Iraqis Offer Libyan Brethren Advice on Liberation

International Herald Tribune Tuesday 30th August, 2011

BAGHDAD - The men sat around a small plastic table at an outdoor cafe here on Friday evening, playing chess, smoking cigarettes and reminiscing about when Saddam Hussein's regime fell and they felt free for the first time in their lives.

But the conversation quickly turned to darker memories of how freedom spilled into chaos, bloodletting and, ultimately, anarchy. The memories were stirred up last week by images on television of another people, the Libyans, heading down the same road and, perhaps, heading toward the same darkness Iraqis have lived under for nearly a decade.

"They have to learn from us," said Abdul Khaliq, 42, a mechanic from Baghdad, after winning several games of chess.

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