There are rich and poor everywhere

Yahoo! News - Plush palace is 'sickening'
Soldiers from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division took over Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s original palace Monday and found themselves more angered by its opulence than the pathetic few gunmen guarding the site.

This article does not fill me with national pride. Neither do photos of US troops lounging in Saddam's armchairs. An American reporter could visit the homes of the Bush, Clinton, or Gates families (pick one based on your own politics, my point won't change) and do the same story. "How dare they be rich when so many people live in poverty?"

I like to think there is a difference between Iraq and the United States. (Drinkable running water being perhaps one of the most important and least obvious.) This article doesn't reassure me that that is true. I wonder if it is meant to.