These days, Iraq is not a promising place for its young people. On holidays, Baghdad's Azura Park is jammed with picnicking families, but the carnival rides are rusty and old. The workers feed it pigeons. But families now heed health warnings about a river where raw sewage is dumped because treatment plants lack spare parts. Half of all work-age Iraqis are unemployed.
Mothers sell part of their monthly food rations to buy other necessities.
Thanks to their oil, Iraqis once enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the Mideast. Moral breakdown Diplomats warn of a breakdown of Iraq's moral fabric. Many Iraqi professionals have left and gone abroad. Tragically but inevitably, youngsters have suffered the brunt of Iraq's problems. Repeatedly, visitors are shocked by how small the children are.