Inside Iraq

Not much celebrating as anniversary approaches

By Jane Arraf
CNN Middle East Correspondent

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Little celebration is planned in Baghdad for the anniversary of the start of the Persian Gulf war. Baghdad will come to a standstill on Tuesday. Iraqis will observe a moment of silence at 8 a.m. as everyone goes to work. Mosques and churches will hold special prayers and protesters plan a vigil outside the U.N. headquarters at 2:30 in the morning. That's the exact moment that the first bombs were dropped.

Transcripts Tenth anniversary of the Gulf War Chat Transcripts Peter Arnett: A look back at Operation Desert Storm Bernard Shaw: A look back on the 10th anniversary of the Gulf War    VIDEO Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre looks back at the air war and the lessons it holds for military leaders a decade later Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   RESOURCES In-Depth Special: The Unfinished War: A Decade Since Desert Storm   • Timeline   • Facts   • Video calendar   • Gulf war weapons info   ALSO Israelis-Palestinians set for more talks Tuesday despite a violent Monday Iraq-U.N. weapons talks postponed until after February CNN's Jane Arraf on changing attitudes in the Persian Gulf   ON CNN The hour-long documentary "The Unfinished War: A Decade Since Desert Storm" debuts on CNN at 10 p.m. ET and CNN International at 1500 GMT (times and additional airings).      QUICK VOTE Should sanctions on Iraq now be lifted? Yes No Scaled down but not lifted completely View Results

President Saddam Hussein appears to have survived three U.S. administrations since the Gulf War, and he will commemorate the anniversary of the Gulf War with a televised speech to the nation tomorrow. Iraq still officially says it won the war, because it stood virtually alone against the world's most powerful armies.

But here in Baghdad, it wasn't the sanitized war that most people saw on television. Everyone here remembers vividly what they were doing the day the battle began.

The al-Zarwa Amusement Park is a popular family destination

Ten years ago this week, Majid al-Ghazali would have been more likely to have been holding a gun than a viola. Like most young men here, he was in the army as Iraq and the U.S.-led coalition went to war.

"It's very, very, very difficult days," al-Ghazali says. "I was in al-Rashid camping and I saw the first bombing."

On Monday, al-Ghazali plays viola in Iraq's symphony orchestra. The orchestra is still struggling to recover.

The U.S. and its allies dropped tons of bombs on Baghdad. At night, there were air strikes. In the day, there were lines for gasoline, for food and for water.

You can find almost everything in the markets these days. Baghdad, a decade after the war, has come back to life. But a lot has changed in the past 10 years.

Families still come to the al-Zarwa Amusement Park with their children. But unlike their fathers, people like Basil Bani, who spent the war in the air force, no longer hope for a large family. "I am not plan to bring another children in because they're hard of life," Bani says.

In the army during the war, al-Ghazali now plays viola in Iraq's symphony orchestra.

In Old Baghdad, Um Sandus, a widow, supports her eight children by making shish kabob. Everyone who could left for the countryside during the bombardment. She and her family couldn't. "When the bombing started, we went to the shelter," she says in Arabic. "Then a missile hit nearby and we went back to our homes. We said, 'Let us die in our homes. It's better.'"

Iraqi leaders say they were prepared for the attack. But most Iraqis couldn't prepare for six weeks of war.

"No water, no eat, no everything," al-Ghazali says. "And we think it's the end of life on the Earth. But we say, 'Hamdallah, we can do the new life.'"

Some things have come full circle, though, including a new President Bush 10 years after the war that Iraqis still refer to as the "Bush War." The sound of traffic in downtown Baghdad is an indication that this city has come back to life.

Um Sandus supports her children by making shish kabob

That doesn't mean that the suffering is over; there are still a lot of people who are hungry and a lot of people who are sick. You can find almost everything in the markets; you can find computers, food, medicine when it's available. The problem is that the economy has been devastated and most people can't afford these things.

What Iraq also likes to point out is that support for the sanctions is crumbling. They began 10 years ago from a coalition of more than 30 states and complete support for sanctions against Iraq. After 10 years, a lot of that support has gone away. And there is more and more trading going on with almost all of Baghdad's neighbors, and, of course, the recognition that Iraq is again a major oil power at a time when oil is very much in everyone's minds.

People in Iraq have survived the sanctions, and are not counting on the U.N. to drop them or the U.S. to ease up. They say they'll continue to survive the sanctions if they have to.