Parrothead Jeff

As violence falls in Iraq, cemetery workers feel the pinch - Yahoo! News

NAJAF, Iraq — At what’s believed to be the world’s largest cemetery, where Shiite Muslims aspire to be buried and millions already have been, business isn’t good.

The city, with the shrine and graveyard, is considered the third-most important holy site for Shiite Muslims, after Mecca and Medina. It attracts millions of pilgrims each year— and tens of thousands of funeral parties.

The Wadi al Salam cemetery— its name translates as “Valley of Peace”— dates to the 7th century. Its mud-brown jumble of crypts and rectangular and domed brick and marble tombs stretches to the horizon. It’s six miles long, two miles wide and grows by acres every day.

Imam Ali himself is said to have pronounced it the entrance to paradise. And so the Shiites come with their dead.

For the laborers in the Valley of Peace, it was just another workday, one they faced with a matter-of-fact attitude unnerving to those who deal with death less frequently.

“Certainly, when the number of dead increases I feel happy, like all workers in the graveyard,” said Basim Hameed , 30, a body washer. “This happiness comes from the increase in the amount of money we have.”

When the cemetary workers start complaining about the drop in business, it’s good news for the living and the U.S. Go and read the whole article - it’s an interesting take on the downside of victory as some would have us see it.