Restaurants hurting from empty tables

[ckramer]

Closed at dusk because of fears of street violence and kidnapping, the elegant Lattikiya Syrian restaurant reawakens each morning before dawn.

Manager Khalid Jamal Aude, 29, politely declines to say whether former dictator Saddam Hussein ever visited the restaurant. He raises his eyebrows when asked to name anybody else, choosing to respect his guests' privacy.

Because of the danger of criminals and insurgents on Baghdad's streets at night, many residents stay home in the evening or share meals with friends. The heady days when Lattikiya and other restaurants thrived off the Iraqi elite are gone.

"I used to stay open until 3 a.m. under Saddam," Aude says. "Now, I have to close at 8 p.m. because of the bad security situation."

link

[AuntiBush]

1. Gosh. I wonder why. Oh. Chimp has Democracy in Control though.

Sad. So very sad.

[xxqqqzme]

2. Wow....the US did wonders 4

the Iraqi economy.

[natrat]

3. freedom is on the march

that hypocrite douche should burn in hell

[slaveplanet]

4. this is the part of the story that the numbers miss

he is counted as one of the ones that has a job , the numbers don't say how well those businesses are doing though. He's lucky to have income at all. There is 50% unemployment in Iraq, which probably has as much to do with the lack of customers as the security situation.

[radar]

5. Geez - What's his problem...

Doesn't he(Khalid) know everyone's better off without Saddam?
*All those still defending the war use that one as a justification/reason, anyway - so it must be true; Khalid is obviously not seeing the big picture.
sarcasm alert

[mpendragon]

6. GOP: brown people don't need to eat at fancy restaurants. . .

. . . they just need to pump SUV go-juice out the ground for us and look happy for the cameras doing it or we'll stick lights up their butt and kick the shit out of them in jail.

[XemaSab]

7. Freedom's just another word

for nothing left to lose...