Today freedom of speech has improved in that nation. Shiite Muslims have the chance to read booklets that are published inside the nation. That wouldn’t have happened five years ago.

Owner Muwaffaq Abu Hamra and his prominent Shiite family has seen religious freedom take place. They are allowed to publicly practice their faith without fear of being imprisoned.

“The Americans did what we could not do: they removed Saddam,” says Muwaffaq. “We are indebted to them for that. But we are now close to forgetting this good deed because of the suffering of the past five years.”

Muwaffaq’s family is a mirror of Iraq today. They have struggled with the hardships of war since the invasion by the United States on March 20, 2003. They find fresh hope with a drop in violence and sectarian killings the nation has seen in the past few months.

In a poll commissioned by the BBC and ABC News 45% of Iraqi’s are finally seeing some hope for the future thinking that next year will see a better Iraq. Just six months ago that figure was at only 29 percent. Those most optimistic about the future are Shiites and Kurds. Sunnis are still in doubt.

Devout Shiites, the Abu Hamra family has seen Iraq grow in political and religious freedom over the course of five years.

Five years ago there was only state sanctioned newspapers. Today there are 268 privately owned papers and 54 commercial TV stations. That is a vast improvement. Booklets and posters promoting Shiite figures are also now seen on the street. Five years ago those papers would have caused publishers to be imprisoned. Still that freedom doesn’t come cheap and it doesn’t pay the bills.

Before the war Muwaffaq’s family operated four printing plants and had hundreds of employees. They are down to only two plants and 42 employees.

The past five years have seen kidnappings and ransoms increase. Thousands of Iraqis, mostly middle class professionals and business people have been abducted for ransoms. Paying the ransom is no guarantee that loved ones will return home alive.

The nation has seen over 2,200 doctors and nurses killed. 20,000 of the 34,000 doctors that were registered in Iraq prior to the war have left the country. Last week the last neurologist of Basra was killed after he had been kidnapped.

Health care is in shambles.

While some of the Muslim groups that were persecuted in the past have seen more freedoms minority and Christian groups have not. They have been targeted by kidnappers particularly hard.

Iraqi civilians still are in danger of the crossfire between insurgents and coalition troops. Going to the market for food can be a life and death struggle. 24,000 civilians have died in 2007. The daily average of 66 deaths is half the rate of 2007 but it’s still not a figure to be proud of.

Iraq is becoming a nation of refugees. United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates that there are 4.4 million displaced Iraqis. 2.5 of those reside within their own nation while 1.9 have fled to neighbouring nations. Some have started to return. Of those many men leave behind their families in safer areas. 54 percent of Iraqis say its not the time for the refugees to return.

Corruption is rampant. Much worse than five years ago with government contracts today rigged. A recent health ministry contract had death threats coming from a competitor to all the others that may have bid on the job. Between 2003 and 2007 Judge Radhi Hamza, the former head of Iraq’s Commission on Public Integrity estimates that $18 million in public funds have been lost to the vast corruption within the government. Another $8.3 billion dollars in fraud has been “forgiven” by ministers and the prime minister. It’s not just Iraqi money that has been used by corrupt hands. US reconstruction money has also been misspent. One incident of this was a $20 million bridge repair contract that only cost the contractor $1 million to repair.

“The Americans have destroyed this country,” Dhia Mahdi, one of the printing company’s longest employees says. “They have divided the nation. Their policy is divide and conquer.”

According to surveys this attitude is mixed. Sixty one percent of Iraqis say that the U.S. presence in Iraq has made the security situation worse. That said only 38 percent want to see the U.S. to be on the next plane out. 76 percent want the US to provide training and weapons to the Iraqi Army. 80 percent want the US to help in the security operations against jihadis in Iraq.

The Abu Hamra brothers say that US forces should leave Iraq now. “Nothing is going right [in Iraq],” says Khaled, who thinks it’s time for the family to sell the business and leave Iraq.

The 10 minute commute to work for the brothers prior to the war now takes two hours as they weave through police checks, blast barriers and VIP convoy filled streets.

Most males in Iraq have to carry weapons to protect themselves. According to Ali, a teenage nephew of the brothers, there is no law to protect civilians. The teenager owns a pistol and an AK-47.

Laith Kubba, a director at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington and a former Iraqi government spokesman, agrees. “It’s most misleading to assume that the current violence and conflict among Iraq’s communities is rooted in the country’s history. Intermixed neighborhoods and marriages testify to the contrary,” he says. But the pattern of violence may be difficult to break, he notes. “The levels of sectarian conflict are unprecedented in the region. Those who caused and benefited from sectarian and ethnic strife will not help resolve it.”

Most Iraqis survive by hope. The hope for the light at the end of a very long tunnel. The hope that tomorrow will bring a better day. The hope that after this long journey into the darkness of man peace will come home.

In the end when posed with the question of if Iraq is better off than it was five years ago the answer is mixed. Some freedoms have been granted but the blood that coat the streets isn’t coming off anytime soon.

Source: By Moments In Time