We've all seen John F. Burns on television - his grizzled afro and beard an affront to well-coiffed newscasters everywhere. He is one of the few reporters I have trusted in Iraq. He seems to be taking leave of the scene, at least for now, and I rejoice that he has survived the chaos.
Even in the midst of war, certain bonds to normal life remain - such as the link between humans and cats.
Mr. Burns tells an eloquent tale of how the link between cat and man nourished both, during a time of war.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
I will not attempt to describe the intimate relationship of the dwellers in John F. Burns's compound with the cats, save to say that the cats became increasingly important to the residents. Lacking veterinary services, many cats perished of disease - none could be neutered. There was an ethical dilemma in feeding cats inside the compound - and yet, those outside the compound were fated to short lives, often killed by feral dogs.
Eventually, Burns decided to rescue four cats, to take back to England. This required quite a bit of paperwork. The cats would have to spend months in quarantine in England, and the Iraqi bureaucracy was uncooperative, as well. Finally, when Burns arrived at Baghdad airport with his cage of cats, he sank, exhausted, to the floor while waiting for his flight to England.
A small crowd of Iraqis had gathered, and one among them, a middle-aged man who introduced himself as a physician traveling to Jordan to see his ailing mother, knelt down beside me and asked, in halting English, if I’d mind a question. By all means, I said. "Well then," he said, his face breaking into a sad smile, "what I want to ask is this: This proposal you make, is it for four legs only, or also for two? Six months’ detention, British passport, free to stay, guaranteed home, this is excellent. I will take, and many other Iraqis, too."
So sad. If only humans could be extricated from Iraq as easily as cats.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq warned that it may take the U.S. government as long as two years to process and admit nearly 10,000 Iraqi refugees referred by the United Nations for resettlement to the United States, because of bureaucratic bottlenecks.
In a bluntly worded State Department cable titled "Iraqi Refugee Processing: Can We Speed It Up?" Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker noted that the Department of Homeland Security had only a handful of officers in Jordan to vet the refugees.
Bush administration officials in Washington immediately disputed several of Crocker's claims.
Well, what would Crocker know? He's only the Ambassador to Iraq. He doesn't see the "big picture" -
Our eyes are on sticking a thumb in Putin's eye this week. Putin, martial arts expert, didn't even blink as he slapped away Condi's lacquered nails.
What does all this have to do with cats in Baghdad?
If a cat needs a home, is there no relief for humans displaced by war?
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Must the young girls of Iraq be prostituted in Syria to keep their families alive? Is there no alternative at all?
Our government has made no gesture to help these refugees, much less offered concrete aid. There is no problem, and nothing must be done. Doing something would be to admit that a problem exists. And besides, most of the refugees are in Syria, an evil country with which we dare not deal for fear of offending a certain "ally" in the Middle East.
My old orange cat died two years ago. Last night, I dreamed that I picked an orange kitten from a "free kittens" box. Today, I read of the ancient cats of Mesopotamia, of the displaced Iraqis. I wonder: how
did it come to this? How could America have been so blind? How can it continue to be so cruel?
http://www.dailykos.com/...
In destroying the ancient cradle of civilization, we have become uncivilized.
No act of atonement will suffice; actions done cannot be undone. We have done what we have done.
Our treasury has been looted, as we watch the archeological treasures of Mesopotamia disappear in a flurry of looting.
Whether Marlowe goes upstream on the Tigris or Potomac River, he will go downriver hearing the cry of "The horror! The horror!"