need to add title here

Resurrecting Eden

November 15, 2009 4:53 PM

In Iraq, where many biblical scholars place the Garden of Eden, Scott Pelley finds a water world where the Marsh Arabs are making a comeback after Saddam nearly destroyed the cradle of civilization.

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by deprivediraqi November 23, 2009 10:58 AM EST
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHthis made my eye drown in tears,,this is my beautiful country,,,,which we used in the fifties sixties and seventies to visit without fearing being christians,,, but this is what USA broought to us,,,yes they are trying to build the country after decades of retarding but they did not choose the correct way in dealing with iraqi people whom suffered,,USA brought iraqis whom they were away from iraq for a long period of time and that was and still is the disaster

GOD JESUS BLESS IRAQ and hoping to enlight the minds of american and iraqi politiciand to resurrect my country

Zahir Aziz Essak
sterling heights ,MI 48310
iraqi refugee since july 2008
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by ggianop November 22, 2009 10:25 PM EST
Imagine if the Army corp. of Engineers got involved in the project, lent more equipment and a couple hydrollic engineers to the project. 30% of the marsh was restored by a single civilian, yet the majority of the water still flows through Saddam's man-made waterways. After our dis-involvement and neglect of the Reed Arabs after the 1st war, it would seem we could at least make some effort to help restore the land to a fraction of what it once was.
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by Hardany November 22, 2009 1:26 PM EST
Everyone seems to ignore the fact that the Marshes will face another more devestating future due to the shuttig off of water coming from Iran . This has left vast areas in the eastern regions being dried up with no wildlife , vegetation or inhabitants .
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by middleman77 November 21, 2009 12:41 PM EST
The Libatards will never give credit to Bush and the u.s military for the liberation of Iraq. With out the invasion of iraq. The people of eden and Iraq would still be under the oppressive power of saddam Hussien. It just goes to show you. That Suddam hussein, hand no compassion for his people and his enviroment with in his own country.

Good Job Bush and the men and woman of the u.s. military. Iraq will be in the near future a better country in the world. Its finally coming around.
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by tickertype November 19, 2009 9:15 PM EST
No kudos to President Bush?
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by Sky017 November 19, 2009 9:11 AM EST
Really good story. Thanks.

In a world of gloomy financial news and inane celebrity stories, this was like a breath of fresh air.

More, please.
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by arenaud333 November 17, 2009 10:27 PM EST
the comments make no mention of an important part of this story: the remarkable man whom, realising that "wealth, success & achieving the American dream is not enough", did the improbable & returned to his war-torn homeland, and in doing so revisited his fond chilhood memories of a place that had been all but erased; who thought (beyond himself) about the destruction of a people, of its way of life & of the marshes that sustained that life; and, "once upon a time", took a bulldozer to a levy, tore a hole in it & then let the water run its wild course, leaving it to Nature do what She does best: reclaiming a wilderness that man's folly had eradicated from the face of the earth ( ...in other words, Man did what "he" does best: destroy most everything beautiful he touches). i can't help but feel admiration for the enterprise of one individual, who left the comfort of a new life - no doubt conquered at great expense of his toil & sweat - & took an unexpected path in life... to restitute in its natural path the flow of an ancient river & to redress a man-made bend in the path of history, both human & natural. a tip of the hat (i feel) is owed to an unlikely hero, who acted in accordance with his conscience & "followed [like he says eloquently] his passion" &, by ressuscitating a nostalgic place that only then existed in his memory, thus improbably ressuscitated a people from the graveyard of Irak's political history.
how appropriate that this man should hail from a country who not only nurtured the rise of a great culture, of numerous successive civilisations as empires, but that may even rightly claim as its own
the very "cradle of human civilisation". let us all not forget, then, that Irak, beyond being the theatre of two modern wars (one very much still ongoing) in which the U.S. is intricated - & which might yet be the theatre of a civil war with potential to engulf the whole of the region..., was & is also that: the fountainhead from which, not just middle-eastern, but western civilisation ultimately sprung.
on a related subject: isn't the costly process (in lives & treasury to the American people) that aims to leave behind the legacy of a stable society alone able to preserve that common rich human heritage, worth it to be left to run its full course (since most of that cost has already been expensed - the families of the fallen soldiers of this [otherwise] absurd war can attest to that) & not now [in its last phase] be derailed and condemned to failure by a politically-motivated early withdrawal of troops, certain to starve it of the few ressources & of the time required to achieve that very stability? it seems to me that, beyond words or medals, THAT would be paying a proper tribute in "sense & significance" for the incalculable sacrifices of the dead-in-arms, the wounded and maimed men & women of the military, & the untolled numbers of civilian dead, wounded or otherwise gravely impacted... there is still an opportunity here to turn a bad thing (a maybe unnecessary invasion)
into a very good one (a more or less democratic but free Iraq); so long [that is] as everyone keeps being mindful of the aforementioned costs... which [that i can tell you for sure] are NOT going to be forgotten (not anytime soon nor ever) or erased (a $3 trillion war, anyone?) by every victim in whichever way of this controversial conflict...

p.s.: i can't remember who it was who said that the only things that would
survive even the end of mankind (or, a nuclear holocaust, was it?)
would be "the memory of those who died in wars" and... well, "debts"
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by totoraone November 17, 2009 9:46 PM EST
impressive work of restaurating the oldest civilization model, it is based on reed and skills.
Our Institute for Integral Innovation in Germany works togehter with the PUCP University Lima
for the other contemporary Reed World: Totora Floating Islands on Titicaca Lake.
They are more than one Garden Eden...still.
We would appreciate the exchange with the Mudh'if Project in Iraq.
See: www.integralinnovation.org
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by fleabag75 November 17, 2009 11:19 AM EST
Good Lord! Just read and appreciate the article for what it is!!! This isn't a case of biblical accuracy!! It's about the reclaiming and subsequent resurrection of destroyed land. Period! Not a religious class.
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by RAGGEE November 16, 2009 7:31 AM EST
Saddam Hussein was one of the five worst dictators in the 20th century.now he is where he belongs answering to those that who died under his order but look at iraq today.there are more killings,women are second class almost like saudi arabia,you cannot own or serve alchohol.FROM DICTATORSHIP TO ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM,and we helped both times.go figure.
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by poipowejtwjiegbijb November 15, 2009 11:54 PM EST
Didn't the U.S. government help it's then ally Iraq, in it's war with Iran, by supplying satellite intelligence that enabled Saddam to drain the marshes in southern Iraq- the decisive blow in that fight, -the same marshes your story speaks of, but ignores the U.S. role before the most recent war????
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by michaelttaylor November 15, 2009 11:28 PM EST
For years now I've been wondering when someone would finally report on what's been going on with the marsh Arabs. To my mind, one of the only valid rationales for our second invasion of Iraq was to help restore the damage done to those marshes and the people who lived there. (The other being to depose Saddam and his two odious sons) I'm glad to know -- and see -- how much progress has been made, and that some significant portion of the marsh has been restored.

What your story didn't mention is that this all happened because of General Swartzkoph's blunder in negotiating the surrender of the Iraqi army at the end of the first gulf war. When the Iraqi generals asked if they could retain use of their attack helicopters, Swartzkoph agreed -- and that meant death for all the Shiites who responded to President Bush's appeal to take up arms against Saddam. Without those helicopters, the rebels would have had a fighting chance to overthrow Saddam -- and in that case, their civil war would probably be over now, and we wouldn't have had to stage a second, infinitely more bloody invasion. Allowing those helicopters to fly was the crucial error of the first war. Swartzkoph is a good man, but he made a terrible mistake for which all Americans are paying the price -- too many of them in blood.

Thanks for doing such a good -- and long overdue -- report.
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by Justice10K November 15, 2009 11:17 PM EST
This is an example of the media wanting to put out a story as the truth without researching all the facts. You reference the Bible when you accept the Iraq Marshlands as being Eden and the cradle of civilization because it?s between two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. If you would read Genesis 2:10-14 you would see the river that flowed out of Eden parted into 4 heads: Pison, Gihon that comprised the whole land of Ethiopia (which is 1,000 miles from Iraq and across the Red Sea), Hiddekel and Euphrates. Based on the Bible, Iraq's Marshland can't be Eden. Also the Bible states that there were every type of fruit tree in the garden. The Iraq Marshlands does not appear conducive to growing a variety trees that are good for food.
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by quantum77 November 15, 2009 11:01 PM EST
Thanks for this uplifting report.
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by nhester November 15, 2009 8:53 PM EST
Wish I could show this to my students....but no.
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by BruceFurman November 15, 2009 8:40 PM EST
What a joy it was to view a positive news story; Resurrecting Eden from Iraq. Having lost a son in law at the beginning of the war, seeing the joy of those people gave my wife and I a feeling that there is some good to come out of this mess.

Bruce Furman
Fort Scott Kansas
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