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Journal correspondents report on evolving conditions in Iraq

Thanksgiving Day in Baghdad

By Gina Chon

An Iraqi colleague asked me on Thanksgiving Day how the holiday got started. Trying to recall my elementary school education, I told him about the Pilgrims and Native Americans having a feast together and giving thanks for their harvest.

“But didn’t the Americans kill all the Indians?” he asked.

This is the first in a series of dispatches in which Gina Chon, a Journal correspondent based in Iraq, and Sarmad Ali, a WSJ.com reporter based in New York, will examine life in Iraq. Ms. Chon will draw upon her reporting in Iraq, while Mr. Ali, an Iraqi citizen, will tap his background and continued contacts within the country.”Well, not all of them. But yes, many were killed,” I said.

“That’s the part that Americans don’t want to talk about,” he said, and he seemed to be speaking about the situation in Iraq, as well.

[pumpkin1]
Gina Chon
A pumpkin carving made by an Iraqi employee of a news organization that hosted a Thanksgiving dinner in Baghdad.

I explained to him that Thanksgiving has evolved as a holiday and not many people, at least no one I know, celebrate it in memory of the gathering of the Pilgrims and Native Americans. Instead, it’s a time that family and friends come together to give thanks for what they have in their lives, and also to remember the many who don’t have as much as they do. He liked that explanation better.

I spent Thanksgiving at the home of another news organization. There was a turkey brought in from Jordan. There were apple and pumpkin pies. One of the journalists gave a toast before the meal giving thanks to the gathered friends who make life here more bearable. We drank wine and gorged ourselves on mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing. It actually felt like Thanksgiving.

But I guess Thanksgiving in Baghdad wouldn’t be complete without the typical sounds of Iraq. In the late afternoon, I heard about a dozen mortar rounds go off and could see the smoke drifting into the air from my window. A few of us went up to the roof to get a better view. Maybe they were the same ones that landed in the Green Zone, or International Zone as it’s now called. Several people were injured in that attack. The morning after Thanksgiving, there was an explosion at a pet market in Baghdad and 13 people were killed.

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