LET ME BE YOUR EYES.

When I read your e-mails and comments thoroughly (regarding the first article) I realized that many of you are eager to see the truth about what's happening in Iraq and you want to make sure whether things are going better or worse there.
Some of you questioned the accuracy of news broadcasted by some media sources.
To be honest, I won’t say that the media are lying but they are telling only one side of the truth.
This side usually reflects the attitude of the funding source of that particular station or journal towards the events in Iraq.
So I’ll try to show you the naked truth about daily life in Iraq.
And I will try to show you the difference between pre. And post. Liberation Iraq.
I will put it in some form of a series, discussing one aspect of life in each post.
Let’s talk first about security and order in Iraq, as this is a major point of concern.
Some TV channels try to show our streets like battlefields, actually they are not. the streets are relatively safe and one can walk in the streets with no fear greater than the one he feels if he was in any other country. People go to work regularly, stores and restaurants are open even to a late hour in the night. crime levels in Iraq according to IP reports are declining and they’re now much lower than they were In April or May this year.
The main point that satisfies me is that I no longer fear the risk of death penalty because of something I said.
Do you imagine that someone could get tortured and executed just because he laughed at a joke about Saddam or the Baath ?
Statistics from the reports of the red-cross and the IP state that approximately 1570 Iraqis were killed in violent accidents in Baghdad during the first 5 months following the liberation.
Some would say, well , this is sad. This is a large number of casualties. And this is true.
But if you take any 5 months during the reign of Saddam you will find that the number will reach to an average of 30 000 kills in Baghdad alone , I don’t want to bother you with math.work but if someone thinks that I’m lying then I can show you the whole calculation steps.
On the other side there are some bad aspects like traffic jams and a little mess here and there, some of my fellow citizens have not yet understood the meaning of freedom and I think they have their excuses. And as time goes on they will understand their faults and work to fix’em.
Another issue that I want to talk about is the behavior of coalition forces.
They have been accused by ill-treating Iraqis, unjustified arrests, and random shooting of fire after being assaulted- by Saddam’s mercenaries-. And I tell you again, this is not true.
I have seen some of these actions and I met some American officers and inquired about the basis on which they get people arrested, and the answers were quite convincing.
Something else that I want you to consider is that there are 18 governorates in Iraq.
Violence is seen in only 5 or 6 of them while the rest are quite peaceful places and one can spend a week there without hearing a gun shot.
I believe that I didn’t answer all your questions, but I hope I got you closer to the truth. And the truth is :
Iraq now is a safer place than it’s ever been in the last 3 decades.