Thursday, June 2, 2011

RUSSIA TODAY: Freak Sandstorm Chokes Baghdad

1 comment:

Steve Donnelly, AICP said...

What, exactly, is freak about it?

I spent 14 days in June 2008 in Tikrit waiting for a clear day to fly home on leave.

Combination of long-term regional persistent droughts, poor agricultural soil controls, and just plain bad weather conditions.

The Baghdad pics are never as bad as in the Tikrit, where you see the red wall marching toward you, and a complete red-out once it arrives.

Iraq is clay, not sand, so the usual term is dust storm. Census records from the 1950s-1970s tracked the days of dust storm obliteration--usually a few every year. Very different in recent times.

This Day In Iraqi History - Dec 8 After US soldiers complained about not having adequate equipment Def Sec Rumsfeld said you go to war with the army you have

  1925 Turkey told League of Nations it refused to accept League as arbiter of Mosul’s future