January 12, 2008 7:23 AM

No, Hell didn't freeze over, but the suburbs certainly did

When snow falls in Baghdad…Well it did! Iraqi capital wakes up to first snowfall in memory (Thanks to Adina Pratt for this one!)

BAGHDAD - After weathering nearly five years of war, Baghdad residents thought they’d pretty much seen it all. But Friday morning, as muezzins were calling the faithful to prayer, the people here awoke to something certifiably new. For the first time in memory, snow fell across Baghdad. Although the white flakes quickly dissolved into gray puddles, they brought an emotion rarely expressed in this desert capital snarled by army checkpoints, divided by concrete walls and ravaged by sectarian killings ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ delight.

When I first read this story, it took me back to Christmas Eve, 2004, when it snowed in southeast Texas for the first time in memory. Corpus Christi woke up to six inches on the ground, and there was snow on the beach at Galveston. People in our neighborhood made snowmen. It was truly a magical time, because snow is about as common along the Gulf Coast as Mike Huckabee discovering that he’s a closet Democrat. Our white Christmas present didn’t last long, but it was special. I can’t remember what I got for Christmas, but I doubt I will ever forget that Christmas Eve snowfall and the magic it created.

When I was in Croatia during the war, a fresh blanket of snow brought out an almost child-like joy in just about everyone, especially children. I can still remember having snowball fights with children in a refugee camp outside Zagreb populated by Bosnian Muslims. I don’t speak Serbo-Croatian, so I couldn’t communicate with them, but as it turns out, a snowball fight is pretty much a universal language. For at least a little while, I felt a kinship with a group of children I couldn’t even communicate with. For at least those few short minutes, the children forgot that they were refugees from a war that forced them from their homes. We had a blast, and thinking about that still bring a smile to my face.

After more than five years of a senseless clusterf—k of a war and 151,000 (give or take a few thousand) civilians deaths, the people of Baghdad- especially the children- deserved this break from the daily menu of death, destruction, and randomized mayhem. I know the snow didn’t last long, but the news reports I saw showed children smiling and having fun. It was nice to see children being able to just be children again, even if for only a little while. They deserve it.

For at least a few short hours, smiles and joy replaced terror and abject fear as the currency of daily life in Baghdad. Today it’s back to the normal litany of senseless murders, car bombings, and other assorted mayhem. My hope and prayer for the people of Iraq is that before long smiles and joy will soon move in where for too long fear and terror have resided.

They deserve better.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on January 12, 2008 7:23 AM.

Caution: make sure brain is engaged before putting mouth in gear was the previous entry in this blog.

Thank God for the selfless leadership and foresight of Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader is the next entry in this blog.

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