Our Fake War Zone

A few weeks ago work began on the street near our language school to turn it into a pedestrian only thoroughfare. For the first part of this venture, big machines were brought in to pound into pieces the existing pavement--which was then hauled away--leaving behind a gravel road with piles of rubble strewn about. We walk on this rocky road every day--as do many other people--and several people we know have commented that it reminds them of walking through a war zone, that it looks like an area that has been bombed. In reality it looks nothing like a war zone; real war zones are much, much worse.

Below is a picture of our street, followed by pictures of streets that have been bombed in Baghdad and in Beirut last summer. The pictures are the closest in appearance that we could find to our street, meaning that they are pictures that actually show the least amount of damage that we could find. Pictures of much more incredible damage and grisly scenes of death can be found without much effort--these are the real war zones.