Baghdad today is an “absolute mess,” she says. Inflation runs rampant — over 1,000 dinar to the U.S. dollar — and electricity shuts off frequently .
As for the future of Iraq, Rahman said Obama is on the right track by forcing an internal solution to the problem.
Fakhri is less optimistic. He says that only those with an education can build a country’s infrastructure, and most of the educated Iraqis — such as Fakhri himself, an engineer — have fled. That, or they’ve been killed, he says — like his cousin, an architect and professor who was found dead in the streets.