Flying over Baghdad. If you look closely you can see satellite dishes on every house in Baghdad. Taken from a Blackhawk helicopter by Dan Rice April 2005. One of the most fundamental long term changes in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad is the new free flow of information. Nearly every building or mud hut has a satellite dish and access to worldwide information. With this new freedom though comes some adjustments. Now Iraqis in the south learn when an Iraqi in the north is killed. Under the closed society of Saddam there was no information flow- which has obvious trade-off's- one of them is that "ignorance is bliss." Now all Iraqis are overwhelmed with information and choices, and many of them are unprepared for this new information age. They also have internet access, which has connected disenfranchised teens and potential terrorists with networks throughout the radical Islamic world. The free flow of information has helped spread democracy but with it comes some signficant downsides to US national security.