Life In Baghdad

Hey all - just started reading the latest Iraqi reports, and thought I would link a few into here. Still as depressing as ever, but it's not going away, so have to write about it sometimes. This is a good one, from the San Francisco Chronicle, detailing the Iraqi reaction to all the chaos. And on a similar slant, this is from a BBC reporter, from the Western foreign viewpoint. Both as depressing as each other actually - did the Viet Cong target journalists and non military foreigners in that war?



And don't others find it ironic that Saddam's Presidential compound, that was supposedly the heart of evil when he was the boss, suddenly got new owners and was called the Green Zone, centre of all that was supposedly sweetness and light in Iraq? I don't think the 'landlord' - population of Iraq - is happy with either tenant LOL. And yes, Afghanistan is still unsecure and everything, but people are still flowing back into the country - with Iraq they are wanting to leave.



Oh, and this is a worrying development - well, at least as worrying and developing as the whole US mission in Iraq already was. A platoon refusing to do a supply mission because they thought it was suicide - the trucks they would have been driving were not armoured or something. Morale must be going through the floor for the US Army and Marines with this coming out so publicly.



There are and will be no winners in this conflict, it appears.



Oh, and this one - I linked a report a few days ago about a restaurant in Fallujah being bombed, and here is confirmation apparently, in amongst a wider report of how that city is doing - 'Falluja's most popular kebab restaurant used to be the place to go at the end of the day to break the Ramadan fast - but that was bombed by the Americans this week.'



US troops are dying and starting to disobey orders, Western foreign non military workers are either being kidnapped or are too afraid to leave the Green Zone, Iraqi civilians are bearing the brunt of the bombings and insurgency from both sides of the conflict, the insurgents are dying as well, but the religious ones especially have their God to save them. No winners, none at all.



That's enough depression for just now - will try and find some good or at least non-Iraq news for my next post...

Paul