Global Policy Forum

By Huda Majeed Saleh and Elizabeth Piper

With no law and no government, the people of Baghdad feel alone, afraid and angry.

Three weeks after Saddam Hussein's overthrow, many parts of the capital still have no water or electricity, there are floods of sewage and only a trickle of convoys have made it through with urgently needed food and medical supplies. American civilian administrator for Iraq Jay Garner told reporters on Wednesday that the situation was improving every day and that power had been restored to about half of the city.

"There is no humanitarian crisis -- in fact the Doctors without Borders have gone home -- and there's not much infrastructure problem here, other than getting the electrical grid structure back together," the retired U.S. general said.

Confused, weary citizens crowding the streets around the Palestine Hotel where U.S. troops and the international media are based may need more convincing. Some are seeking work, others desperately hope for word on the fate of missing people. "It has never been this bad before," said Nada Ali, as she joined a crowd near the hotel. "It just seems to get worse every day. I used to have hope, but I can no longer believe we will be saved. No one cares for us.

"I have four people at home and my husband was killed during fighting in Basra. I have no money and I no longer know what to do," she said. "I want to survive, but it just keeps getting harder."

As the days wear on, the shock and excitement felt over Saddam's fall have given way to gloom mixed with defiance.

City Without Hope

"We can't hold out for much longer. This is a city without hope. We have nothing left," said Hashim Mohammed, a teacher. "We did not defend Saddam because we did not want him. But if this situation continues all the Iraqi people will fight the Americans," said Nizar Sarhan, a retired civil servant.

"The Americans do not care about us, they have got what they came for, they have got oil. They will keep on delaying the installation of an interim government," he said.

All Baghdad's government ministries and offices were looted and burned except for the Oil Ministry building which was guarded by the U.S. forces. "We want security and stability, they (the Americans) will bring diseases, AIDS and night clubs," Sarhan added.

Young people were more ambivalent about the U.S. presence. Amir Yassin, playing in a Baghdad pool hall, dreams of one day visiting a "real pool bar" in the United States with peaceful Americans far from the "madness and murder" of Iraq.

Yassin, 27, is angry at U.S. troops for killing Iraqis -- at least 15 were shot dead in the western city of Falluja this week -- but he still hopes to travel to America. "They (U.S. troops) should leave our country soon, they really have made too many mistakes now and will pay for them, I think. But when they go, they can take me with them," he said.

In a nearby barber's shop, electrician Malik Mozal, 31, gets a razor-sharp flat top cut for 750 dinars (35 cents). Redundant while the power stays off, Mozal holds out little hope that a new government can bring peace, even backed by U.S. force. Politicians from across Iraq agreed earlier this week to try to form an interim government in four weeks with the help of U.S. and British advisers. "I hope a new Iraqi government will bring security, water and electricity. But I fear it will be a return to Saddam's days. The same thing all over again," he says.

"The Americans? Let them do what they will. We live with little hope," Mozal said.

Garner: Americans Should Beat Chests with Pride

The retired general overseeing Iraq's postwar reconstruction said on Wednesday that his fellow Americans should beat their chests with pride at having toppled Saddam Hussein without destroying the country's assets.

"We ought to be beating our chests every day. We ought to look in a mirror and get proud and stick out our chests and suck in our bellies and say: 'Damn, we're Americans!'," Jay Garner told reporters, saying that Iraq's oil fields and other infrastructure survived the war almost intact.

Garner, who was speaking after talks with visiting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Baghdad, took the media to task for emphasizing anti-American demonstrations and dissent in the wake of the three-week U.S. led war that deposed Saddam.

His comments came after U.S. troops opened fire for the second time this week on an angry crowd protesting against the U.S. presence in the town of Falluja, west of Baghdad. Iraqi hospital officials said two men were killed in the latest incident. At least 13 died in shooting on Monday, they said.

Garner said the war was fought in a way that prevented Saddam's forces from setting fire to its oilfields and had largely preserved Iraq's infrastructure intact: "I was planning on the oilfields being torched, a huge humanitarian crisis and a monumental reconstruction task, " he said. "There is no humanitarian crisis ... and there's not much infrastructure problem here, other than getting the electrical grid structure back together." The situation in Baghdad was improving every day and power had been restored to about half of the city, he said.

The U.S. military is increasing its presence in the Iraqi capital to boost security and help in wiping out pockets of resistance from diehard Saddam supporters.

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