Iraqis Pimp Their Rides
Now that Saddam is dead, some Iraqis are finally doing something they’ve always wanted to do—Pimp Their Rides.
That’s right, the custom car culture that has raged across America for decades has hit Baghdad. Saddam’s two murderous sons controlled all auto imports in Iraq, and if Uday saw someone driving a car he liked he would simply confiscate it on the spot. Any kind of custom car culture just wasn’t possible under Saddam.
With Saddam and his sons out of power, Iraq is now awash in new and used cars, custom car magazines, and many of the same custom auto parts that are popular in America. Even with all the bloodshed and war, MTV’s “Pimp My Ride” is a popular show on Arab satellite television.
A center of Baghdad’s custom car culture is an auto repair shop run by two brothers, Adnan and Hisham Ghulan.
“I want to have a car that makes people turn their heads as I drive by,” said Adnan Ghulan, who favors sleeveless shirts that show off a collection of tattoos.
Their current pride and joy — a tricked-out white 1987 BMW M3 with front and rear spoilers, broad blue and red stripes, and a red eagle on the door — certainly turns heads.
They bought it from a man who put the car in storage for years after being chased by Uday Hussein’s thugs one night.
Inside, the pimping is even more over the top — red and yellow leather everywhere, dragons on the floorboards and a set of stereo speakers that take up most of the back seat.
“We’re not finished yet,” said Hisham Ghulan, who wouldn’t expand on his planned modifications and was reluctant to let his ride be photographed before he was done.
This is just another example of how much progress has been made in Iraq. The Democrats would love to convince Americans that the war is a failure and we lost, however the success of the “surge” has proven otherwise.
Kudos to the L.A. Times for having the courage to print something positive going on Iraq. It’s not that stories like this are rare, it’s that the mainstream media is invested in our defeat and chooses not to cover them.
-Chris Jones
(hat tip to Michelle)
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