Fear Dims Christmas Eve in Baghdad

Maybe a dupe, but it drives home the point that bush can say that Iraq is better off today all he wants, but it ain't necessarily so.

For the first time in as long as even the old women could remember, Iraqi Christians prepared for the Christmas holiday with heart-thumping sadness and dread. This was the year to scan the sanctuary for the safest place to sit in case a bomb exploded. Or not to go at all.

Many Christmas Eve services were canceled or changed to daylight hours, and police cars guarded the churches on Friday night. Priests expected to deliver their Christmas messages to nearly empty churches. People shopping for presents, decorations and trees did not linger on streets for fear of being targeted by insurgents.

Adel Warda, 48, who owns a small market, said such fear was new for Iraqi Christians.

"We never felt like this during Saddam's time. No one was bothering us. It was safe. We did not have any car bombs, explosions, attacks on churches or mosques."

The whole article is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24875-2004Dec24?language=printer