Stress Relief II

I know I'm not a warblogger, but the posting below may seem unusually non sequiturish. But I was watching The Straight Story last night and didn't know the war had started.

What I was thinking yesterday, and didn't post, was my hope. Twenty years from now, God willing and the creek don't rise (which is how Southern Ohioans say inshallah), we'll all be going to Baghdad in the spring. Under its democratic government, it will once again become one of the great cradles of civilization. The place will be so beautiful that no Scherazade could possibly describe it, though the huge number of poets, songwriters, musicians and artists among the populace will keep attempting to try. Some of the city's immigrants will be celebrating Norooz, the Persian New Year, though many will have gone back to visit family in Kurdistan or Iran, Iraq's close allies and agemates in democracy. But everyone will be feasting and vacationing. They can afford to take a few days off, since their economy will be growing in leaps and bounds. Mosques (Shia and Sunni) and churches and synagogues will flourish everywhere. Everyone will have a garden and a fountain, or at least a park nearby, and the people of Baghdad will be notorious for speaking their minds whenever they feel like it.

If we do this right.

God willing and the creek don't rise.