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Article: Baghdad out of order.
- Article from:
- The Progressive
- Article date:
- September 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Progressive, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Scenes from Baghdad, late May and June. On a field in the Jihad neighborhood is every little boy's fantasy. Several dozen abandoned Iraqi tanks lie beside bushes and palm trees. their treads do not work, so they are immobile, but they have plenty of ammunition. Fifty feet away are mud houses, with cows lying beneath the shade of a tree. A group of local boys deftly avoids the cluster bombs on the ground and climbs on the tanks.
Eleven-year-old Ali and his friends are timid at first, afraid they will incur punishment if they admit to having frolicked amidst the tanks. A dollar encourages them to proudly demonstrate their familiarity with the field and the location ...