On April 9, 2003, the day Baghdad fell to invading U.S. troops, Khadim al-Jubouri took a sledgehammer to a statue of Saddam Hussein. "It achieved nothing," Jubouri says now. "We regret that Saddam Hussein is gone, no matter how much we hated him."

Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 9, 2007; Page A08

...Four years after that moment, with violence besieging the country, Jubouri is concerned with neither benchmarks nor timelines, troop strengths nor withdrawal dates. What he cares most about is security and order, of which, he said, he has seen very little. He blames Iraq's Shiite-led government and its security forces, and wishes for a return of the era led by the man whose statue he helped tear down.

"We got rid of a tyrant and tyranny. But we were surprised that after one thief had left, another 40 replaced him," said Jubouri, who is a Shiite Muslim. "Now, we regret that Saddam Hussein is gone, no matter how much we hated him."

His faith in the United States has also vanished, he said....

....Seven of his relatives and friends have been killed, kidnapped or driven from their homes. He gets four hours of electricity a day, if he's lucky. The cost of cooking gas and fuel have soared, but his income is a quarter of what he used to earn...[Open in new window]