The Ground Truth

[oz_not_ozzy]

"At first... you think to yourself... what a horrible country, where little kids can step on mines... and there's no treatment for them. And then you think... I'm glad I'm here to help. And then, as things go on, you start to wonder could it have been one of my guys that did this?... Could it have been a cluster bomb that we dropped?... Could this

Comments

[ulaidhan]

For some sections of the country, life has improved.

As far as I know, the areas previously under Kurdish autonomous rule are now largely doing better than they were, due to a lack of low-level oppression and harassment from the government.

Other than that, I admit it's hard to think of "success stories" that have been sustained since the early days of optimism.

Part of what's so depressing about how things were mishandled is that the US and allied states had been directly involved in state-reconstruction in Europe, within living (and well-documented) memory. The US in particular, however, determinedly ignored most of the lessons learned in the aftermath of WWII.

[hairyscotsman]

There are very few things I can say I've been shocked about, but this must be one of those tings.

Please send me the details that you had and found as soon as you can. Thanks.