Blues in the Green Zone
"The CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] is locked inside the Green Zone, this massive area in the heart of Baghdad that's protected by armed guards, tanks, and lots of big concrete walls... living conditions in the Green Zone are unbearable. Since the Rashid bombing, many live in massive dorm rooms — 200 or more to a room — with senior officials and soldiers crashing out on bunk beds. There aren't enough toilets or showers. Everyone is sick of the [Halliburton's] KBR cafeterias that offer a constant array of college cafeteria food... My friends in the CPA tell me they are truly depressed, truly miserable." — From an interview with an anonymous Western journalist posted on the Blogging of the President 2004 web site, January 13.
Only slightly dimmed
"Coalition and Iraqi efforts have set the stage for an economic rebirth... Business leaders are starting to realise that long-term prospects are only slightly dimmed by the current violence." — Richard Jones, chief policy officer and deputy administrator of the CPA, January 18.
Iraqi economic rebirth
"We are headed toward the mafia capitalism of [Boris] Yeltsin's Russia." — Isam al-Khafaj, a former employee of the CPA, quoted by Asia Times, January 16.
Not yet, but he's trying
"It's not a dictatorship in Washington, but I tried to make it one in that instance." — Emperor George Bush II, January 15, describing his executive order making religious groups that deliver welfare services eligible for US government subsidies.
New career
"Conrad Black's career as international press tycoon is over; his new one as poster boy for corporate corruption is just beginning." — Montreal Gazette, January 20.
From Green Left Weekly, January 28, 2004.
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