When Violent Death is an Ever-Present Possibility...

you laugh and you cry. At least that's the lesson to be derived from Love and War, Iraq's most popular TV show. This article from The New York Times describes it as a "tragicomedy" that combines slapstick with drama rooted in the grim realities of war-torn and recovering Iraq.

Says the article:

Even the show's comic moments can be violent. In one episode, Fawzi [the male lead] is so busy flirting with Fatin [the female lead] that he fails to notice his car - the hand brake left off - rolling backward downhill. It rolls all the way to an American military checkpoint, where the soldiers, mistaking it for a car bomb, riddle it with bullets.

Love and War has come to an end. Its final episode, recently filmed and to be seen in June, shows Fawzi and Fatin, now married, being blown up by a suicide bomber. Such is the violent reality of Iraq. I'm praying for peace.