Iraq: Ten years later

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Associated Press photographer Maya Alleruzzo spent four years in Iraq during the height of the war there. She recently returned, 10 years after America first invaded, to visit the places she and her colleagues had previously photographed. Her new photos all contain a shot of the original ones, and the contrast between them says much about what has and hasn’t changed since the war began.

The pedestal that once supported an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein is now empty save for bent iron beams, as if no one has quite decided what to replace the statue with. A sidewalk looks identical, except for an orphan child who once sat there distraught on a filthy scrap of cloth.

The most notable absence in the current photographs is of American soldiers. Today, for better or worse, Iraqis are on their own.