Last fall, a P-I team was again warmly welcomed to a Baghdad that was beginning to come alive, despite the continuing sanctions and despite the looming threat of war.

Then, UNICEF figures showed, the malnutrition rate was declining, the vaccination rate was going up, and there had been improvements in communications, agriculture and the electricity supply. Also, everywhere, from Baghdad to Basra, there was a surge of housing construction.

Now, another P-I team has found a drastically altered Iraq.

After two devastating wars and 12 years of economic sanctions, Iraqis are being crushed physically, economically, socially and spiritually. Health conditions are in a downward spiral; the vast majority of the work force has no work; the once burgeoning middle class has almost disappeared; and they are under the occupation of a conquering army.

That many of them are no longer able to muster their famed hospitality for American visitors comes as little surprise.

Talk to any WWII veteran about what Europe was like after WWII. This kind of apology for a monstrous regime makes me almost physically ill.

This account differs sharply from others I have read, including this one:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/01/wsteyn01.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/06/01/ixnewstop.html

Somebody's feeding us bullshit.

I guess it depends on who you want to believe, and who gains by it. I don't know what a columnist traveling on his own would have to gain by lying. I do know what an aid bureaucracy fishing for more funding would gain. Of course, that's just my inner cynic speaking.