It could be worse

If I'm ever having a bad day one of the things I think about is that there are people who have it a lot worse and nothing comes to mind more then residents of Baghdad. Living in Baghdad under Saddam Hussein may not have been great since if you opposed his regime you had a chance of being imprisoned, tortured and even possibly killed, but as long as you stayed out of politics you would have a relatively peaceful life. Today, there are so many ways you can get killed. First there are death squads and milliats who want to kill you simply because you are Sunni Or Shia. Then of course you can try to get a job in the Iraqi army, police, or become involved in the Iraqi government where you will be a target to all kinds of insurgent and terrorists attacks. (check out some of the high casualty numbers for Iraqi civilians & police http://icasualties.org/oif/IraqiDeaths.aspx ) You can be a bystander in a car or suicide bombing which is basically a daily occurence in Baghdad. You can be a bystander in a shootout being American or Iraqi troops and insurgents. You can go a few miles per hour over the speed limit and pass by a US millitary checkpoint and get shot at because you're a suspected terrorist. You can try to cooperate and help the US millitary and many Iraqis will consider you a traitor and you become a candidate to get killed. You can try to help the insurgents but then you have a good chance of being captured or even killed by american troops. Of course you can also die the old fashioned from health problems and diseases since Baghdad area hospitals are understaffed and have much more pressing issues then dealing with someone who has a stroke. If you don't die at least you can enjoy the 100+ degree heat without air coditioning since you have only a few hours of electricy a day. So there is more freedom in Iraq now, freedom to die in so many different ways. So remember if you're ever having a bad day it could be a lot worse, you could be living in Baghdad.