What would really rebuild Iraq

War has totally disrupted family, education, and culture.

from the May 14, 2008 edition

Page 2 of 2

Page 1 | 2

Lest we forget, Iraqis today compare the poor state of schooling under the Americans to the free and prestigious system under Hussein. By the late 1980s, Iraq had mostly wiped out illiteracy. But today, nearly one-third of Iraqi adults can't read.

Now, because of instability and unresolved security issues, students can attend school only for a couple of hours a week, on the "good" days.

Restoring social normalcy is imperative. Iraqis feel they no longer have anything to be proud of. Take teahouses. These dark, smoky cabarets are as meaningful to Iraqis as pubs are to the British. But when people are afraid to leave their homes to puff their sheesha in a café, there is no sense of social normalcy. The daily chai, a staple of every Iraqi's day, not only is unavailable in the teahouses, but because of electricity outages, can't be enjoyed at home, either.

The cinema, arts, and music were a cornerstone of Iraqi culture, and as with young Westerners, popular culture served as a weekend refuge. These outlets are no longer an option, because cinemas and radio stations have been shut down with the US invasion. Meanwhile, new religious laws mandated by conservative Islamic clerics prohibit such expression.

The last five years have drastically altered the public mood in Iraq.

In Hussein's era, when a rumor surfaced that he was ill, people prayed he would die. Now, more than a few remember him fondly. On Iraqi streets you hear the refrain, "At least he was one of us." To many Iraqis, the climate of terror under Hussein has merely given way to a new world of chaos and fear under the US occupation.

The tragedy of Iraq was not created by the Americans. It is a product of the violence and despotism of Hussein. But more than five years after the invasion, it's hard not to conclude that the US has thrown more than a trillion dollars at a problem it helped create without a clue how to fix it. That does not mean we should assume Iraq is Humpty Dumpty – too broken to fix. It's clear that the brunt of the "fixing" is going to have to be done by Iraqis. They certainly have the oil money to do it. The question to consider now is this: Will the Iraqis ever assume responsibility for themselves as long as the American troops remain there?

Since the start of the war, there have been some reminders of what Iraq might once again become. The most notable: the surprising and monumental victory by the Iraqi soccer team over Saudi Arabia in the July 2007 Asia Cup. All Iraqis rejoiced with every win. It was a small but significant reminder that Iraqis have something to be proud of, and that even with a devastating war, victory can sometimes be theirs.

• Walter Rodgers is a former senior international correspondent for CNN. Yasmeen Alamiri is an Iraqi-American journalist.

1 | Page 2