Volume 14 Issue 3
I Was Uday Hussein
The hand that rocks the oil pumps controls the world. Between 1979 and 2003, that hand was Saddam Hussein's. He would also use it to sign death warrants on dissenters, to murder his own countrymen, and to plot disastrous wars with neighboring countries.
Little Iraq
I have two cousins that live in Iraq. Sara is 15 years old and Dani is 13. They both live in the al-Yarmouk district of Baghdad, which locals have christened "the streets of death" due to the constant attacks and random violence that plagues the area.
Vice Pictures
Photos by Kevin Smith, Christoph Bangert & Yobert Younan"I'm in the US army and I was in Iraq from April 2005 to January 2006 training
Bird's-eye On Baghdad
Keeping up with the daily, nightly, weekly, and yearly suicide bombs and gunfights and political machinations in Baghdad neighborhoods with names like "Makes-No-Sense" and "Complicated-to-Read" is starting to confuse us.
Pictures Of Clerics On My Bedroom Wall
This is a Basra street vendor who sells posters of Shia holy figures. About 60 percent of Iraqis are Shia, and about a third of that percentage are super-duper into it. These hardcore little gangs run the show in Iraq.
Doctor Doom
Thirty years ago, Iraq's health care system was one of the most stellar in the Middle East. It was devastated by repeated conflicts and 13 years of embargo, and the invasion destroyed anything that was left
Life In Hell
Running for your life from fundamentalist bandits, helplessly watching innocent women being shot in the street, and car-bomb explosions that shatter your bedroom window. Just another humdrum day in the life of a student in Baghdad.
You Can't Go Home Again
Mostafa Alshawi fled from Iraq to Sweden with his family when he was three. 20 years later he returned to his home country. He's a proud member of the Shia Islamic clan of the fishermen in Iraq, and in Sweden he is enrolled in the Police Academy.
Baghdad Brothel
Allah never smiled on street walking. Under Iraq's former Baathist regime, being a prostitute was seriously risky business.
Counterfeit Iraqi
For many years, I've known this guy who makes counterfeit documents. He's not the only one in Iraq doing it, but he's one of the best. He can fake anything from a passport to a visa.