Baghdad residents face their war jitters

www.fortwayne.com Posted on Thu, Mar. 13, 2003 HAMZA HENDAWI Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - For months, Baghdad residents have tried to maintain the appearance of normalcy while the threat of war grew closer. Now the city seems to have finally dropped its business-as-usual pretense, succumbing to the reality that a U.S. attack could come soon.

Embassies are closing. The United Nations is pulling out expatriate staff. Residents are hoarding food, water and fuel, buying generators, drilling neighborhood wells and cleaning out basements to use as bomb shelters.

Throughout the city, workers are building sandbagged positions and digging trenches. Members of the ruling Baath Party are organizing neighborhood resistance cells. The dinar, Iraq's currency, is slumping and food prices - especially for canned food and bottled water - are soaring.

As recently as a few weeks ago, many Baghdad residents had at least publicly adopted a fairly laid-back attitude toward the threat of war, reflecting both fabled Arab fatalism and the experience of having lived through two wars and periodic U.S. strikes over two decades.

Now, though, store owners have begun moving their merchandise to warehouses, fearing bombing or looting. Others are not replenishing their stocks. Some residents are honing their evacuation plans, making arrangements with relatives in what they see as the relatively safe countryside.

Families can be seen moving out from central Baghdad's Soviet-style apartment blocks, loading trucks with suitcases and boxes.

On Wednesday, 35 high school students filled burlap sacks with dirt and piled them into a defense position opposite the Al-Rashidiyah Bridge over the Tigris River on Wednesday.

"This is a sensitive area and it must be defended," said Ahmed Yassin, 16. "We must defend our nation because right is on our side."

Baghdadis whisper rumors that authorities are preventing people from leaving the city, but motorists reported Wednesday that traffic in and out of the city was normal, with only routine identity checks at roadblocks.

Only wealthy Baghdadis can afford to leave the country to neighboring Jordan or Syria. Most of the city's 5 million people must face the grim prospect of war.

Their fears are accentuated by nightmarish memories of a similar situation 12 years ago.

Muwafaq Fadil, a 54-year-old taxi driver, said his son Simon, then 4, was so afraid during the six-week bombing campaign in the 1991 Gulf War that he hid under the sofa every night. Daughter Mariam, 6, fell unconscious when the bombing grew intense.

"My wife Maria prayed all night and I could not sleep until daylight, when I felt safe," Fadil said Wednesday. "I wish we could go abroad this time, but I don't have money."

Fadil said that for the past few weeks, his son has been unable to concentrate and suffers from stomach aches. Fadil blames the prospect of war.

The war jitters are also being felt in Baghdad's limited nightlife. Fewer and fewer patrons show up at restaurants. Nightclubs have been closed by presidential decree since the early 1990s.

Many of Baghdad's estimated 60 embassies - including those of Portugal, Spain, Thailand and Japan - have pulled out their staff. A rapidly shrinking number of others remain, including most countries vocally opposing a war: France, Germany, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and most Arab countries.

Grace Princesa Escalante, the Philippines' top diplomat in Iraq, remains as well.

She has enjoyed a reputation for giving the best parties in Baghdad since she arrived two years ago. They have become a symbol of normalcy in a city where such symbols are increasingly in short supply.

But she may have given her last party this week - and even that didn't prevent war talk from dominating the conversation. It wasn't until she switched on the karaoke machine that the pace picked up.

Guests sang a rendition of the Eagles' 1970s hit "Hotel California," replacing the chorus with "Hotel Al Rasheed," the name of Baghdad's most famous hotel. They sang especially loudly when they came to the line: "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

The evening's finale was another apropos 1970's classic: Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive."