The Latest Depressing News from Iraq

I need to do a post about my life one of these days, but until then:

From the Times (of London), today:

IRAQ’S former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi has warned that his country is facing civil war and has predicted dire consequences for Europe and America as well as the Middle East if the crisis is not resolved.

“The problem is that the Americans have no vision and no clear policy on how to go about in Iraq,” said Allawi, a long-time ally of Washington.

In an interview with The Sunday Times last week as he visited Amman, the Jordanian capital, he said: “The policy should be of building national unity in Iraq. Without this we will most certainly slip into a civil war. We are practically in stage one of a civil war as we speak.”

Very quick rundown of the last three weeks

Clean, clean, clean.

Visit from sarah_ovenall and Georg WINOLJ.

Work, work, work.

Birthday, of mother.

Anniversary, of my romantic relationship with nellorat.

Birthday, of me.

Anniversary, of my move to New York.

Anniversary, of the death of tim_maroney.

Anniversary, of formal enactment of Declaration of Independence.

Birthday, of sister terby.

Work, work, work.

Two different people contact me with job offers, one of which I can't imagine taking unless the money is ludicrously good, but other one which I can.

Weekend to relax, undercut by serious computer malfunctions.

Overshadowing this entire period has been the slow decline of our senior rat, Felix. He's been with us for just short of two years, effectively a rescue rat from a pet shop. His breathing has become so labored that he's only got the energy to move around occasionally, and he has finally stopped eating. He doesn't seem to be in pain, but he really isn't going on any logner, and it is almost certain that tomorrow morning nellorat will have to take him in to the vets for the final time. Sigh.