Word: damascus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...should not be part of the international force. But it should be made up of highly trained troops contributed by strong and responsible countries. We've been wise not to go rushing diplomatically to Damascus or Tehran. But Iran's hands are all over this, as are Syria's. As Hizballah's missiles are cleared out of there, that's a rebuke to Iran and Syria, and it's essential to enable Lebanon to be a sovereign state. That means deploying the Lebanese army to all parts of their country...
...this for years, whenever I reveal my nationality. It was reassuring to know that at least for now they still feel the same way: affection for Americans, antipathy towards our foreign policy. As long as they are willing to make this distinction, I am still happy to think of Damascus as my home away from home...
...After Ali and I exchanged our goodbyes, thanking God for our safe passage, I dropped my bags at a friend's house in Damascus and walked to my favorite lunch place - where I knew I could comfortably dine alone without being stared at. It is a small, nondescript restaurant run by a team of gracious, deeply devout, conservative Sunnis. In the Middle East, most restaurant workers, from the maitre d' to the dishwashers, are men. When I go to this restaurant, I feel like I am being tended by a team of sweet old uncles. They all come over...
...Damascus is my favorite Middle Eastern city. I love it not only for what locals call in English its "touristic" qualities, but also for the ones that remind me of my home in Iowa: both societies share an appreciation for tight-knit families and lifetime friendships; socially conservative "family values"; and traditional comfort foods, with shish taouk and mezze standing in for the steak and salad dinners that dominated Iowa's menus when I was a child...
...love Damascus, but I certainly do not love being here under these circumstances. I came here from Beirut a week ago, in the aging Volvo of a Syrian named Ali, a kind middle-aged Shi'ite who has driven my friends and me back and forth between the two cities many times. His knowledge of Lebanon's roads is matched only by his devotion to Hizballah. I would have trusted no other driver to bring me safely past the Israeli jets bombing our road. But fleeing Lebanon in a car decorated with the photograph of Hizballah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah...