COVER N.26 - Iraq

Postmark:  - 15JUN2021, probbaly Karbala, but I can't read Arabic...
Posted on the  15th june; received on the 22nd July, via the US (postmark US Postage 25JUN)
__________________________________________________________________________________

Iraq… Mesopotamia, the Cradle of Civilisation, nestled between the Tigris and the Euphrates, we heard it said many a time in the history classes, the place where writing and reading was invented, where the power and convenience of the wheel was brought to light, a melting pot of cultures, civilisations, creeds, evolving over the millennia and then…. 

Weapons of mass destruction, someone said…true, mass destruction it was and in a way it still is, since the collateral damages (one has to love the euphemism) of decades of a war that, if nothing else, paved the way for the emergence of the obnoxious terrorist group that is now massacring people in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, and will take ages to soothe.

I pity the people. Those who had little and now have less, as opposed to those that I’m sure hugely profited from the immense geopolitical conundrum  into which their country was transformed.

Not that I have any sympathy for the tyrant that ruled the country; but I don’t have any sympathy for the way he was ousted, neither for the aftermath of his disposal.

Who won?  

Those who were left to live in a destroyed country, ridden by corruption, where even oxygen bottles have the habit of exploding at hospitals, as if killing and maiming were a distinctive trait of civilization?

God? in whose name thousands marched eager to foster Creation's antonym?

The Free world? Are those that had to stay not part of it?

Anyway, all this has little if anything to do with Stamps and Covers, but a stamp is a dangerous time capsule, ready to trigger trains of thoughts...

Thank you so much, Roland. I said it before, I say it now: my small (but steadily growing) collection owes you a lot, and in some way, so does this blog, for how else would I be writing an entry about Iraq, if not for your moving mountains so that an Iraqi cover would fall on my mailbox?...

Stamps left to right, top to bottom:

The 1000 Dinars stamp, commemorative of Bagdad having been designated the Capital of Arab Media for 2018 by the Council of Arab Information Ministers of the Arab League, on a meeting chaired by Tunisia, that took place on13JUL2017, in Cairo, was issued on 13FEB2018, paired with another stamp of the same denomination, with the same design, although with a green background.

The 250 and 500 Dinars stamps, are part of a 5 stamp set dedicated to "ancient means of transport" issued on January 2004, although the stamps bear the inscription "Postage 2003".

An horse drawn tram is depicted in the lesser value stamp while the 500 Dinars stamp shows a local type of  canoe, called a Tarada, used to transport reeds, it seems.

The images on the other two stamps in the set are what is called a Guffa for the 50 Dinars stamp: a type of coracle, made from grasses and palm, braced with pomegranate stems and waterproofed with bitumen; an horse drawn carriage for the 100 Dinars stamp and, finally, a Dromedary Caravan for the 5000 Dinars stamp.

A photograph of a Robin (Erithacus rubecula) adorns the last stamp, with a face value of 750 Dinars)  part of a 5 "Birds" stamp set, issued on 21JAN2015 (although the stamps bear the inscription Postage 2014). The other stamps on this nice set are an Eurasian Tree Sparow (Passer montanus) - 250 Dinars; a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (Merops persicus) - 500 Dinars; a Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) - 1000 Dinars; an European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), also denominated at 1000 Dinars.