December 09, 2003
Remember Umm Qasr? The Iraqi port was in sad shape prior to the war and worse after several rounds of sabotage. After a little rebuilding by the coaliation, the port seems to be back in ship-shape once again:
Business is picking up again at Umm Qasr, Iraq's primary portal to the Persian Gulf. At the refurbished docks, traditional Arabian wooden sailing vessels called dhows and modern steel-hulled freighters as well deliver cars, cigarettes, even sheep, side by side. A few meters away, a Norwegian-flagged grain carrier unloads the first wheat cargo since the war stopped deliveries early this year.
I wonder what story Peter Jennings will lead with tonight? Probably not the Umm Qasr story or this one or even this gutsy one (which impressed me). It will probably be this story although the result is not as bad as it sounds. They lost one fanatic in this attack, while we lost no one. If you include today's other suicide bombing which affected none beside the perpetrator, the score is US: 2, Terrorists: 0.
The busy trading activity at the port, located a few miles from the Kuwaiti border, is tangible proof of U.S. contractor Bechtel's successful $38-million renovation project, says Bob Sinnott, Bechtel senior project manager.
