Posted on 01/11/2005 8:08:19 PM PST by crushelits
BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the alleyways and streets near the main downtown Baghdad bus terminal, street merchants shouted loudly over the traffic and pedestrians. “Good quality products! Cheap prices! Come over and take a look!”
Iraqis lined up three-deep in order to glance at the merchandise. For their efforts they saw stacks of magazines, lotions, books, food, and shampoos — some new, some second hand — all American.
Ali Warrar, 35, took off his glasses and calmly said, “Not a dinar less than 750 (50 cents).”
His customer kept turning the military MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) packet over and over.
He finally offered Warrar 500 dinars.
Warrar put the bills in his pocket and started to straighten up his goods. His commodities came from Camp Victory, a military base near the Baghdad Airport. They came from the back of a truck — a garbage truck.
Garbage re-sold
Even as the level of violence is ratched up ahead of this month's election, Iraqis continue with their hardscrabble daily lives. For many, the coalition forces -- directly and indirectly -- provide a way of life.
Iraqi contractors, for example, remove all the garbage from U.S. military bases in Baghdad. The contractors sift through the refuge and pick out items that are new, nearly unused, or second hand.
In a warehouse district near Abu Ghraib prison, merchants, like Warrar, buy these items to resell them on the streets.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
They have good luck finding American products?
Good for them,I can only find Chinese stuff.
too bad the iraqi security forces aren't as creative as the bazaar vendors and shoppers.
these iraqis are living in a fantasy world. every damn last one of them ought to be cleaning up the mess in their own streets, their own people who make up the insurgency, to secure a future for themselves.
Viva free enterprise!
Excellent point.
So far, the Iraqi police and armed forces appear hopelessly inept.
I cite as an example how damned easy it is for these Islamofascists to drive a car bomb right up to a police station.
I realize that the training of Iraqi's security forces is a work in progress but your point remains well-taken.
The Iraqi security forces should spend as much time as much time being as creative as the bazaar vendors.
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