Word: saddamized
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...done a terrible job of, well, governing. The thin bench of Iraqi politicians is made up mostly of rich exiles like the Pentagon-backed Ahmed Chalabi, Iran-funded Islamists and, well, just straight up crooks. There has yet to emerge an Iraqi prime minister who stayed in Iraq while Saddam was in power. First there was the U.S.-backed Ayad Allawi, who was widely perceived among Iraqis as a CIA patsy and whose defense minister oversaw the disappearance of more than $1 billion during his eight-month tenure. Then the earnest but lackluster Ibrahim al Jaafari who managed to bring...
...government's structure makes it impossible for one person or party to ride roughshod over everyone else, that means decisions are made by a painfully slow process of consensus - which may give them a better chance of sticking. For his part, Maliki has tried to project strength: rushing Saddam Hussein to execution and directing mildly harsh words in the general direction of Moqtada al Sadr...
When I first came to Baghdad, Saddam Hussein was still in charge, and Iraqis lived in the sort of fear I had read about in old spy novels set in the Soviet Union. The dictator's network of spies and informants was reputed to reach into every neighborhood, every home, every family; so Iraqis - whether top government officials or the man in the street - were afraid to speak their mind to a journalist. It didn't help that I was always accompanied by a state-appointed minder, whose job was to ensure that nobody told me anything that might reflect...
...only the smallest of many, many freedoms that Iraqis gained after the U.S.-led coalition toppled the dictator. They also got the right to vote, satellite TV, cellphones, the ability to travel out of Iraq, and a new education system that doesn't brainwash children into worshiping Saddam...
...many material ways, things are a lot worse than they used to be. Many Iraqis now get less state-supplied electricity and water than they did under Saddam. Those who can afford it use private gas-powered generators, but the price of gas has grown manifold. Inflation is rampant: prices rose 70% last year. And quite apart from the sectarian violence, crime rates have soared...