Over the past week the fatalistic Iraqi attitude of maktoub (“it is written”) has deteriorated into anxiety and fear.
While the Government of Iraq continues to court France, Germany and Russia, hoping that diplomacy may avert a war, its people are facing up to the reality that the next few days or weeks may be catastrophic.
People who previously laughed off the bombing, saying that they had managed to survive before, are now running for cover. If there were any delusion left that war was not imminent, the jets that screeched across the clear Baghdad sky a few mornings ago have given them a sharp dose of reality.
“Tell me where to go, where can I run to?” begged a frightened city hotel bellman who a few weeks ago scoffed at the notion of war. A tennis coach and a waiter at the hotel said their goodbyes the day before.
Mine or yours?