NO, REALLY, CRY ME A RIVER:
THULUIYA, Iraq — Less than a year ago, Ismael Mohammed Juwara lived high in the food chain of President Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He was a secret policeman feared and respected among his comrades and in his hometown, enjoying a cornucopia of privileges from the government.
Now, as he scrapes out a living by selling diesel fuel illegally, he is a pariah in the new Iraq. “We were on top of the system. We had dreams,” said Juwara, a former member of the Mukhabarat, the intelligence service that reported directly to the now-deposed president.
There’s nothing wrong with looking into why anti-American forces feel this way, though there’s also not much news here — former swaggering thugs resent loss of status! — really.
But I agree with Captain Ed that the absence of any attention to the moral component here makes this Post story by Daniel Williams a bit iffy.