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| Iraq |
| An Iraq City Without Security Problems, and With a Promising Future |
| 2004-01-01 |
| Iraq the Model Blog Friday, December 26, 2003 Our correspondent in Samoa sent us this report. They call their city the city of peace and it sure deserves this name. Samoa hasn’t seen a single terrorist attack since the 9th of April. Its people have secured their institutions from looting, they protected the hospitals and important government buildings. The only exception was the military camps, some government buildings and the regional ba’ath headquarters, which were, stripped even of their bricks to remain as ruins reminding them of the miserable past. Samoa is about 300 km to the south west of Baghdad; it’s a large governerate that shares wide borders with Saudi Arabia. Its people mainly are farmers, it’s well known by it’s palm dates which an Iraqi poet wrote a beautiful poem about it that became a popular song, very simple people in general and very optimistic. I’ve been working there for more than a month, which was enough to make some conclusions about the city in particular, and the south of Iraq in general. Samoa as many other cities in the south of Iraq had it’s deal of sufferings, pain and intended neglect, hence its people were very happy with the change I felt that through my daily contact and conversations with the people of the city. Till now I haven’t found a single person who is against the change, something very different from Baghdad were you still find some people rise their voices in complain, and missing the (good old days). Too good to be true? No, the Japanese are setting up there. The Dutch already have. What are they doing right? |
| Posted by:Vlad the Muslim Impaler |
| #1 I'd disagree that the Japanese and the Dutch are the reason behind the peace in Samoa. I think its more likely they're there because its a peaceful region. Most of our "coalition" partners are only willing to provide reconstruction and humanitarian aid, so they end up in places where there are no hotspots and unrest. If you look at the non Iraqi reconstruction deaths, 95% have been American, whereas only 75% of the soldiers in Iraq are American. |
| Posted by: RussSchultz 2004-1-1 10:19:17 PM |