Baghdad family's woes far from Obama spotlight

There is a Baghdad that Sen. Barack Obama probably won't see.

It's places like the dirt strip that crosses under a highway and leads to a small home — and a couple and their six grown children seeking to move forward in a city where violence has eased but life for many remains mired in economic miseries and few opportunities.

"I want to believe that the future for Baghdad is now better, that we've turned a corner," said Abdul-Karim Sami, a reed-thin 60-year-old who once hobnobbed with Baghdad's elite as a tennis coach. "I truly want to believe that."

Then he ticks off the family's list of woes: food costs so high they have cut back on all but essentials; jobs so scarce his oldest son peddles trinkets on the street despite a university degree in economics; not enough money left over for a doctor visit or any emergency.

"I pray every day that nobody gets sick," Sami said.

Obama's visit to Iraq — the timing is being kept secret for security reasons — is expected to be brief and dominated by meetings with Iraqi officials and U.S. military commanders in the heavily guarded Green Zone.

Discussions about future U.S. troop withdrawals and the transition to Iraqi security control should be high on the agenda.

There likely will be less attention to other long-term challenges facing whoever next occupies the White House: how to help rebuild Iraq and lift an economy flattened by sanctions and war, but holding oil riches and potential paydirt for investors willing to gamble that security gains will stick.

Both Washington and Iraqi officials have shifted more resources toward reconstruction and development projects of all kinds. The U.S. military announced Friday the completion of a water pumping station south of Baghdad and an elementary school in eastern Baghdad. On Saturday, a groundbreaking ceremony was planned for a new hotel in the Green Zone.

Like many Iraqis, Sami and his family are impatient for some direct benefits to come their way.