Today's photos are from several locations.

 

Haifa Street and the Baghdad Zoo.  No word on whether the cheetahs are sympathetic to our G.I.'s.

 

Flowers growing at an intersection where 6 soldiers where 6 soldiers were killed in an ied attack.

Iraq is a graveyard for optimism, but it is hard not to feel at least a tremor of hope after spending an afternoon like I just did, in a Baghdad neighborhood that was once one of the deadliest in this blood-soaked country. It is called Ameriyah, and to give you an example, last May 14 American soldiers were killed there in a series of attacks, seven in a single day. Al Queda was everywhere in this predominantly Sunni neighborhood, its death squads terrorizing the minority Shiites, imposing strict Islamic law and killing between 15 and 20 civilians a week.

There is a bar in the "Cinco de Mayo," which passes for a Mexican restaurant in the Intercontinental Hotel here in the Jordanian capital. It provides a fascinating look into what the war in neighboring Iraq has wrought in this little kingdom . The food is more Arab than Mexican, the margaritas suck, and aside from the occasional local, usually a driver or fixer, the vast majority of patrons are hard, tough, white guys between 35 and 50 with hair closely cropped or shaven completely. If you didn't know better you could mistake this crowd for
neo-Nazis or simmering British soccer fans.