So all the new posts from Baghdad will be labeled 'Drinking the Tigris'. The river has long been one of the main travel routes through the region and since I'm definitely on a journey of sorts... I finished setting up the translations for Bush League two weeks ago and next week will start back at the beginning to take notes on the footage for the paper edit. In the meantime I've been reading a couple books to learn more about Iraq. The books were recommended by the instructors at the Foreign Service Institute in D.C. Here are a couple quotes that I found interesting.
From Understanding Iraq by William R. Polk:
"The Arabic looking word Iraq (Arabic: al-Iraq) actually comes from the Persian eragh, which means simply 'the lowlands'."
From Understanding Arabs by Margaret Nydell:
"The God Muslims worship is the same God Jews and Christians worship (Allah is simply the Arabic word for God; Arab Christians pray to Allah)."
Who knew. This gives me more ammunition to yell at the TV with.