Are citizens in Iraq more afraid now or were they more afraid when Saddam was in power?

Question

It also make me sad to think about people being afraid to leave thier houses. These are human beings over there just like you and me. I think of myself in that situation and it makes me sad for them.

Answer 1

america bring terror to iraq
of course ppl prefer peace, free food, no bombs, no occupying soldiers, to this uncertainty brought by this USA invasion

if we talk about torture, USA did worse thing than saddam's. guantanamo, abu ghraib, haditha is just a tip of an iceberg. while terror is unevitable everyday, usa didnt try to stop it by they worsen the situation by capturing wrong people and torturing them, raping women, killing innocent civilians in airstrike and barrage.

yes saddam era is very bad. no democracy, capturing, murders and kidnapping. but they are still happen now, in fact, they are happening in worse degree!
what the kind of hell freedom did USA bring to Iraq?
(american aggresion in iraq is codenamed "operation iraqi freedom", let us laugh at it...

Answer 2

My cousin just returned from Iraq. He had a chance to see how the war has changed things over there and honestly it's about the same just a different kind of fear. They are just as afraid now of roving militants and fanatics as they were of Saddam's torture chambers but they now have to fear random violence rather then concentrated efforts to eradicate their people.

It's sad really. He says that people love not having saddam, but they really wish the U.S. could just squash these guys like bugs. they often say that Saddam would have squashed this rebellion through fear and force. the U.S, plays too nice so we don't get respect. They look at us as being soft because we show mercy and fight wars carefully so as to not hurt civilians. To them that's a sign of weakness. They'd respect us more if we were carpet bombing the hell out of the place.

Answer 3

I still have relatives there.

it is mixed. arrested persons may never see the light again, nor their family can burry them.
police cars, or terrorists in police cars, or both are arresting people without warrants, and authorities denies detention.
I know my cousin who sold her households, car, and simple jewellery just to know where is her son.

it is a default practice that if someone is detained, his family will look for his remains in the morgue the next morning.

bank roberries are conducted in day light and in front of police eyes, thinking they might be linked to militia of the winning major parties.

At last, some people pay less bribes to Iraqi police to hand over the prisoner to the US Forces, so they can be sure of his location and whereabouts.

Is this a sovereign country ? or enactment of the Wild West on Iraq soil?

Answer 4

Different media outlets report different things. And different parts of Iraq are safer than others. I have a friend who just returned (he is a real life JAG) and he reported to me that life is pretty tough over there. We have a long way to go before we can say the corner has been turned. It's one step forward, two steps back, then two steps forward, one step back. We are setting up a court system, and doing what we can to change the culture. But you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shxt.

Answer 5

affraid? try not to be so vague. i would say they are overall less afraid of violence against them because it is a fringe group of insugents that are violent now, instead of a state-sponsored fear machine.

Answer 6

saddams regime scared them more.

Answer 7

It depends on who they are in this civil war...a killer or killee.