BAGHDAD, June 3 (IslamOnline.net) - With the Iraqi army dissolved by the U.S. occupation power, the once-proud 400,000 uniformed members are now struggling for life in tough conditions afflicting the war-torn country.

Few high-ranking officers of the army managed to cope with the new reality by selling their properties to feed their families. Many others could not.

Some turned to be taxi drivers, others tomato sellers, with not-so-bright prospects looming in the horizon.

As U.S. civil administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer has reportedly said that a new army will be formed by June with only 40,000 personnel to be included, many officers found themselves haunted by the ghost of unemployment and how to make ends meet.

“When the U.S.-British occupation forces trundled into Baghdad on April 9, I found no way but to fix my brother’s car and turn it into a taxi,” Ahmed, an army major told IslamOnline.net.

“We have had a good social status two months ago; now we are not,” he lamented.

Lieutenant Abdel-Qader was not a better case, although much clearer.

“I turned into selling fruits and tomatoes to provide a source of living for my five-member family,” he said in exclusive statements to IOL.

“I could not stand idle in my house at a time my family complain of poverty,” said the senior army officer.

Since the U.S. forces pushed into Baghdad and declared the ouster of Saddam Hussein, all of the government institutions and private business came into halt with widespread looting and thievery.

Two months later, the situation did not improve as many residents had hoped.

There is still poor security situation, chaos, lawlessness and anarchy.

No wonder thousands of sacked Iraqi officers and soldiers swarmed angrily around the U.S. administration headquarters, a former luxurious palace of Saddam, calling on the occupation forces to leave or face war.

Some 22 U.S. soldiers were killed by Iraqi gunmen in separate accidents that were mostly motivated by American provocations and anger over the occupation forces’ inaction to make a better life for the Iraqis as they had earlier promised.

Adding insult to the sacked Iraqi forces’ wounds, Bremer said in a news conference he sympathizes with the former officers’ plight, but would not be swayed by the threats.

“We’re not going to be blackmailed into producing (job) programs because of threats of terrorism,” Bremer said, adding the U.S. forces will “stay until the job is done.”