Where Things Stand: Violence in Iraq

Mar. 18, 2007 — -- Security is the single biggest issue for every Iraqi today. Many Iraqis get up in the morning and ask themselves whether they will make it through the day.

The sound of bombings and gunfire are a constant backdrop to everyday life, and everyone knows someone who has been touched by the violence.

In an ABC News/USA Today poll to be released on Monday, 86 percent of Iraqis fear that they themselves or a loved one will be a victim of violence.

"Whenever someone knocks on my door, I don't open it without my gun," one Sunni told ABC's Terry McCarthy.

"Everything we do to improve the lives of the Iraqis depends on stopping the violence, improving security," said Dan Senor, a former Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman said. "That really is the number one issue."

Senor added that there has been success in reducing the violence because of the surge in U.S. troops.

"You're not going to see that reflected in the opinion polls," he said. "Public opinion is a lagging indicator of what's going on. But that's easy to understand, because the last 12 months have been rocky ones for the Iraqis. They don't have the confidence yet that things can change."

Confidence in a safer future is a foreign concept for the millions of Iraqis living under the threat of daily attacks. Over the course of just 48 hours on Friday and Saturday, Iraqi civilians came under attack in Baghdad, Basra, Kirkuk and throughout Anbar province.

Kurdistan is the closest thing to a safe haven in Iraq. The northern region is relatively peaceful, but the fight to keep terrorists out still takes up a lot of time and energy. The Kurds have dug a six-foot ditch all around their largest city, Erbil, to stop car bombers from entering.

The second biggest problem -- linked to the lack of security -- is joblessness. Businessmen will simply not invest in an area that is unsafe, where anyone with money is an automatic kidnap target. The unemployment rate in Iraq is estimated to be between 25 percent and 40 percent -- which, in turn, provides plenty of angry young recruits for the insurgency.