Bled dry, Marsh Arabs retaliate

http://www.chicagotribune.com ^ | June 13, 2003 | Paul Salopek

[BCrago66]

HAWR AL HAMMAR, Iraq -- It's 100 degrees at noon, the hour when the sky itself seems to melt into chrome-colored lakes--rippling pools that shimmer like mirrors in the vast salt pans of southern Iraq. These days, however, those liquid sheets of light are no mirage. They are real water--and one of the most poignant symbols of liberation since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

[BCrago66]

"Thanks be to Allah for giving our water back!" declared grinning old Mutashir, one of thousands of nomads displaced by Hussein's cataclysmic reclamation projects. His dingy robes flapping about him, he hugged himself with his scrawny arms and added, "Thanks be to George Bush!"

____________

There are so many stories on liberation in the media right now, once you get past the NY Times. (And even in the Times, one correspondent - John Burns is the name if I remember right - is quite good.)

[Blood of Tyrants]

There is a tremendous amount of handwringing going on among the "environmentalists" that the Marsh Arabs "aren't doing it right" although nobody has any experience at all at restoring 7,000 square miles of marshland.

Personally, I say let it go. The Earth is adept at healing herself.

[Coroner]

"Thanks be to Allah for giving our water back"
I did'nt know muslims worshipped America!!!

[DeepDish]

BINGO!

The last thing, and one which would destroy our credibility with the
Marsh Arabs, would be to let in a bunch of these so called environmentalists to
jostle the elbows of the locals. Leave them be on their land and loan them a dozer
when they decide a levee or dike should be cut and things will turn out just
fine. They've lived in those marshes since gilgamesh was wearing short pants.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The reeds will be back quickly but it will be years before the fish return in any numbers. A fish hatchery for local varieties of fish would go far to make friends.

[PoorMuttly]

When Freedom rings...it's BEAUTIFUL!!!