Now, as 5 years ago, a lack of jobs stands at the center of an Iraqi city's troubles

Five years ago this month, Paul Wolfowitz, then the U.S. Defense Department's second-ranking official, dropped in on this northern Iraqi city to take its temperature. He walked the streets, chatted with locals and came to a quick conclusion: The people here had grown impatient with post-invasion chaos.

"The biggest problem is people need jobs," Wolfowitz told an accompanying reporter, adding, "Some people (Iraqis) think that because we're the United States, we can fix things right away. We can't."

It seems he was right on both counts.

Lack of employment was a problem here in the earliest days of the post-invasion period, …