Via the BBC, March, 2006:
Things had been bad in Iraq throughout the period of UN sanctions: water shortages, power-cuts, inadequate hospitals, a collapsing transport system.
But it hasn't happened like that. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which ran the country under Paul Bremer, was almost ludicrously incompetent, wasting or misusing tens of millions of dollars.
Unknown amounts were stolen. In 2004 the CPA could not account for $9bn in Iraqi oil revenue.
Despite the investment that has undoubtedly taken place, virtually all basic services are in a worse state now than they were before the invasion.
There is less clean water, less sewage control, less gas, less petrol, less power. Baghdad now has an average of only 5.8 hours of electricity a day. At present Iraq is producing 1.8 million barrels of oil a day; just before the invasion the figure was 2.5 million barrels a day.
Much of this isn't the fault of the coalition: power, water and oil are particular targets for the insurgents. But the failure of the coalition to protect these supplies makes people angry.
And yet, these soldiers make this child run for a bottle of clean water while they sit back, laugh and videotape the humiliation ...
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