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| Iraq |
| Three things they want in Najaf, besides water |
| 2003-04-03 |
| From the NY Times, of all places....shortened to just the first few paragraphs....... In the giddy spirit of the day, nothing could quite top the wish list bellowed out by one man in the throng of people greeting American troops from the 101st Airborne Division who marched into town today. What, the man was asked, did he hope to see now that the Baath Party had been driven from power in his town? What would the Americans bring? "Democracy," the man said, his voice rising to lift each word to greater prominence. "Whiskey. And sexy!" Around him, the crowd roared its approval. Hmm....sure beats the hell out of France's "liberte, egalite, fraternite", doesn't it??? |
| Posted by:Former Russian Major |
| #3 Taro, this is from LTSMASH's site (he's in Kuwait and was watching satellite w/some locals): ..Switched to BBC. The anchor announced that the port city of Umm Qasr had been secured, and would be receiving humanitarian supplies within days. âSir, is it true,â they asked me, âis Umm Qasr secured?â âThatâs what he said.â âCan we go there?â This puzzled me. âWhy would you want to go there?â âDancing girls! Beer!â Then it hit me â Umm Qasr is a border town. For these men, it holds memories of a different time, a time before war, when they could travel freely to Iraq, and do all the things not allowed in their own country. Umm Qasr is their Tijuana. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-04-04 01:12:41 |
| #2 Tokyo Taro has it wrong. Baghdad was renowed for free flowing liquor, Philippino prostitutes, and was a secular state, thou shall have no other god than Saddam. American films and music were widely sold. The most popular club was the Rashid disco. Its obvious you've never been there. |
| Posted by: TJ Jackson 2003-04-04 00:49:37 |
| #1 We need to tread lightly here. All of us want to see a liberal society in Iraq, and many of the Iraqis themselves would be overjoyed to help us create one. But there are definitely conservative elements in Iraq, some of them (Shiite clerics) are on our side too for the time being. Iraq may be more secular than Saudi Arabia but we cannot ignore that there are old-fashioned religious and social conservative elements in that society and if Iraqis start drinking beer, opening dance clubs and walking around in shorts, t-shirts and sunglasses, we may be sewing the seeds of a backlash and pushing others into the Ansar al-Islam camp or the Iranian Shiite camp. Gotta take it slowly. Baywatch and MTV should not be the first things American to reach the newly liberated. |
| Posted by: Tokyo Taro 2003-04-03 22:17:36 |