BS: Notes From Iraq

Subject: RE: BS: Notes From Iraq
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 12:03 PM

Like folks everywhere, I think that the Iraqis are most interested in getting on with living.

Subject: RE: BS: Notes From Iraq
From: Amos
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 11:28 AM

The above, as the following, is from the Mercury News, San Jose:

"As the afternoon wears on, three friends watch the crowd filling the rooftop Dream Land Cafe in the upscale Zayouna neighborhood of Baghdad. Sultan Amjad, Harith Muthana and Marwan Walid, all 18, have known each other since grade school.

They spent the early afternoon eyeing girls outside a junior high, trying to attract attention with little luck.

"We will come next Thursday and do it again. We will never give up until we get girlfriends," Walid said.

Cars are their other passion: Amjad's father owns a car shop, and he often regales his friends with photos, snapped on his mobile phone, of fancy cars for sale.

By 4 p.m., the friends are on the street, dickering with a merchant over a pair of flip-flops, then heading for an Internet cafe.

"We'll go online and find some girls to chat with," Walid says.

But the Internet place is packed. Still boasting of their plans, the three head home."

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Some things never change.


A

Subject: BS: Notes From Iraq
From: Amos
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 11:25 AM

It is always smart not to depend too much on third-hand information, such as is found in headlines.

Some telling vignettes from inside the boundaries of the strange jungle of Iraq:

"The sky is still dark when Mohammed Khallaf, his wife Fadhila, and their 12 children begin to stir Thursday in their small house in the Shiite slum of Sadr City. First come the morning prayers, then the dash to school and work.

In the chaos of a big family, the shoes of the youngest boy, 9-year-old Yahya, cannot be found, bringing shouts and suspicions from the father.

Eventually, the boy admits he threw the shoes on the roof. No shoes, no school, he figured. On Thursday, he has science and he does not like his teacher.

With the shoes down, the children finally off to school and the oldest sons - ages 28 and 23 - off to jobs, Fadhila and her older daughters settle into their morning chores: washing dishes, washing clothes, cleaning the house."

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Most people try to live and move forward, no matter how trying their circumstances.

A