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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

War means uneasy profits for Baghdad glass salesman

Jonathan Finer and Bassam Sebti Washington Post

BAGHDAD, Iraq – At midday, the stores and sidewalks of Sadoun Street, Baghdad’s once-bustling commercial center, were nearly deserted.

A pharmacy’s double doors were held closed by a rusty chain. The manager of a family restaurant had no patrons to feed. And a dealer in Swiss watches mused about moving to a city where wealthy customers would not be afraid to shop downtown.

But tucked away on a side street, Ghassan Aboudi’s shop was busier than ever, he said. This month, three car bombs have exploded in the neighborhood, across a bridge from the U.S.-controlled Green Zone. Each blast shattered windows over several blocks. And for Aboudi, a glass salesman, each added to what has become a flood of unfortunate customers.

“I don’t like to think about it like this, but the disasters of some people are the benefits of others,” said Aboudi, 32. “When I hear there is a bombing, I think of the tragedy. And I also know that people will be coming to see me soon.”

At any other time, in almost any other place, Aboudi’s would not be such a morbid, and lucrative, profession. But Baghdad has had as many car bombings this month as in all of last year. The city’s glass salesmen acknowledge, sheepishly, that the bloody month has been a bonanza for them.

“We used to stand outside and count the passing cars because there was nothing else to do,” said Aboudi, sipping coffee in a showroom filled with cabinets, translucent desks and stacks of large rectangular panes for storefront windows. “Now, business is better 99 percent. It seems like we are working all the time.”

The windfall, however, carries with it intense feelings of guilt over profiting from the misery of others, Aboudi and his colleagues say. The Sadoun Street bombings that lined their pockets killed 34 people and wounded dozens.