Holiday in Iraq for Sun, Sand ... and Burnt-out Tanks

[muriel_volestrangler]

Sorry if this was posted before - it's a few days old, but I couldn't find it. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder what they were smoking ...

The £80,000 report was commissioned in 2004 to examine ways Iraq could be opened up to tourists after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

With the monthly death toll topping 3,000 and most Westerners confined to guarded compounds, the ten-page report - released under the Freedom of Information Act - now seems hopelessly optimistic.

Among nine sites it lists as potential tourist attractions are the Jewish quarter in Basra - now a hotbed of anti-British insurgency. The Shatt Al Arab waterway, identified as the location of the Garden of Eden, is also mentioned.

But the most extraordinary section, under the heading War Tourism, reads: "This would involve pre- sentation of the country's recent history and, while there is a distinct need to improve the country's general environment, it may be necessary and indeed beneficial to place battlefield debris strategically, such that it can be enjoyed by those groups wishing to see for themselves the location of recent battles."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23364744-details/Holiday%20in%20Iraq%20for%20sun,%20sand%20...%20and%20burnt-out%20tanks/article.do

[soothsayer]

1. Kinda like the way we enjoy Gettysburg and Bull Run around

here. Maybe have folks re-enacting it! Wait---they still are.

[warrens]

2. Gotta get the Dead Kennedys back together

This is too good to pass up. Ecotourism today. Conflict tourism tomorrow. Why wait til death to experience hell?