What a great fuck-up... Bush/Cheney 
PS: how's democracy and the charter going?
Well, at least there is plenty of oil for the SUV ( 3.00/gal
)
BASRA, Iraq - For Yousef Lyon and other Christians in Basra, the downfall of Saddam Hussein has meant a terrible loss of religious freedom.
The social club where Lyon and his friends would gather in the evening to play dominoes, where families danced or listened to live music on holidays, is closed. Wedding celebrations are held quietly at home.
"Of course, during the Saddam regime it was better," said Lyon, 40, a member of the city's small Armenian community. "Now we are afraid from the religious parties, that maybe they will throw a bomb at us."
Not just the Christians, but many of the city's minorities live in fear of the hard-line Shiite religious parties and their militias that now rule Iraq's second-largest city.
Freedom has been curtailed for women, too. Several decades ago, almost no woman in Basra covered her head. Now, they all do, for fear of harassment or worse. Women working for foreign companies or governments, and those considered to have loose morals, have been marked for death by the militants -- two Iraqi sisters who worked in the laundry at the American compound in Basra were assassinated last year.
The social club where Lyon and his friends would gather in the evening to play dominoes, where families danced or listened to live music on holidays, is closed. Wedding celebrations are held quietly at home.
"Of course, during the Saddam regime it was better," said Lyon, 40, a member of the city's small Armenian community. "Now we are afraid from the religious parties, that maybe they will throw a bomb at us."
Not just the Christians, but many of the city's minorities live in fear of the hard-line Shiite religious parties and their militias that now rule Iraq's second-largest city.
Freedom has been curtailed for women, too. Several decades ago, almost no woman in Basra covered her head. Now, they all do, for fear of harassment or worse. Women working for foreign companies or governments, and those considered to have loose morals, have been marked for death by the militants -- two Iraqi sisters who worked in the laundry at the American compound in Basra were assassinated last year.
Well, at least there is plenty of oil for the SUV ( 3.00/gal
)
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