You have to love the summers in Baghdad. Lots of sun, good for tanning, tea on the veranda at night as the cool desert winds blow through the city. Kids running through the streets chasing ice-cream trucks, their parents walking languidly behind them with the family dog on the way to the park to have a picnic or watch the kids swim at the pool.
Did I say Baghdad? Sorry, I meant every major North American city thousands of miles away from the hell on earth that Baghdad has become.
At least the new US Embassy boasts an nice swimming pool, not to mention…
“The complex will include two office buildings, one of them designed for future use as a school, six apartment buildings, a gym, a pool, a food court and its own power generation and water-treatment plants.
The residence of the U.S. ambassador to Iraq will be 16,000 square feet. The deputy chief of mission in Iraq will have a “cozy cottage” measuring 9,500 square feet.”
Throw in a Walmart and a Bed Bath And Beyond and everyone should feel right at home. Crank the air conditioning, put on some Christopher Cross, and just let your worries melt away.
The animals outside the walls needn’t know. After all, they’ve been waiting for power to be properly restored for five years now, they can wait a little longer…
“Simmering in the summer heat, Iraqis now have a dream called electricity.
It is a part of the bigger dream of reconstruction that collapsed. On all measurable levels, the infrastructure is worse than under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, even when it was crippled by the harshest economic sanctions in modern history.
Iraqis lack security, jobs, potable water, and these days when it really pinches, electricity.”
Frappuccino anyone?
