Iraq

I recently read two books about Iraq. The first one was called Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo. The author, Lawrence Anthony, is a South African who went to Iraq soon after the war started to attempt to save whatever animals had been left alive. I have to admit, I never really thought about the animals during wartime, but I am glad that someone did. He did a very brave and dangerous thing, but he was able to save a lot of animals. He even saved a lot of the animals that Saddam and his sons had kept that were near death. I have to admit that I have a lot of mixed feelings about the war overall, but I did think this quote was interesting: "It's strange to say, but the war was the best thing that could have happened to this zoo...It's better now than it was before the war." The Iraqis running the zoo had been doing the best they could, but it was just very run-down. Before the author left, he made sure the Iraqis had training, and traveled to other zoos to see how they should be run.

The second book I read was called I Lost My Love in Baghdad by Michael Hastings. He is a Newsweek correspondent who was based in Iraq for parts of the war. He had a girlfriend he had met back home, and she took a job in Iraq working for democracy. She was killed in what they believe was a kidnapping attempt. It's his story about losing her, but it's also his story about reporting the war. This book is more political. The author, at least at the beginning, was in support of the war and excited about reporting it. After what happened to him, he wasn't so sure.

Like with all my opinions, I will admit that I don't know everything and I am bound to be wrong sometimes. However, I think going to Iraq was a big mistake. Now that we are there, and they have fallen into a civil war, I don't know what the U.S. should do. I think we should at least have a humanitarian effort in place there still, but I don't think we should still be fighting. I just don't think we can succeed in Iraq. The Sunnis and the Shiites have been rivals for so long that I don't know if anyone can bring them to peace. And if it can happen, it won't happen the way things are being done now.