Beat the crowds and think about a Baghdad vacation

9-2-08
http://www.caller.com/news/2008/sep/02/beat-the-crowds-and-think-about-a-baghdad/

If there's any question about the growing security in Baghdad, there is this: the government is asking for designs for a giant Ferris wheel that would be the centerpiece for a drive to increase, or maybe more accurately, to create a tourism industry.

This security, however shaky, has apparently given Iraqi authorities enough confidence to envision a giant Ferris wheel pinwheeling on the city skyline. The Ferris wheel, to be called the Baghdad Eye, in a takeoff of the London Eye that towers over the Thames River, would be 650 feet high and would carry riders in comfort inside air-conditioned compartments. "We hope to attract a great number of customers who will be able to see the whole city and enjoy the restaurants and pools on the ground below, " a city spokesman, Adel al-Ardawi, said in the best tradition of the local economic booster.

The war has put a grimness to Iraq that even the most optimistic plans would be hard pressed to dispell. But Iraq has the makings of a tourism hot spot. Iraq is the cradle of civilization, home to the ruins of Babylon, which are now part of a military base, as is the Ziggurat of Ur, the massive structure built by the ancient Sumerians who invented writing.

If Baghdad officials feel secure enough to think about tourists riding Ferris wheels, never mind whether any tourist is brave enough to ride one, the day when peace comes to Iraq must be closer.