Status Updates From Shalash the Iraqi

This story ends with the Americans stealing away the Santa they’ve created and “bereft, the barefoot children in their tattered clothes scattered back to their damp houses to sit and wait for gifts from an American Santa Claus after all.” This is supposed to be funny.

I’m fucking wrecked. We never got one Iraqi perspective.

The next chapter is “happy new year“ rendered in phonetic English. The town agrees to put up a Christmas tree and different factions are arguing over who can claim Santa Claus as one of their own.

Right after that last chapter about our political assassinations, they’re displaying a generosity of spirit we do not deserve.

An American politicians are having a stronger impact on daily life as it goes along, until it becomes clear that the US won’t allow free and fair elections because the Shiia majority will elect a Shia government, which would be friendly with Iran. Eventually, we realize people just like us, with our same values, even, are being murdered. By us.

The further I get the more horrified, I am. Shalash is just like we were in the mid 2000s – a literate hipster apparently with a western education even. Is full of irony and everything is a joke. He makes fun of the political system. Dark jokes “ha ha it’s like you’re gonna be killed for putting up the wrong poster!” but then after the election, it’s clear yes, these political assassinations were common.