The living conditions statement is very critical to this piece of work although I don t agree with the assessment that the Iraqis liv ed in squalor most of their lives Throughout the 60 s 70 s and 80 s Iraq was considered a first world nation with their currency exchange rate about US 3 22 to 1 Iraqi Dinar throughout the 70 s and 80 s Immediately after the war in 2003 the exchange rate had flipped to be about 1 600 Iraqi Dinar to one US dollar or 0 000625 per dinar This is a devaluation of over 5 000 This is not politics this is verifiable fact Many Arab Iraqis in predominately Sunni areas feel that their lives under Saddam s rule was much better than it is now and living conditions are most often cited as the reason why For the US Marines sent to live in FOB s in areas like this it is irresponsible to report on the incident without citing the causes and triggers that allowed a situation such as this to develop and eventually occur In the US we treat individuals who are incarcerated for heinous crimes to a better standard of living than we do to the men and women who volunteer to work for the military and get sent to hostile places to work This also is not politics but fact The standard of living on a small FOB in a hostile territory is quite low extreme heat massive amounts of dirt sand that permeate everything lack of running water and poor sanitation lack of recreation high casualty rates among their friends lack of adequate medical care and a host of other factors all contribute to a resentment that develops toward the people of Iraq and toward the establishment that sent them there in the first place These factors are critical to understanding why this situation happened If we don t answer the why then what s the point of an encyclopaedia