State of Iraq

[nicky g]

The most dangerous place in the world
Insurance major Aon ranks Iraq as the most dangerous place in the world to do business, and notes that the fallout of the war has seen the threat increase in Western countries tied to it.

Iraq blighted by poor services
More than two years after the war, the much vaunted reconstruction has done little for the average Iraqi.

"There are continuing power cuts in much of the country and hospitals struggle to provide adequate treatment.

Sewage often pours untreated into rivers which many Iraqis have to drink from.

Look around the Iraqi capital, and the most obvious change over the past two years has been the mushrooming of concrete anti-blast barriers.

In most areas there is little visible sign of reconstruction and residents across the city have power for half the day at most."

New police, old methods

"the training of the 142,000-member police force -- about half the total security forces supposedly needed -- is moving more slowly and fraught with bigger problems than reports by U.S. officials might suggest... Most disturbing, in the last half of 2004 Iraqi police have killed political opponents, falsely arrested people to extort money, and systematically raped and tortured female prisoners, according to a February, 2005, State Dept. report on Iraq's human rights record. In one of the worst examples, police in Basra reported last December that officers in the Internal Affairs Unit were involved in the slaughter of 10 Baath Party members. "

Not to mention recent reports of massive increases in infant mortality, a violent death rate more than twice that before the war, and so on. Thanks again boys.