Saturday, October 11, 2003
Possibly the most heartening news you'll read from Iraq is in the Washington Post: 'A Gift From God' Renews a Village. Few arguments for deposing Saddam are as moving as what he did to the environment and inhabitants of the marshes of southern Iraq. I probably would have supported the war on the basis of this alone.
After the decade Saddam spent trying to destroy a way of life that goes back thousands of years, the flow of water into the marshes has resumed - there isn't nearly enough there yet to restore them, but it is a vital start.
And there are some Iraqis who most certainly will not despise us:
"Everyone is so happy," Kerkush said as he watched his son stand in a mashoof and steer it like a gondolier with a long wooden pole. "We are starting to live like we used to, not the way Saddam wanted us to live."
After the decade Saddam spent trying to destroy a way of life that goes back thousands of years, the flow of water into the marshes has resumed - there isn't nearly enough there yet to restore them, but it is a vital start.
And there are some Iraqis who most certainly will not despise us:
"Everyone is so happy," Kerkush said as he watched his son stand in a mashoof and steer it like a gondolier with a long wooden pole. "We are starting to live like we used to, not the way Saddam wanted us to live."
