Baghdad before and after Sadaam

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-09-15 10:40am

This is a serious question. Do you think the people of Baghdad are suffering more deaths and maiming with the occupation or under Sadaam? The core question is have we inflicted more harm in a people by liberating it than we have if we left them under the dictator's control?

His torture chambers and prisons were certainly nasty places but take the car bombing yesterday. Over 50 people killed in one blast, do you think Sadaam killed that many Bagdad residents in a day?

If anyone has been keeping a running tally of civilian casaulties so far I wonder how that would stack up in comparison with the tortures and deaths on a daily basis under the regime.

And please, no bullshit about breaking some eggs making an omelette, these mounting civilian deaths are by no means a short term problem. There seems to be no end in sight.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-15 10:42am

Quite frankly, all of the people who were not blinded by nationalistic fervour before the election predicted this kind of long, grueling Afghanistan-style guerilla war before the invasion ever took place, and our predictions are merely being fulfilled. It's an "I told you so" moment.

The people are ideologically better off now because they have "freedom", but they are materially worse off because they're dying in droves, and it's totally random. Before, they knew they would die if they crossed Saddam, but they were OK if they didn't. Now, death lurks around every corner.

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2004-09-15 03:13pm

Things we always going to be worse in the short term, the question is whether Iraq is worse off in 5-10 years time.
Before the war I thought there would be a half way decent plan in place and thus things would be better over the long term, now however I am not so sure.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2004-09-15 03:23pm

TheDarkling wrote:Things we always going to be worse in the short term, the question is whether Iraq is worse off in 5-10 years time.

Yeah, that'll be the key. But the short term disaster is going to have a rather profound impact on the long term. And there's no question that the poor handling of the whole thing. I doubt that average Iraqi is going to forget the hardship they're facing now.

TheDarkling wrote:Before the war I thought there would be a half way decent plan in place and thus things would be better over the long term, now however I am not so sure.

I thought so too. Unfortunately its been proven that there's no real plan. And there in is the tragedy of it, had there been a real plan things didn't need to be any where near as bad as this. Instead politics, corners cutting, and just plain lazyness has gotten in the way.