse to help us, so of course we're angry."

But it's also true that this sort of demonstration would have been ruthlessly suppressed under Hussein, when posters of Shiite religious leaders were banned and many of the protesters would have ended up in jail. Reminded of these new freedoms, Khadim says they're insufficient. "Where's my job,'' he grouses.

Anger isn't focused on the coalition alone. Increasingly, Iraqis on the streets hold the US-appointed governing council, scheduled to take power on June 30, responsible for their problems. This week, the council asked the United Nations for help in forming a caretaker government to take over between June 30 and when the national elections are held. The date of the elections has not been set. And no one knows whether the current 25-member council, an expanded version of the council, or some other group will rule until then.

The protesters on Wednesday complained that Iraq's politicians aren't accomplishing enough, and it's a sentiment echoed elsewhere.

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