Food for Thought

From Zeyad's Healing Iraq, one of the better Iraqi blogs. (And isn't it wonderful that we have a choice of so many now?) :

One can't help but notice that the clerics who usually incite holy wars in Iraq against the US occupation on the expense of Iraqis are based in countries allied to the US such as Qatar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. On the other hand, you have Sheikh Salah Al-Din Kuftaro, son of Sheikh Ahmed Kuftaro, the late Grand Mufti of Syria, publicly denouncing the behaviour of Iraqi insurgents yesterday during Friday prayers at the Kuftaro mosque in Damascus. He described them as the "present day Kharijites" and their actions as "unislamic".

Calls to attack the US seem inversely proportional to the chance of the US retaliating. Funny that. Meanwhile, posting from Zeyad might be a bit irregular for a while. The article I quote above begins:

Fierce fighting has been going on in several areas of Baghdad for the last 4 hours. I was supposed to leave for Basrah this morning, as soon as I walked out of the front door I was face to face with ten or so hooded men dressed in black carrying Ak-47's and RPG's. They had set up a checkpoint right in front of our door.

Rather puts things like traffic jams and late trains in perspective, doesn't it?