BAGHDAD, Iraq -- They sweated for hours in the searing heat. Many were grim-faced, some resentful, even angry. There was talk of revenge, and no hint of gratitude.
"Do you see our humiliation?" said Abu el-Hakim, a colonel in Saddam Hussein's defeated army, as he stood in a long line of fellow officers to collect a one-time $100 payment from U.S. coalition authorities.
"These Americans only deserve our rocket-propelled grenades, nothing else," he said, referring to the weapon of choice of Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. troops.
Iraq's U.S.-led administration speaks with confidence about the country's future: democratic rule, a vibrant economy and an active civil society. But many in this Arab nation of 24 million people are unable to look that far ahead, still caught up in the bitterness and heartache that came with defeat.
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