Eternities ago on the Tigris and Euphrates
It will be interesting to see what the feelings of ordinary Iraqi citizens will be by the time Saddam finally reaches trial in Iraq.
He was hated, he was feared, his was a regime of those same knockings on doors in the night that marked the Hitler regime in Nazi Germany. But, like Hitler, he kept the trains running and if the train metaphor ran somewhat slowly, if the country’s middle class was increasingly impoverished, there was stability in expected shortages. The streets and markets and cafes were safe and men smoked and joked without fear of car bombs. Children played, women hung wash and dinner might have been simple, but it was served on time and the light in the dining room went on when the switch was pushed.
Iraq today is chaos. Water doesn’t run, power outages are constant and unexpected, sewers overflow, lines for five-cent-a-gallon gasoline are three miles long and most days there is none in a country floating on oil. Neighborhood explosions bring that heart-stopping omigod …