Iraq: accumulating failures

The year 2014 was anything but ordinary for Iraqis. Indeed, it was much like a long American movie, saturated with scenes of killing and destruction. The western and northern provinces of the country were turned into battlefields punctuated with the ceaseless banging of artillery and buzzing of fighter jets. In the heart of the misery are the floods of displaced families, carrying nothing but the modest cloths that shroud their bodies but are incapable of protecting them from the summer’s scorching heat and the winter’s freezing cold and rain. Women and children languish in the mountains in fear of a rocket that might fall on their heads, while the men keep their heads down to avoid a stray bullet.