Baghdad Neighborhood's Hopes Dimmed by the Trials of War

But the problems go beyond the dilapidation of the electrical grid under Hussein, the unplanned-for insurgent sabotage that regularly undoes repairs, and myriad other difficulties.

Rather than being centrally controlled, the flow of power throughout Iraq is allocated by switches at hundreds of substations across the country, the U.S. official said. Without a strong central government to enforce compliance, substations at times balk at sharing electricity, and the Shiite Muslim south and Kurdish north cut the flow to Baghdad.

As a result, the official said, not only are Baghdad's homes and businesses robbed of power but the city's leaky water system continually runs dry and its purification plants face contamination.

A similar web of problems has plagued Iraq's oil industry. Insurgent attacks, artificially low prices and unchecked smuggling have helped cripple American plans to make Iraq self-sufficient through its oil industry. Iraq exported 1.46 million barrels a day in August, down from July, and down from the 2 million barrels a day before the U.S.-led invasion.

Insurgent attacks at the end of August shut down the main pipeline from the northern oil fields just as it was being brought back on line after attacks blocked exports for most of 2004. The shutdown came as Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast and world oil prices jumped to more than $70 a barrel.

Iraq, holder of the world's second-largest oil reserves, earlier this month instituted gas rationing, allowing each vehicle in Baghdad onto the streets only every other day. Heads of households struggled to get themselves to work and their children safely to school.

By the end of that week, rationing briefly overtook security and electricity as Baghdad residents' main topic of complaint in a summer that was too hot, too dark and too dangerous.

Mixed Feelings

Americans, and the rest of the world, frequently compared the chaos in New Orleans this month to the situation in Baghdad. But New Orleans didn't look that way a month ago. And three years ago, neither did Baghdad, Karrada's people said.

"We used to have electricity," said Emad, the university student. "We used to have water."

"Entertainment," interrupted Emad Mahdi, a driver for a government ministry who was with her.

"We used to be able to walk in the streets with our heads high, not afraid," Emad said. What happened in New Orleans -- the contrast between official words and deeds -- should give the world a better idea of the U.S. performance in Baghdad, she said.

"They failed there, they failed here," Emad added angrily. "Americans should take a lesson from what Americans have done for three years in Iraq."

"In the States now, everyone wants to help, but here -- everyone forgets about us," said Saif Ali, a 27-year-old merchant with a mobile phone shop two doors down from Mohammed's lighting store.

Like many heads of households in Baghdad, Ali awakes three or four times each night to switch generators and appliances off and on. One of his aunts has spent the summer lingering between life and death -- one of seven members of his family injured by bombs, he said.

Across Iraq, many people express shared sentiments about the past. They are happy that Hussein and his repressive regime are gone, but they are nostalgic for the safety, the lights and the other elements of normal life of that time.

Their thoughts about the future vary widely. Ali, like many Shiites now assured of power by their majority status under Iraq's version of democracy, is hopeful.

But their thoughts about the present are uniform.

"We can't think about how bad it is," Ali said.