http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-baghdad-story_slyfeb19,0,4884337.storyBaghdad cafe owner rebuilds, but his losses linger<snip>
The March 2007 bombing marked a low point in the violence that convulsed Iraq, an attack on the intellectual and cultural heart of the city. At least 38 people died in the huge explosion on the narrow street; it also demolished the 92-year-old cafe, a renowned gathering spot for the city's artists and writers.
...
But it's a rebirth laced with bitterness for Shabandar's owner, Mohammed Kadhim al-Khishali, 77. He lost four sons and a grandson in the blast. His wife died, from grief he says, five months later.
The lifeless form of his grandson, mown down in front of the cafe, was the first thing Khishali saw when he picked himself off the floor and rushed outside into the black smoke.
He helped dig his four sons out of the rubble of their printing house next door the following day.
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Though business is back, it's hardly what it was before, when the cafe used to stay open till 9 or 10 at night. Now Khishali closes his doors when the book market and other markets nearby close, in the early afternoon.
And he has noticed that many of his old regulars no longer are there. "Many people have left the country. And many people have died."
He directs his bitterness toward the United States, and in particular George W. Bush, for launching the invasion that led to the ravaging of his life.
" Saddam Hussein never harmed me," Khishali said. "May God be the judge between me and George Bush, and I hope to meet him on judgment day."
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