Ordinary life hardly the norm in Baghdad (quotes Bush speech, then tells how it is)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20070914/wl_mcclatchy/20070914bcusiraqbaghdad_attn_national_foreign_editors_ytop;_ylt=AugFqzErvDv97O305IP9Xwus0NUE

Ordinary life hardly the norm in Baghdad

By Leila Fadel, McClatchy Newspapers Fri Sep 14, 6:21 PM ET

"Today, most of Baghdad's neighborhoods are being patrolled by coalition and Iraqi forces who live among the people they protect. Many schools and markets are reopening. Citizens are coming forward with vital intelligence. Sectarian killings are down. And ordinary life is beginning to return."


— President Bush in his speech Thursday on Iraq

BAGHDAD — "Ordinary" isn't a word that residents of Baghdad use to describe their lives.

Gunmen are driving people from neighborhoods in the city's southwest. Electricity, depending on which block you live on, is available as little as two hours a day. Running water, if it's available, is unsafe to drink.

Car bombings are down, but most residents won't leave their neighborhoods, frightened that they'll encounter Shiite Muslim militiamen or Sunni Muslim extremists who'll kill them.

Some markets are reopening in the southern neighborhood of Dora under the watch of U.S. soldiers, but no one from outside the neighborhood visits.

As for schools, it's hard to say: The school year hasn't started yet.

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Still, life is hardly back to normal. Dirty and disease-ridden, the water that comes from his tap is "terrifying." ...lots of details......