OK, maybe we could see this as the next reason for invading Iraq that the Republicans glom on to, since WMD, participation in 9/11, and all sundry other reasons are exploded. The story is about
VIAGRA!
Life is violent, minds are frayed and the little blue pill is selling big on Sadoon Street.
"People are depressed, so they need Viagra and other drugs to give them interest in sex," said Talid Abdul-Amir Shebany, a balding pharmacist who tracks the changing ailments of Iraqis in a worn ledger on his desk. "Viagra sales have at least doubled since the war ended. Lives are not good. There's bombs and tension. When you see bodies and destroyed houses, you have psychological disturbances that affect sexual desire."
. . .
Viagra and its copycats — Kamagra from India, Novagra from Britain and Vega from Syria — have been available for several years, but importation was limited, taxed and heavily regulated by the former Iraqi Health Ministry.
Those barriers are gone. Drugs are cheaper — four Kamagra tablets sell for $2.50 — and sometimes even women in this tribal, patriarchal society will whisper their husbands' dysfunctions into the pharmacist's ear.
"The Koran does not forbid Viagra," Shebany said. "In Islam, if a man can't sexually satisfy his wife she can ask for a divorce. Viagra helps prevent this disaster."
So we invaded to provide cheap Viagra to Iraqi men, thus doing our part to lower the divorce rate? Oh, I forgot, this would be the compassionate conservative family values bit, wouldn't it?
