NYT: Iraqis See the Little Things Fade Away in War’s Gloom

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Basma al-Khateeb, a 47-year-old mother of three, shook her head sadly at the familiar tale. “We never dreamed it would be like this,” she said.

Ms. Khateeb, who runs a program for youths at the center, said she missed the very simple pleasures that gave life its texture.

“Walking. Riding a bicycle down the street. We gave up so many things we used to do,” she said. “Now we call them accessories.”
...
Life was also hard under Saddam Hussein, the women pointed out. Plans were equally impossible to build. But the basic fabric of life, visiting family, attending weddings and funerals, was for the most part intact. Now Iraqis are letting go even of those parts.

...A stanza by her favorite poet, Muhammad al-Jawahiri, runs constantly in (Hana Edwar's) mind.
“Oh open-handed Tigris!” it says. “Our ambitions have fallen so low that even the simplest among them is not promised.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/world/middleeast/29iraqwomen.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

[Eric J in MN]

1. American conservatives being given free reign

...to do whatever they want to a country, created a hell.