Word: saddamism
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...Many luxuries long denied, either by sanctions or by the dictator's whim, were suddenly available in the months after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Cable TV quickly became ubiquitous, and cell phones soon followed. The shops of Karrada overflowed with big-screen TVs, fridges and air conditioners despite the scarcity of electricity. Upmarket stores suddenly offered such foreign delicacies as chocolates, cornflakes and canned tuna. Then in the summer of 2004, while on a break from Iraq, I got an e-mail from Salah: "Dog food has arrived in Wardah...
Meanwhile, the parliamentary drama has united Iraqis of all persuasions into a nation of SOFA potatoes: not since Saddam Hussein's trial have so many been transfixed by a legal debate. In restaurants and cafés across Baghdad, TV screens normally featuring music videos and Arabic soap operas were instead tuned to Iraqi news channels that seemed at times to be devoted exclusively to the story. It was democracy as reality TV. Iraqis watched as politicians denounced each other across the parliament floor and as Maliki griped at a press conference that failure to ratify the pact would leave...
...reputation from his first tour in Iraq, in 2003, as a heavy-handed division commander who had neither a grasp of the subtleties of fighting an insurgency nor the political acumen to sell his ideas back home. Some correspondents who covered Iraq in the months after the fall of Saddam Hussein also came away with that opinion; in his best-selling 2006 book, Fiasco, Washington Post correspondent Thomas E. Ricks suggested that Odierno's tough tactics in the Sunni Triangle had helped fuel the insurgency. Odierno's 4th Infantry Division, while hunting down Saddam and fighting off the remnants...
...tactics he employed in 2003 have made a comeback. As commander of the 4th Infantry Division, despite orders to pull back, he kept small outposts in neighborhoods among the residents, ensuring better surveillance and quick response to insurgent attacks, which helped him shut down the fedayeen on Saddam's home turf. The outposts have become one of the cornerstones of the surge strategy...
...since the start of Saddam Hussein's trial have Iraqis been so transfixed by a legal and legislative debate. The to-and-fro over the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the U.S. has turned parliamentary politics into prime-time entertainment. In restaurants and caf?s across Baghdad, TV screens normally featuring music videos and Arabic soap operas are instead tuned to Iraqi news channels that seem at times to be devoted exclusively to the SOFA story. It's democracy as reality...