Listen to what everybody is talking about and then surprise with cool info from the web. It helps if Google is still blocked and no one has yet figured out that there is life after Google. Today the million dollar question was who the hell is Barbara Bodine? well the ones who listen to BBCworldservice were asking the rest were just going whatwhatwhat?
The plan calls for a northern and southern sector to be administered by two retired U.S. Army generals, sources said.We will for the moment try to ignore whether this means a divided Iraq or federalism thrust down our throats or a redraw of the Iraqi map because this will be after all the decision of the
A central sector, including Baghdad, will be administered by Barbara Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, the sources said.
Anyway, Dogpile came to the rescue and I was the internet super hero when I showed them THIS and more ooh’s and aaah’s when I showed the THIS, I should have charged 250 Dinars for each viewing, actually thr biggest surprise was finding out that she was in Iraq in 1983 as Deputy Principal Officer in the US embassy here. General reactions? You can imagine the fear of castration the Iraqi males are going thru at the moment, don’t expect this to be swallowed very easily, and to divert this unease they would just say something along the lines: “she doesn’t look very pretty does she?”. One person who doesn’t actually work here but was dragged by a colleague to see the picture said: “ you know it is their intention to destroy the pride of the muslim man” . Tread carefully is what I say; change shouldn’t be plunked on people’s heads like this, especially when there already is an atmosphere of mistrust and unfriendliness. Someone said this will be like having another Gertrude Bell, I am not sure this is good. [two interesting links: The female Lawrence of Arabia and the Gertrude Bell Project with an amazing photo library, thanks a million for the link A., he is the only Iraqi reader I have apparently].
