I’m beginning to think that Stephen Farrell has been in the field too long. His latest piece, in today’s New York Times has taken on a particularly Hemingway-esque feel. Filed with a Baghdad byline, it opens thusly:
Blood and ouzo mingled on the sidewalk outside a shattered Baghdad liquor store on Thursday after three people were killed in a car bombing directed at alcohol sellers in one of Baghdad’s most heavily protected areas…
The wreckage came to rest alongside 10-foot-high concrete blast walls that had been brightly painted with tranquil scenes of camels and marshland waterways as part of an American-financed beautification effort…
“There’s nothing left to be targeted here, only poor people who buy alcohol and the unfortunate family in the Suburban,†said an Iraqi policeman.
My favorite note comes later on, as he describes the Yazidis, a sect which includes the shops owners:
… their faith combines elements of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam and includes a Peacock Angel.