And the fates will on.

The following is a paragraph from the New Yorker 11/25/02.

Letter from Iraq, Noplace to hide, Travels through a terrorized land.

By Jon Lee Anderson

"Hoping to escape the conversation in the mudhif, made me feel claustrophobic, I asked the sheikh if there were still any of the old boats around that I might be able to see. He shook his head. 'Everyone has cars now. They are better.' He paused and stared hard at me for a moment and then he said, 'Wasn't it like this in America once? We all change. Maybe in ten more years this'--he waved up at the beautiful reed structure--'will not be reeds but glass, like in America! There people came from the wilderness, too, but now they have big houses, big cars. We, too.'"