AP Has Gone Over The Top

[Annie]

Check out the headline. Notice everything was 'fine' until 3/03. Yeah, right:

Once a beauty, Baghdad bears many scars of war

Landscape marred by bullet holes, barricades, blasts
March 24, 2005
BY RAWYA RAGEH
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Baghdad, whose name means the "Garden of God," has fallen from grace.

Known for centuries as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, its landscape has been marred by concrete blast walls, barbed wire, steel barricades, sandbags and crumbling buildings pockmarked by bullet holes or ransacked by explosions.


Things have gotten so bad that the Iraqi capital has dropped to the bottom of a quality-of-life survey of 215 cities, conducted by the London-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting.


"We used to be under sanctions and the economic conditions were dire, but never was the city so ugly. Between the chopped trees and the burned houses, it's a total mess," said 61-year-old Fadhila Dawoud, a teacher who used to take her students on picnics along the banks of the Tigris River. Now they hold picnics in the school courtyard.


Once dubbed the "City of Peace," Baghdad was founded in the 8th Century by Caliph Abu Jafar al-Mansur as the capital for his rising Muslim Abbasid empire. The city soon became the heart of medieval Muslim civilization -- a mecca of arts, culture and architecture.


Forming half-circles on the two sides of the Tigris, the city's suburbs, parks, gardens, mosques and marble mansions earned it the reputation as the richest and most beautiful city in the world.


Since then, Baghdad has survived the 13th-Century mayhem inflicted on it by the Mongols, the 16th-Century marginalization by the Ottomans and two decades of war and sanctions under ousted President Saddam Hussein.


After the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, the city of 5 million became one large military barricade: Humvees and tanks roaming the streets, helicopters rattling above, checkpoints and soldiers everywhere....

 

[dilloduck]

I wonder if they would prefer the Hiroshima "look" ?

 

[musicman]

American BASTARDS!

 

[freeandfun1]

Landscape marred by bullet holes, barricades, blasts

I went to Berlin in 1985 and while there we were allowed to take a day trip into East Berlin. 40 years AFTER the end of WWII, there was still buildings with bullet holes in them, rubble and bombed out buildings. I wonder what the point of the article is (rhetorical question of course).

....one large military barricade: Humvees and tanks roaming the streets, helicopters rattling above, checkpoints and soldiers everywhere....

Sounds like Korea, Germany and parts of Japan up until the 90's.

 

[no1tovote4]

American BASTARDS!

You killed Kenny!

 

[Comrade]

Sounds like the only point in the artical is to prove that the editorial left prefer the country under quite subjugation, with unreported mass murders, unrevealed corruption at the U.N., and the backroom financing of terror to any free Democracy and the actual fighting that such revolution entails.

It's not like these guys were even on Saddam's payroll, er... at least most of the time. No, they just seem to adore totalitarian governments and the way everything is always so clean in the streets (after bums are hauled off and shot and forced state labour is initiated).

IMHO: Baghdad 2020 will be the Vegas of the Middle East.

 

[Comrade]

Once dubbed the "City of Peace," Baghdad was founded in the 8th Century by Caliph Abu Jafar al-Mansur as the capital for his rising Muslim Abbasid empire. The city soon became the heart of medieval Muslim civilization -- a mecca of arts, culture and architecture.

Once dubbed the "Religion of Peace", Islam was founded in the 7th Century by Prophet Muhammod as the religion for his rising Muslim empire. The religion soon became the heart of medieval Muslim civilization -- a mecca of arts, culture and architecture.

And like Baghdad, Islam also begs for the same sort of destructive transformation that will allow it to coexist with the 21st Century.