The situation of Iraq and the Iraqi people is still ambiguous on the 3rd anniversary of the Iraqi occupation that the US realized on claims that weapons of mass destruction existed in the country. The US had promised to bring democracy to Iraq with the occupation.

The country is far from the wealth and democracy that the US promised to bring before the Iraq war. The people are concerned and hopeless most about the inability to maintain security in the country. While dozens of people lose their lives in violent incidents every day, the recent Shiite-Sunni tension is dragging the country to a civil war. The Iraqi people are at such a point that they miss the days of Saddam's era and they demand the end of occupation, which makes their life even harder. The ethnic and sectarian division is seen as the biggest obstacle before the democratic structure in Iraq.

Although more than three months have passed over the last Iraqi elections, the parties are still arguing over establishing the government. The weapons of mass destruction, which was shown as the ground of "Iraqi Liberation Operation", still could not be found in the country as Iraqi was shaken by intelligence scandals concerning the war. During this period, public support for the Iraqi war and the popularity of President George W. Bush declined by half.

Bloodshed in Iraq has been increasing since the Iraqi occupation started in 2003. While there has been an increase in the number of attacks, which were supposed to decrease with the political process, 75 incidents occur in the country on average every day. Independent sources remark that more than 100,000 civilians lost their lives in three years while a web-site named "iraqbodycount" report that the death toll is 34-38,000. The number of American soldiers killed in the Iraq war reached 2,317. The most dreadful matter in Iraq is the "civil war" threat, which reached the climax with the bombardment of a Shiite military tomb in Samarra. The mosques were set on fire in the clashes occurring after the bombardment, resulting in the death of hundreds of people. In an aim to settle the incidents, the American army launched the biggest operation in Samarra in which 50 helicopters and 200 armored vehicles participated.

Public Effort to Drive off US Military

The number of people suffering from a nationwide famine has doubled since the Saddam Hussein period, officials said. The United States-led invasion of Iraq has brought with it starvation instead of affluence, divergence instead of democracy, the Iraqis told Cihan News Agency when they pressed a demand for the United States military to leave. Salim Jabir, an Iraqi who is dismayed to see no progress in the last three years, expressed his disappointment as follows: "The situation is growing worse. We had different expectations. We thought life would be better. We anticipated having self-confidence, and we actually looked to the future with high expectations. The United States administration has done nothing for us for the past three years now. The United States military brought us blood and tears only." The Iraqi women suffered a lot during the war in Iraq, said Yanar Mohammed, head of the Iraqi Association for Women. Women comprised 40 percent of the national population of workers in 1980, said Mohammed: "It is now clear to us what has happened to the country." Abdullah Abbas, another Iraqi disappointed at being fooled by broken promises for more wealth, said the United States military does not regard the Iraqis at all.

Bush's rating dropped by 30 percent

In Iraq, where two elections and one constitution referendum was held last year, the assembly could hold its first meeting only three months after the elections and carried on initiations to form a national unity government. Ensuring security, deciding on federation, resolving the Kirkuk problem, and petroleum revenue are the issues awaiting the Iraqi assembly while it has not agreed on who will be the president of the assembly yet. The leading party in the assembly Shia United Iraqi Alliance is resolute against the reactions of Kurds and Sunnis reappointing Ibrahim al-Jaafari as the prime minister. Kurds agreed to nominate Talabani for presidency while the Sunnites are still discussing whom to nominate for assembly presidency.

The Bush administration, which claimed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and launched the "liberation operation," has experienced hard days for three years. American public support to Bush was 67 percent in 2003, when the war first started, while now it is around 37 percent as a result of the scandals. At the beginning, 70 percent of the American people supported the war, but it dropped to 29 percent. The soldier death toll along with the increasing cost of war is said to have affected the drop. It is noted that the war costs the US $6 billion semiannually.

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