"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
The AP's Scheherezade Faramarzi writes from Baghdad: It's common to see a dozen curious children gathered around an American tank or armored personnel carrier, trying to make friends with the foreigners and using the thumb pointed skyward.
"It means 'OK.' It means we are friends," said Yousif Thamer, a 9-year-old third grader who lives in the poor neighborhood of al-Thawra in northeast Baghdad.
Nearly two months after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the presence of American troops here is greeted with mixed feelings. Many Iraqis resent the U.S. occupation, but they know that without the Americans they would still be living under Saddam's repressive rule.
It is the children who reach out most often to the Americans, running after their tanks and Humvees, whistling, clapping -- and sometimes booing them.More
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