From The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/world/middleeast/many-iraqis-prefer-to-ignore-10th-anniversary-of-war.html?ref=global-home&_r=0
By TIM ARANGO
Published: March 18, 2013
BAGHDAD — The war that arrived a decade ago is still too painful and too controversial to be taught to schoolchildren or subjected to serious academic study at universities, and the local news media are too busy reporting on the latest bombings, protests and political disagreements to care much about an anniversary.
So as historians, pundits and former government officials in Washington and London produce a wave of reminiscences on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq — symposiums have been held, books written, new studies published on the conflict’s toll, human and financial — Iraqis are more concerned with the present.
On Friday morning at the pet market in the center of this city, Hasim al-Shimari watched two roosters fighting it out and offered a rejoinder to those marking his war’s anniversary.
“You see these people,” he said. “They are here to sell birds to earn some money to help them live. People are not interested in that. They are desperate and want to see real change, so they’ve stopped looking at the news or remembering past events.”
In recent interviews here, most Iraqis, like Mr. Shimari, say they have given little or no thought to the looming anniversary, which falls on Wednesday, though the sight of foreign television news crews conducting stand-ups in the city this week will remind them that the war, for the conquerors anyway, is something to be reflected upon.
“If our situation were better than this, we would surely remember that day when the Americans came to free Iraq and gave us the chance to build a better future,” Mr. Shimari said. “But the Americans didn’t give us that chance. They did all the things possible to ensure that Iraq is going to be ruined.”
Here, the war is not for the history books but rather an event whose outcome is still uncertain.
Continue reading at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/world/middleeast/many-iraqis-prefer-to-ignore-10th-anniversary-of-war.html?ref=global-home&_r=0
