Say Anything Blog

And not the kind of cranes that have wings either, according to one of our troops stationed in Baghdad:

As I told the audience this morning on News Talk 1000 KTOK radio’s “Mullins in the Morning,” today I saw cranes in Baghdad, over in the Red Zone.

Think about that for a moment.

Cranes.

Big sturdy metal ones reaching into the sky.

That means building. Construction. And not US government construction, which is in the Green Zone.

These cranes were in the Red Zone, where, if you believe the groupthink in much of the media, roaming gangs of Islamic extremists reign supreme.

Construction costs money. Investment dollars.

That means some investors at least think it is worth investing in Baghdad.

A reader told me recently that he heard Grand Forks City Councilman Mike McNamara, who got elected to his seat while serving in Iraq (I did a podcast interview with Mike last year), say that most of the folks who plant the deadliest weapons being used against our troops, IED’s or “roadside bombs,” are poor Iraqis who get paid by al Qaeda to place the bombs.  Which is a sorry state of affairs, but also a hopeful one in that it implies that a lot of the people facilitating the fighting in Iraq would probably lay down their arms if their economic conditions could be changed.

Which is exactly why these cranes are such a good sign.  You give the average Iraqi access to work and a chance to create some wealth for himself and his family and his interest in “jihad against the infidels” is likely to flag.