European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 18, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday March 18 2007 s tar s an d stripes Page 11 music in the line of fire popular music comes under fire from Baghdad Muslim militants the associated press Sulayman Yah Iraq Farouk has sans eyes Well up with tears As he Cranks his cars cd player and sings along with the latest hit a lament to his lost love violence torn Baghdad but it is not just the songs lyrics that encapsulate the tragedy of Baghdad bloodshed the pop Star singing the tune the Young Man listening to it and even the music shop employees who sold him the cd Are All among the thousands who have fled the iraqi capital navigating the streets of Sulay Man Yah 180 Miles North of Bagh dad Hassan who fled the Capi Tal several months ago Points out that his friends Back Home can not even listen to music in Public fearing they will draw the Atten Tion of islamic militants who con Sider pop music a corrupting Force a song can wrap a person in All these emotions its really Amaz ing said Hassan wiping away the tears from his eyes the music can truly move people who Are missing Home he added approximately 18 million iraqis have fled the country in nearly four years of violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein a similar number have left their Homes to take Refuge elsewhere in Iraq Many in Sulayman Yah and other parts of the Northern Kurdistan re Gion which has largely been spared the turmoil amid the chaos shiite and sunni Muslin extremists have grown bolder in enforcing religious strictures forcing stores Selling cd and dds to shut Down sometimes employees of those shops have been killed at Sulym Aniyah Aldar Al Maidaa music store town 180 Miles North of Baghdad where Hassan is a regular customer one of the employees Ammar knows All too Well the dangers of the music business Ammar who would give Only his first name for fear of reprisals against his family once ran a music store in Eastern Baghdad but in september followers of Radical shiite cleric Muntada a Sadr came to his shop and told him to shut it Down you infidel and Devil Follower you deserve to die for pushing muslims to corruption and Adul Tery said the letter they left the 21yearold Ammar said he did not take the threat seriously at first then men dressed in Black sprayed his shop with gunfire destroying it and wounding him a few Days later he left his family and College studies behind and fled to Sulayman Yah where he took up his Job at Aldar Alba Idaa arabic pop music blares from the shop in a main commercial Street of Sulaim Aniyah and its Walls Are adorned with posters of Thamer Ahmed a Salesman at Aldar Alba Idaa music store in Sulayman Yah Iraq arranges posters of popular singers thursday amid the chaos shiite and sunni Muslim extremists have grown bolder in enforcing religious strictures forcing stores Selling cd and dds to shut Down and sometimes killing employees scantily Clad Arab and Western female singers elsewhere in Iraq that would have been enough to prompt attacks from extremists but Sulaim Aniyah and the rest of autonomous Kurdistan is largely secular Aldar Alba Idaa is itself some thing of a refugee the Chain opened a Branch in Sulayman Yah because it was no longer Safe to sell music in Central and Southern Iraq said the branches manager Ahmad a Ahmad militiamen broke into the chains Baghdad Branch during the summer and demanded it be shut Down the Baghdad manager told the associated press by Tele phone he negotiated with them to keep the store open but under a strict set of conditions no hang ing pictures of female singers on the storefront and no loudspeakers playing music outside the business is not like be fore said the manager who spoke on the condition of Anonym Ity for fear of reprisals people Are afraid even to walk into our store fearing someone is watch ing them a Ahmad the Sulayman Yah Branch manager said the bestselling cd of 2006 were those evoking emotions of iraqis who had fled from violence with titles like so we dont forget Iraq and the pains of our peo ple faced with the dangers of Pur chasing music Many Baghdad residents now turn to the inter net Anwar Getan who lives in East pm Baghdad says he downloads songs and saves them on his to bile phone memory card exchanging them with neighbors and friends using the Mobile to listen to songs is Way safer than endanger ing ourselves by going to the music stores he said Iraq War poses comparatively Small economic Burden by Matt Crenson the associated press new York after four years Ameri Cas Cost for the War in Iraq has reached nearly billion More than the total for the korean War and nearly As much As 12 years in Vietnam adjusting for inflation the ultimate Cost could reach tril lion or More a lot of Money no question but even though the War has turned out to be much More expensive than Bush administration officials predicted on the eve of the March 2003 invasion it is relatively affordable at least in historical terms Iraq eats up less than 1 percent of the nations Gross Domestic product compared with As much As 14 percent for Vietnam and 9 percent for Korea i think its hard to argue its not afford Able said Steven m Kosiak director of budget studies at the Center for strategic and budgetary assessments a defense think tank in Washington do the problem he and other budget analysts argue int so much the Overall Cost of the Iraq War its the Way the govern ment has chosen to pay for it for one thing War funding for both Iraq and Afghanistan has come in the form of supplemental appropriations outside the Normal Federal budget process typically these supplemental Are used to pay for unexpected emergencies such As Hurri Cane katrina and they receive much less scrutiny from Congress president Truman quit asking for supple rentals after the first year of the korean War the Vietnam War started appearing in the Federal budget beginning in 1966 the year after regular troops were commit Ted but after four years the Iraq War is still being funded with supplemental in de Cember congressional budget leaders from both parties sent a letter to president Bush asking him to Start paying for Iraq through the traditional budget process the administration has done that in its 2008 budget year request but not before asking for another billion supplemental to keep the War going through the end of this year and during previous wars presidents have asked americans to make Tough sacrifices in order to help pay for the War Effort said Robert Hormats a managing director at Goldman Sachs and author of the Forth coming Book the Price of Liberty paying for americas wars virtually every War in us history has required the government to borrow at least some Money Hormats said but Franklin d Roosevelt also eliminated some new Deal programs and Cut others to help pay for world War ii the most expensive of american wars it Cost More than tril lion in inflation adjusted Truman raised taxes and slashed Domestic spend ing to help pay for Korea no such thing has occurred during this War Hormats lamented this month during a panel discussion held at the new schools Schwartz Center for economic policy analysis in new York City this War we had no reassessment of Fis Cal policy no alteration of fiscal policy to make room in the budget to pay for the War instead the War is being paid for with debt administration officials downplay the wars Cost and the growing defense budget which will be larger by the end of this year than at any time since world War ii defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged in congressional testimony last month that his departments 2008 Bud get request along with supplemental fund ing for the War had produced some sticker Shock but he pointed out that defense and War spending is still Only about 4 per cent of the nations total economic output a much smaller fraction that it has been historically if anything notes former Nebraska sen Bob Kerrey that a testament to How big and Strong the us Economy has become in the past few decades weve demonstrated tremendous Capac Ity to do a very very expensive program said Kerrey a Democrat who now serves As president of the new school he and others say that the continued strength of the Economy itself is a Demon stration of the wars affordability but with projections that the costs of social Security and especially medicare Are about to go through the to mention the possibility of future National Security crises the War is contributing to a fiscal problem that is expected to become increasingly apparent Over the course of the next decade and the wars costs will continue to accrue Long after the last us troops finally leave Iraq a recent study by Linda Bilmes of Harvard University Kennedy school of government put the total Cost of provid ing medical care and disability benefits to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan at billion to billion