[Kat]
Hat Tip Mudville Gazette
Iraq has 12-16 million date palms. This is down from 30 million in the pre-Saddam times but it still makes Iraq the world’s largest producer of dates. In Western Anbar, however, dates are not producing properly this year. Dennis and I did a local check out in the grove in our oasis and could not find even one producing tree. We are trying to figure out how the extent of the problem why it is happening and what Iraqis can do about it. Last year’s crop was good. Even a partial failure of the date crop would be a big problem, so we are very interested is making accurate assessments.
Cultural Lesson 101 Afghanistan
We slowly walk through the compound when “Chief Gordon,” the Police Chief, takes us past his kitchen area. His boys were cutting the lamb carcass that was hanging from the corner of the conex box. I thought “that’s funny; they left the skin on because it was a black lamb.” But as we came closer and he hacked the meat off, only then did I realize that it was completely covered in flies and they would buzz off for the seconds he cut the meat away and then settled back down onto the meat.
Back in Iraq, Sadr City is slowly recovering.
And this headline from Instapundit again: In Iraq, Muscle Is a Growth Industry
But the real horror of the Iraq war as it trudges wearily towards closing: Nothing but speedos in Sadr City
The name "Sadr" and "speedos"...
Anyone got a Brillo pad I can scrub my mind with?
But after nearly four years of continuous fighting, the area is now one of the safest in the country. as a result of increasingly sophisticated counterinsurgency techniques and close co-operation between the Iraqi and American armies. The success here may be a model for Iraqi-U.S. Army cooperation in the future, and many American commanders in the region attribute a large part of the success to "General Ali's" skill as a professional soldier. "He has been here from the beginning," says Lieutenant Colonel William Zemp, the U.S. commander of a unit that works daily with General Ali's men, "The pacification of this area is his struggle, it is his story."
Ahhh...that's better. The way the media keeps reporting good news these days, you might get the idea that the surge was working. Or, something.
UPDATE: Oops, I think they made a typo -
his uncompromising belief that the future of Iraq must be non-secular. A Shi'a, he is married to a Sunni, and one of his sons is named Omar, a distinctively Sunni name.
I think they either meant "non-sectarian" or "secular". I guess that's what happens when you're out of practice reporting good news. You know what they say, "Use it or lose it."
1 Comments