www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6083508
Nightly News Violence surges even as conditions improve 18 months after war's end, reality check in Iraq By Richard Engel Correspondent NBC News Updated: 7:58 pm ET Sept.
"In Samarra, the Iraqi government has tackled the insurgents who once controlled the city," Allawi told members of the US Congress. I can't even name an Iraqi city where there aren't clashes," said one Iraqi citizen. Thursday, there were more clashes between US troops and insurgents in Samarra and Sadr City -- two of the eight strongholds guerrillas control. Fallujah, Ramadi, Baqubah, Tall Afar, Mahmudiya and Beiji. "What we have now, ironically, is a situation where Iraq is now more of a terror state safe haven today, than it was when Saddam was in power," says terrorism expert and NBC News analyst Roger Cressey. In September alone, there were 990 attacks on American troops -- up 100 percent since last January. But increasingly, Iraqis themselves are targeted -- 706 police have been killed in the past 18 months along with between 3,000-6,000 civilians. The instability forced the US to divert $3 billion from reconstruction to security.
Nightly News Iraqis no longer live under the oppressive scrutiny of Saddam's government. The giant busts that once adorned Saddam's palaces have been torn down like his regime -- giving Iraqis something unquantifiable -- their freedom. "Iraqis are glad for their freedom, their personal and political freedom, and they're trying to make good use of both," says Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution. Nothing symbolizes freedom as much as an election, and with voting scheduled for January, many wonder: will the insurgents allow Iraqis to exercise their most basic of freedoms?
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