Blog: The Sly Oyster

American troops are pulling out of Baghdad and the bigger cities as I write this, prompting dance parties from the people and the oil companies to begin bidding on 20-year contracts for Iraq's potent oil reserves. "Baghdad's river-front parklands, which have been reclaimed this year after being deserted during the height of the insurgency and sectarian war, were last night transformed into outdoor dance venues, where audiences of around 3,000 – almost all of them men – danced to the strains of a recently returned Iraqi singer, Salah Hassan, exiled in Dubai for the past five [...]