Then and now: Revisiting Iraqi sites a decade later

 

Maya Alleruzzo / AP

This Wednesday, March 13, 2013, photo shows a general view of Firdous Square at the site of an Associated Press photograph taken by Jerome Delay as the statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down by U.S. forces and Iraqis on April 9, 2003. Ten years ago on live television, U.S. Marines memorably hauled down a Soviet-style statue of Saddam, symbolically ending his rule. Today, that pedestal in central Baghdad stands empty. Bent iron beams sprout from the top, and posters of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in military fatigues are pasted on the sides.

 

Maya Alleruzzo / AP

In this Friday, March 15, 2013, photo, a woman and her child look at a camel at the Baghdad Zoo as Abdullah, 8, poses with a photograph taken on July 20, 2003, at the same site by Niko Price of the Associated Press, showing a U.S. soldier visiting the newly opened zoo. The zoo was decimated during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, when the staff fled and looters gutted the zoo and the park surrounding it. Only a handful of animals survived, and later the grounds were used as a holding facility for looters detained by U.S. soldiers. The zoo reopened in July 2003 after being rehabilitated under the care of U.S. Army Capt. William Sumner and South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony. Today, it houses more than 1,000 animals and is a popular destination for families.

Maya Alleruzzo / AP

In this Saturday, March 16, 2013 photo, shoppers walk in Baghdad's busy shopping district of Karrada, at the same site of an Associated Press photo taken by Hadi Mizban on Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 after a bombing that killed 22 people. Bloody attacks launched by terrorists who thrived in the post-invasion chaos are painfully still frequent, albeit less so than a few years back, and sectarian and ethnic rivalries are again tearing at the fabric of national unity.

Maya Alleruzzo / AP

This Tuesday, March 12, 2013, photo shows a general view of Abu Nawas Park in Baghdad, at the site of a photograph taken by Maya Alleruzzo showing Iraqi orphans playing soccer with a U.S. soldier from the Third Infantry Division in April 2003. The park, which runs along Abu Nawas Street, named after an Arabic poet, is now a popular destination for families who are drawn by the manicured gardens, playgrounds and restaurants famous for a fish called mazgouf. Ten years ago, the park was home to a tribe of children orphaned by the war and was rife with crime.

Maya Alleruzzo / AP

This Thursday, March 14, 2013, photo shows a general view of the crossed swords monument at the site of an Associated Press photograph by Karim Kadim of U.S. soldiers taken on Nov. 16, 2008. The crossed sword archways Saddam Hussein commissioned during Iraq's nearly eight-year war with Iran stand defiantly on a little-used parade ground inside the Green Zone, the fortified district that houses the sprawling U.S. Embassy and several government offices. Iraqi officials began tearing down the arches in 2007 but quickly halted those plans and then started restoring the monument two years ago.

Maya Alleruzzo / AP

In this Saturday, March 16, 2013, photo, motorists fill the main street in Baghdad's busy shopping district of Karrada at the site of an Associated Press photo taken by Hadi Mizban on Friday, March 7, 2008, after a bombing that killed 53 people and wounded 130. Bloody attacks launched by terrorists who thrived in the post-invasion chaos are painfully still frequent, albeit less so than a few years back, and sectarian and ethnic rivalries are again tearing at the fabric of national unity.

Maya Alleruzzo / AP

This Tuesday, March 12, 2013, photo shows a general view of Abu Nawas Street in Baghdad, Iraq, at the site of a photograph of Iraqi orphan Fady al-Sadik waking on the street taken by photographer Maya Alleruzzo in April 2003. The street abuts the well-manicured Abu Nawas Park, popular with families.

 

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Discuss this post

Whatever happened to Fady al-Sadik? Would've been an interesting follow-up story.

  • 2 votes
Reply#1 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:04 AM EDT

Paulus....Get your head out of the sand.

  • 1 vote
#1.1 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:05 PM EDT
Reply

Iraq War, waste of US assets, life, and tax money for FCUKING BUSH's failure and dick's money making with his company. : )

  • 3 votes
Reply#2 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 12:15 PM EDT

Right!!! "One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."
--President Bill Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."
--President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

  • 4 votes
#2.1 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 12:33 PM EDT
Reply

Show the real Iraq after the invasion, not these propped photos.

  • 2 votes
Reply#3 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:22 PM EDT

A rather confusing way to illustrate your point. I think photos side-by-side would work a lot better. And more of them. Is Iraq better off now than before the invasion? That would require photos BEFORE the invasion and NOW. Showing photos from the time period right after the invasion and comparing them to now is misleading.

  • 2 votes
Reply#4 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:48 PM EDT

Iraq looked like a @!$%#hole before the invasion. Guess what, it still looks like a @!$%#hole. We are just deeper in debt!

  • 1 vote
Reply#5 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:22 PM EDT

dbeck, I bet you were not there before, during or after the invasion. I saw a lot of improvements. I have personally received many thanks from Iraqi people for allowing them freedom to make their own future. You are just another angry emotional man.

  • 3 votes
#5.1 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 8:37 PM EDT
Reply

It was a police state turned into a $$$ trillion dollar political farce.

  • 1 vote
Reply#6 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 7:05 PM EDT

Obama said Iraq has been "an enormous achievement. I agree. I did not waist my time and life for nothing.

  • 3 votes
Reply#7 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 8:27 PM EDT

Obama said so...Must be true..

    #7.1 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:17 PM EDT

    no Owen you didnt waste your time! Thank you for your service!

    • 2 votes
    #7.2 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:19 PM EDT
    Reply

    Iraq is a country composed of shiites , sunnis and kurds . They all want to dominate the others. There will never be peace. In the end the man running Iraq will look , talk and act just like Saddam. There isn't much of an alternative. The only good thing I can think of to come out of this mess is that when it comes to going to war the american people as a whole no longer trust ANYTHING the government says and that since Iraq is presently allied with Iran at some time the shiites and the sunnis may go to war with each other and that would be the best benefit the US could get out of the whole thing.

      Reply#8 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:26 PM EDT

      James does not know what he is talking about. He does not know that most Kurdish people are Sunni Muslim. Most Americans don't even know who the primary players are in Iraq but they still have a lot of opinions. It gets tiring reading misinformed emotional opinions.

      • 4 votes
      #8.1 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:04 PM EDT
      Reply

      Absolutely nothing was accomplished..Dont fool yourselves...

        Reply#9 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:17 PM EDT

        Total waste of time,lives and money

          Reply#10 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:38 PM EDT

          Doug, why do you think your non factual, emotional, misinformed, rude opinion maters?

          • 3 votes
          #10.1 - Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:06 AM EDT
          Reply

          When will we ever learn? War is good for nothing or no one!

            Reply#11 - Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:39 PM EDT

            Doug, It was good for Poland when they were liberated from Germany. It was good for the Kurdish people when the coalition go rid of Saddam. ...

            • 2 votes
            #11.1 - Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:09 AM EDT
            Reply

            Really what we accomplished was to give Iran an ally in the region. They are already fast becoming military allies. Before the US occupation, Iran and Iraq were bitter enemies. But with a Shia led government in Iraq, Iran no longer has any reason to oppose them.

              Reply#12 - Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:51 AM EDT

              W. Bush lied, people died, wasted tax money and Dick C. made money, that's a bottom line.

                Reply#13 - Fri Mar 22, 2013 3:58 PM EDT
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