That's Baghdad Santa. Behind him is a poster of Jesus, who no doubt is thinking, "What the fuck?" Yes, it is a sign of "hope," if you will, that Christmas has returned to Baghdad, all things considered, but when your Christian population has dropped to 100,000 from 800,000 pre-U.S. invasion, you gotta figure that you get one shot to celebrate the whole thing, God and greed.
Oh, and as part of the festival, there's dioramas, including 12 year-old Afnan's: "Arresting the Terrorists": "'These are the terrorists,' she tells me. 'They were trying to blow up the school.' In the middle of the street a dead 'terrorist' sprawls on the asphalt, his bloody arm torn from his body by an explosion. Afnan tells me she used red nail polish to paint the blood. A little plastic dog stands nearby. 'What is he doing?' I ask. 'He looks for terrorists and searches for weapons and explosives,' Afnan says."
As the President would say, hey, at least the children of Iraq get to express themselves without fear for the holidays. Jingle those bells, motherfuckers.
