Americans have a very limited and rose-colored perspective of the world, though. We don't understand true upheaval and crisis. We haven't lived through the type of runaway inflation and scarcity they are going through there. We can't remember ever being hungry. Typically we don't have friends and relatives who have disappeared because of how they voted in the last election, or neighbors who will turn you into authorities for a seditious opinion. We don't live in a society where torture is a fact of life, and they still cut off hands as a punishment. Women here are more concerned about a 5% pay differential than being beaten on the street by the roving vice squad for exposing a forearm, or walking without a male relative. It's not just a different world. It's practically a different planet.
There is so much that is radically different about Iraqi and Afghan culture that you can't fully understand just by reading about it. You don't just wipe out memories by writing a new national anthem. These people are deeply infused with a fear of tyranny forever imprinted on their mentalities. These people have experienced how terribly people with absolute power can behave. They've been lied to. They've had guns pointed at them. But there, on the ground in Baghdad, the uniforms behind the guns have changed, and the situation has gotten much worse. Now suicide bombers are exploding every other day. At least with the old uniforms, there was order. And the gas price in an oil-rich country has gone from 250 dinars to 4000 if you can get it at all.
You can explain to these people that when a government is overthrown, this is what happens to the currency it backed. You can explain that there is an adjustment period, a stabilization period when the new power structure is getting worked out and limitations and laws are being tested. It's just growing pains, the price you pay for a better future.
I lived through the overthrow of a dictator. I was in Haiti from '86-'89 in the aftermath of Duvalier and I remember the coupes, the tires buring in the streets, the unrest, the lawlessness. I remember the temptation of Haitians to speak of the "good old days" of Baby Doc when yes, there was oppression, but at least there was order, and life was predictable and tolerable if you didn't cause any trouble. I also remember the attitude the Haitians had toward US/UN involvement, which was largely under the table and highly questionable, but in the people's eyes, was much more understated than our handling of Iraq and Afghanistan. They seemed to mildly appreciate us, but more importantly, they couldn't completely blame us for the unrest and upheaval that came afterwards.
But the Iraqis can. And many of them do. They see it as good that Saddam is gone, but in their eyes, things have not gotten better, but much worse, and all the chaos can be directly attributed to the US moving in with bombs and guns and goodwill. In a simmering stewpot of mistrust, fear and cynicism... well, just don't be surprised if we are never very popular over there. A nation that was once at the mercy of Saddam is now at the mercy of a different, unfamiliar government - ours. And fear of the unknown can be much much worse than fear of the enemy you know and understand. It won't be easy winning the trust of a people whose trust of government is non-existant, and fear and expectation of tyranny is complete.
