Hope and skepticism

[Administrator]

Last April, this column described initial responses by Iraqi bloggers to the “surge” of American troops in their country. Writing from shattered Baghdad and exile in Damascus, they recorded hopeful auguries as families returned to reclaim their lives in such one-time combat zones as Baghdad’s Haifa Street. But such hope was tempered by long-sewn despair: One blogger noted in February 2007 that he didn’t know whether to feel happy because the violence was dissipating, afraid that it may return or “sad because deep inside I think I know it will.”

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2008/04/3402274