Emma Sky surveys the post-American landscape:
Would you recommend people to visit Iraq, Iraqi friends ask me? Oh yes, I assure them — foreigners will have the holiday of a lifetime in Iraq. And I will be back year after year — for the richness of the culture, the warmth of the people, the beauty of the landscape. To sit on the ground sharing food from the same plates as complete strangers, to be greeted with generosity and gifts on every occasion, to share jokes as with old friends, to hear such tales of resilience. This is how Iraq should be defined — not by the depravity of violence that inflicts it. But unfortunately, Iraq's politicians are once more playing on people's fears and taking the country to the brink of a sectarian conflict that this time might not be contained within the country's borders.
The Dish 