Posted on 04/23/2018 10:42:18 PM PDT by Cronos
WHISKY is back on the tables in Mosul, one of Iraq’s biggest cities. Until last year, boozing was punishable with 80 lashes...Families queue at restaurants on the banks of the Tigris. There is not a niqab, or face-veil, in sight.
...Now Iraq, home to nearly 40m people, is righting itself.
.. About 45,000 Sunnis mustered alongside the Shia-led Hashd al-Shaabi, or “popular mobilisation units”. And millions of Sunnis fled the would-be caliphate to seek refuge in Kurdish and Shia cities.
Religious minorities feel safer, too. Over 70% of the 100,000 Christians who fled to Kurdistan have returned to their homes on the Nineveh plains, says Romeo Hakari, a Christian parliamentarian in Erbil. Sunnis from Mosul joined Chaldean Catholics to celebrate mass at their church in Bakhdida, whose icons IS used for target practice.
There has been a striking backlash against organised Islam. Mosque attendance is down. Although Sunnis are rebuilding their homes in Falluja, the minarets and domes in the city once known as “the mother of mosques” lie abandoned and ruined. “Only old men go to pray,” explains a 22-year-old worker mixing cement. Designer haircuts and tracksuit tops are the latest male fashion, because IS banned them. “Our imams radicalised us with IS and terror but refuse to admit it,” says a Sunni final-year student at Tikrit University with a bouffant hairdo.
Secularism is making inroads even in the holy city of Najaf, the seat of Iraq’s ayatollahs, which has thrived on Shia pilgrimage since the American invasion. The new public library at the golden-domed shrine of Imam Ali includes sizeable collections of Marx’s tracts and non-Muslim scriptures. Shia clerics who until recently banned Christmas trees and smashed shop windows displaying love-hearts on Valentine’s Day now let them pass.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
Girls died? Link please.
I included girls,or women, at my age anything younger than 40 is a girl. Also included females out of respect because I am sure some died over there. I personally don’t believe women should be in a combat zone but I’m old and old fashion in certain ways.
correct. But you need to see that the roots of gulf war TWO and 9/11 are due to Bush senior being played by the Sauds and Kuwaitis in 1991
American soldiers were exemplary. Our politicians were not....
Less Religion is something I can get behind.
Saddam was insane in 2002 but he didn’t threaten the world then. He barely threatened his own country
Actually, I meant that BushClinton Uniparty DeepState contrived to invade Iraq for power games, monetary and anti Christian reasons. Ask Pres Jacque Chirac, who had to hire a Biblical expert to decipher what George W meant when he told him they had to invade Iraq because of “Gog and Magog” so they could game the Biblical prophecies that they thought had to do with Iraq. Iraq of course, is ancient Babylon.
Ye shall know them by their fruit.
The fruit of the Iraq War is Christian genocide.
I always knew that turning the corner in Iraq was going to be a long-term enterprise. A couple of decades at least.
Shame on George W. for not telling the American people the same.
Agree 100%.
Same thing has happened in varying degrees in almost every war and conflict where politicians and bureaucrats are involved.
Prime Example: Generalisimo Lyndon Baines Johnson personally directing military strategy and maneuvers in Vietnam.
The Military goes to war to prevail and defeat the enemy on the battlefield.
Politicians usually (but not always) become embroiled in military conflicts and outright war in pursuit of political ambitions.
Prime Example: Onbama's and Hillary's "Arab Spring", their Benghazi gun running, and subsequent coverup of the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and CIA operatives, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
Tell that to Iran and Kuwait
This is northern Iraq. Not to be confused with southern Iraq, which is crazy as a coyote on LSD.
Good article. No mention of the havoc reaped when 0bama had our troops pulled out early. The article did pay homage to Saddam and his ability to keep the country together and well run. Killed a lot of folks in the process though.
Yes, they don’t ever die for nothing. All who fight evil are holding back the tide until Armageddon and they all have the “greatest love.” Give your son a BIG welcome home hug from me.
I saw it.
I lived through it.
Including the start of it all which was the idiocy of U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie
who told Saddam Hussein that the USA hd no opinion on the issue of a possible Iranian invasion of Kuwait.
His kids put people through tree branch choppers. Feet first. He was wack.
Iraqi Kurds.
The fruit of the Iraq war was a liberal democracy compared to a harsh an oppressive dictator who killed at whim.
The genocide of Kurds and Christians was well underway under Saddam, and continued when our glory boy pulled the security out from under the fledgling republic of IRQ. You paint with a wide brush- as do most Bush haters. The direct cause pf the recent disaster in IRQ was and will be squarely on Obama.
True, but he was still better than what came later (AlQ, IzState etc) and especially for Christians
That woman was an idiot. Saddam would have been open to quietly pulling out (saving face), but later, after the deed was done, he could NOT pull out or he would lose face and lose power shortly.
This is all thanks to the Izlamik state who were very good at telling people the truth about Mohammadenism
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.