Signs of Normality in Iraq

I started this blog nearly three years ago mainly in my frustration over what appeared to be endless war hatched and fostered by the most hateful government in memory. That government is quickly fading into the recesses of history, despite the best efforts of “Dead Eye” Dick Cheney and a few loudmouthed political pundits to remind us all of the bad old days over and over again.

I thought that in adding my voice to what was fast-becoming a mounting public outcry I was helping, somehow, to end the war.

And now, with America finally turned way from the party of the Dark Side, we are starting to see the stirrings of normality in Iraq.

Night clubs are open.

Whiskey is being served

And the prostitutes are back.

It all here on today’s New York Times.

“It is a long way from Sodom and Gomorrah, but perhaps part way back to the old Baghdad. The Baathists who ruled here from the 1960s until the American invasion in 2003 were secular, and more than a little sinful. Baghdad under Saddam Hussein was a pretty lively place, with street cafes open until 2 or 3 a.m., and prostitutes plying their trade even in the bowling alley of Al Rashid Hotel.

“Everything is going back to its natural way,” said Ahmed Assadee, a screenwriter who works on a soap opera. ”

The sheer irony of this situation is completely delicious, is it not? The war in Iraq was started by a God-fearing Christian administration that resulted in a sectarian backlash that was Shiite vs. Sunni, and now that things are settling down, sin is back in vogue.

And also appears to have the approval of local authority.

“One police detective said he would not dream of enforcing the law against prostitutes. ‘They’re the best sources we have,’ said the detective, whose name is being withheld for his safety. ‘They know everything about JAM and Al Qaeda members,’ he said, using the acronym for Jaish al-Mahdi or Mahdi Army a Shiite militia.”

“The detective added that the only problem his men had was that neighbors got the wrong idea when detectives visited the houses where prostitutes were known to live. They really do just want to talk, he said. “

“‘If I had my way, I’d destroy all the mosques and spread the whores around a little more,’ the detective said. ‘At least they’re not sectarian.’”

Thank God for that.