ollowing the tragedy in Fallujah, French television showed a story Thursday about an Iraqi company specialized in renting out armor-plated cars. Business was brisk, needless to say. (If I remember correctly, the price was 500 Euros a day.)Ending the TF1 news item was an interview with one of the Iraqi's latest clients. The man, a German television producer, shook his head and complained that he had no choice but to rent a car like this. Indeed, it made no difference who the Westerners were. A couple of weeks ago, he explained, a fellow German had been killed, and so had a couple of Finns.
The subtext of his statement, as well as the general tone of the French news story, seemed to be, "Don't the Iraqis (meaning the terrorists) realize who the good guys are? And that the latter — the sweet and kind anti-Bush European peace-lovers — are not supposed to be mistaken (perish the thought) for the bad guys (the distastefully arrogant American warmongers)?" Quelle injustice!
Interestingly, the entrepreneur who created the car-rental company does not echo the sense of tragedy permeating Europeans' usual point of view. "Here in Iraq, we don't care about the bombings. We're used to it. It is the Westerners who are worried" (and who are his clients). The debonair Iraqi is obviously not somebody who will be sought out by European journalists in their usual articles of doom and catastrophe.
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