If I didn't know better, I'd swear that Andrew Gilligan still has a job at the BBC writing headlines. How else would you explain a headline like Iraqi living standards 'plummet', with the clear implication that it's all the US's fault, when compared to the actual text of the article?
In 2004, a year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, some 22,000 households were questioned about their lives.
The study paints a "rather tragic situation of the quality of life", said Iraqi planning minister Barham Saleh.
He blamed the former regime, but the insecurity which has followed its fall is also seen as playing a key role.
. . .
It is highly likely that most households now have a lower real income than almost 25 years ago, said the report, entitled the Iraqi Living Conditions Survey 2004. [emphasis added]
Well, let's see. 25 years before 2004? That would be 1979. What happened in Iraq then? Hm, let me think.
Ah, yes. Now I remember.
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