It seems like so many years ago. And it was. Shock and awe. The march on Baghdad; the conquest of Iraq; the embedded corporate reporters cheerleading the victory. Originally the invasion was called Operation Iraqi Liberation until someone noticed that the acronym spells something we'd rather not mention. So it was changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Alan Greenspan, longtime chair of the Federal Reserve, let the cat out of the bag when he said the war was "largely about oil." And the Iraqis? No one counts their dead and wounded. They are just extras on the American-designed set to recast the Middle East. A funny thing happened on the road to Mission Accomplished. The Iraqis, no matter how much they disliked Saddam Hussein, were none too happy about being occupied.

Mundher al Adhami
Mundher al-Adhami is a native of Baghdad, where his family still lives. A political activist, he went into exile during the regime of Saddam Hussein. He travels frequently to Iraq and the Middle East.