A number of Iraqis told us they had welcomed the U.S. forces as liberators initially but in the intervening months, they had come to feel that they had swapped one oppressive regime for another. The Iraqis did exchange one oppression for a lighter kind, in some ways.

Some people never see the light Till it shines thru bullet holes.

My models for graceful aging are guys like John Lee Hooker and Mississippi John Hurt, who never stopped working till they dropped, as I fully expect to be doing, and just getting better as musicians and as human beings.

Everything that makes a society run is broken in Iraq. The only real structure is the people's own sense of themselves as Iraqis, which was very strong. They're a proud people, and they trace their historic roots way, way back.

But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight / Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight.

And I'm wondering where the lions are.

In between effect and cause and just beyond the range of normal sight, this glittering joker was dancing in the dragon's jaws.