Progress, Inch by Inch

By Simon Robinson/Baghdad

Lying on a beaten-up hospital bed with two bullets in his right leg, Amar Ali Najim has plenty to complain about. A few hours earlier, the Baghdad policeman had responded to reports that a gang of thieves was menacing a market. Arriving on the scene, Najim and his colleagues walked straight into a trap, presumably set by the gunmen who shot him and two other cops. But even in his current state, immobile and connected to an intravenous drip, Najim, 37, is upbeat. Things in Iraq are getting better, he says: "The violence has dropped by half. We still have gangs, but at least now we are challenging them."

The news out of Iraq in recent months has been mostly dreary. Since the beginning of August, three major terrorist attacks have killed at least 115 people. Strikes on American troops continue, and the job of rebuilding the country seems overwhelming at times. Yet as the scorching temperatures of summer give way to the occasional cooling breeze of fall, there is a short but growing list of achievements worth noting. Traffic cops have tamed some of Baghdad's worst intersections, crews of cleaners are tidying the streets, and the power supply has slowly improved.

A Gallup poll published last week found that while nearly half the Iraqis questioned felt the situation in their country was worse now than before the war, two-thirds thought that within five years their lives would be better than before the invasion. Most deemed the current sacrifices worthwhile: 62% were happy that Saddam Hussein is gone. "I'm optimistic," says liquor-store owner Hussam Nadim, whose sales have tripled since the chaotic period of three months ago, during which his shop was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. "With time and a lot of work, I see things improving."

Many ordinary Iraqis complain that the media of other Arab nations are misrepresenting the situation, painting a one-dimensional picture of chaos and widespread antipathy to the U.S. Many Iraqis attribute the distortion to lingering Arab-media sympathies toward the Saddam regime. "They are wicked people," says Salah al-Sheikh, 31, a guard at an Arab embassy. "They say Americans are occupiers, but they are here to help us." The Governing Council last week temporarily barred two popular Arab satellite networks from attending council meetings.

Al-Yarmuk Hospital, where Najim was rushed when he was shot, exemplifies how things are moving forward. In early April, during the final days of heavy combat, the facility was almost emptied by looters. "They took beds, air-conditioners, linen, food, ultrasound machines, computers--anything they could carry out," says hospital director Mahdi Jasim Moosa. Since then, the hospital has been refurnished. Some equipment was returned by looters under pressure from neighbors and imams. New fittings have been bought with funds raised in a local mosque and donations from welfare organizations like the Red Cross and CARE. The number of shooting and stabbing victims admitted to the hospital spiked to roughly 20 a day after the war, but is down to half that, according to doctors. "It is not ideal," says Moosa, "but then it was not ideal in Saddam's time. Psychologically, we are much better today."

Engineer Adal Abdulhadi agrees. He oversees a crew of 70 street cleaners and painters employed by the city to spiff up the tony Baghdad suburb of Mansur. For between $3 and $5 a day, the men have cleared away most of the trash that piled up during the war and are now painting the gutters shiny yellow and white. The program may largely be a make-work exercise for local men, Abdulhadi acknowledges, but it's "better than them sitting around doing nothing but getting angry with the Americans."

The slowly improving power supply is also lifting spirits in Baghdad. It helps that cooler weather means fewer air-conditioners now drain the city's decrepit grid. Electricity output is up, if not yet to prewar levels. Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Electricity began hiring the first of more than 4,000 "power police" to patrol thousands of miles of lines across the country to help prevent sabotage.

Of course, the list of problems facing Iraq is still long: resistance to the U.S. occupation remains vicious; the vital oil industry is a shambles; elections are months away. Against these challenges, tidier neighborhoods and repainted roads may seem trifling matters. But in postwar Iraq, any small victory is appreciated. By Simon Robinson/Baghdad. With reporting by Vivienne Walt/Baghdad

With reporting by Vivienne Walt/Baghdad