Back Then in Baghdad … And Now?

On the seventh anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a remembrance of what once was.

March 10, 2010

Smoke billows from burning trenches filled with oil in Baghdad March 22, 2003. (Photo by Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)

Back then. way before all this bloodshed and carnage and butchery. When there were no sirens and riots and bombs, and the lipsticked, powdered, mascaraed and coiffed women sauntered down pavements on bright red stilettos and the men came up to me, grabbed my elbow and demanded to escort me across busy intersections, I wandered the avenues and alleys and cul de sacs and shopped in the souk and ate late cream- and sugar-heavy breakfasts with the civil servants in brightly lit, music-booming cafes and sat by the Tigris and watched young Iraqis flying kites and old Iraqis reading newspapers and discussing the local and national politics and listened to the “English TV News for Foreigners.”

Snip

Back then there was one criminal, one persecutor, and everyone knew who. Everyone knew he was a monster, an undisguised devil, the evil spirit capable of crippling a strong and hearty people. But the man driving the bus, the woman cleaning the floor, the shopkeepers and secretaries and clerks and travel agents—the everyday-go-to-work-and-come-home people, carried on eating their freshly grilled, succulent samak masgouf fish spiced with salt, pepper and tamarind by the lights of the bonfires dotted along the banks of the ancient Tigris river. The school children toted their homework-laden knapsacks back and forth, day after day, and the librarians stamped books in and stamped books out, and young lovers held hands in the dark movie halls, and the wives and mothers and spinsters—some of them unveiled, some of them kitted out in brightly colored hot pants and tight sleeveless tops hidden by black-sheeted abayas—exchanged gossip on the street corners and over back walls. And the men—those who were not in the army—walked the streets in their three-piece suits, sporting watch chains and carrying their black shiny briefcases specially imported from Kuwait.

That was then, and this is now. ->->->->