I have two open questions for the readers:
1.) I just heard Frank Rich refer to Iraq as an artifical state with deep internal divisions. I had always been under the impression that although the geographic boundaries from the mandate were artificial, Iraq was a very contented, cosmopolitan, and very ethnically inter-married nation until Saddam Hussein used people’s differences for his own political gain. Am I way out in left field here?
2.) I have become addicted to a fruit salad that comes in a can (it is the tropical one, with red and white papaya, passion fruit, and pineapple). I would eat the fruits fresh, but mangos are a pain in the arse to eat, and a whole papaya is a lot of fruit. Nutritionally, how much do I lose by eating the stuff out of a can/jar as opposed to eating them fresh?
Just throw your responses in the comments. Thanks in advance.
dave
Regarding Question 2:
You probably don’t LOSE anything by eating canned fruit. You’re more likely to GAIN. Most (not all) canned fruit salads are loaded up with added sugar, which adds lots of extra calories.
Steve Malynn
To really get the perfect papaya dish, add a big scoop a vanilla ice cream on a half papaya. Sure it takes a half hour to eat, but all that sugar, mmmmm.
BF Durbin
Don’t think anyone would accuse you of being anywhere near left field.
Hope we don’t find out that removing Saddamn is like losing Tito – of course, Balkanization prevents unity of action and makes it easier to protect their oil for them.
Andrew Lazarus
Iraq was glued together from three Ottoman provinces, one of which was predominantly Kurd, one Sunni (incl Baghdad), and one Shi`a. I don’t think the Ottoman structure was likely to cause much cross-province cohesion, but I don’t really know.
Matthew Yglesias
Post-Ottoman, Pre-Saddam Iraq was wracked by ethnic tensions, particularly between Arabs and Kurds. Sunni/Shi’ite conflict was not as intense as it became under Hussein, but it did exist. There were also an awful lot of disputes between the different “clans” and between secularly-oriented Arab nationalists and religiously-oriented Shi’ites. Saddam took advantage of the situation, but he by no means created it. Charles Tripp’s book A History of Iraq gives a good (and short) introduction to the modern period.