THE EYES OF AN IRAQI Artist Mohammed Ghani has seen the British come and go, and watched the rise of Iraqi nationalism slowly decay into the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. Now as he walks the streets of his native Baghdad with the Post's Anthony Shadid, he is bewildered by the latest transformation.

To Ghani, Baghdad remains more myth than reality -- an eternal quality that gives the city resilience.

"Baghdad is a symbol for the Arabs, all Arabs," he said, as he rode through parts of the capital for the first time since his return. "The name itself" evokes the glories of Arab civilization, he said, putting his hand to his heart, then flicking it away.

Educated in Italy, Ghani has had a small part in defining modern Baghdad. He claims inspiration from Iraq's past -- Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Abbassid -- and his monuments, mostly in bronze and built over 35 years, dot the city.

In Ali Baba Square stands his statue of Kahramana, the medieval hero's maidservant who killed the 40 thieves. Among the towering reeds of the Tigris River, his bronze Scheherazade stands vigil over once-libertine Abu Nawas Street, telling her stories over 1,001 nights to a reclining Schahriah. Down the road is a flying carpet, its ascent meant to symbolize the flight of the city's residents from war. And nearby is a marble statue of Ishtar , the sultry Sumerian goddess of love, pouring water into a fountain.

The sculptures bring a certain nostalgia to a city of 5 million dominated today by cement housing projects, the broad avenues suited to military parades, Los Angeles-style flyovers and Stalinist odes to Hussein. But they evoke an element of loneliness, too, in a landscape still shattered by bombing and looting and darkened by frequent blackouts.

"My son told me that it is better for me not to see Baghdad," Ghani said. "But I insisted."

Baghdad today is a confused city, understandably so given that its people have lived a lifetime in a few short months. To Ghani, it is bewildering.

BLENDING IN Natacha Atlas found her calling as part of Transglobal Underground in the early 90s, and has since come into her own as a musician. Combining Euro dance and the ethnic sounds of the Middle East, Atlas' music at its best is catchy, funky and fresh. Her latest CD is a mixed bag, however. "Something Dangerous" has a number of stellar grooves, and an equal number of overproduced duds. Her 2001 Remix collection was a significantly tighter effort.

Despite her growing acclaim in Europe and America, where she has contributed to the soundtracks of several Hollywood films, including the forthcoming film, The Hulk, Atlas feels that she is misunderstood in the Middle East. “ There’s been a lot of things written about me that aren’t true, like I’m half Jewish, or that I don’t speak Arabic. Its all rubbish.”

Although she embraces Western musical styles, Atlas remains passionate about the heritage of Arabic singers she first heard emanating from her parents’ record collection.

“I still listen to people like Fairouz, Abdel Halim Hafez and Umm Kulthum. I love that music where each song went on for 20 minutes. You can take pieces of their introductions and make a whole new song from it. I’ve had a deep love for that music ever since I was little.”

COME TOGETHER Turi Muthe continues his Slate series on life in Baghdad with a visit to the Hikma Mosque.

At the Hikma Mosque, I met Sheikh Abbas al-Rubai', the editor of the Da'wa Party's newspaper, al-Hausa. The Da'wa is one of the biggest Shiite parties in Iraq today, led by the 22-year-old Moqtadr al-Sadr, the martyr's son. His weekly paper sells 12,000 copies, more than almost every other paper in Baghdad. We sit in the mosque's antechamber. There's electricity here so a slow fans whirrs. Before he joined the party, Abbas was a painter. He studied at the progressive College of Fine Arts in Baghdad.

He tells me about life under Saddam and the war: "It was worse than you can imagine. Women and children were killed for a word, or even a suspicious look at a picture of Saddam … and then during this war, the Fedayeen came, and with them Sunni Arab volunteers from Syria and Jordan. From the 14th to the 21st of April, they ransacked the city. They even used rocket-propelled grenades. And for no reason. They had already lost."

The Da'wa Party did everything it could to stave off anarchy. Its student groups took up arms and protected the hospitals, saving the al-Kindi hospital from arson after it was looted and preventing the Qadisiya and Chuwadira hospitals from being looted. Those last two hospitals saved the lives of many of the wounded from all around Baghdad. Now, the party is cleaning up the debris—the dirt and the weapons—of the war. Abbas tells me the Sunnis and Shiites are working together; since the war, their doctors have been sharing medical supplies.

THE STREETS OF BAGHDAD Writer Turi Munthe is in Baghdad, and will be penning daily observations this week at Slate. Monday's focuses on the state of the city, and the opinions of students at Baghdad University.

Being a journalist here is like being a Baathist under Saddam—you're royalty, and everyone wants to know you. It's the novelty of talk. And the students talked for hours. Amongst the seven or so who sat with me around a table and shared Pepsis, there was not a single shared opinion. Some wanted monarchy, others swore on the republic. They disdain the current various political pretenders, but they have no sense of an alternative. There was relish—savage and vengeful—at the Baath Party's demise, and calls for clemency, and despair. The students agreed about nothing except their terror of anarchy.

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE... NORWAY The United Nations has ranked the United States seventh in a report on the best countries to live, and women have more political power in Botswana than they do in Greece.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Australia and the Netherlands ranked as the best countries in which to live in the 2003 U.N. Human Development report on Tuesday but Canadians were miffed.

The United States ranked seventh and Canada was eighth in the report that seeks to go beyond per capita income and include such factors as educational levels, health care and life expectancy in measuring a nation's well-being.

The report also gives a separate index for women's participation in political and economic fields, with surprising results. It says that women fare better in Botswana, Costa Rica and Namibia than they do in Greece, Italy and Japan.

OH, AND ABOUT THAT URANIUM... It's nice to see the Bush administration step forward and admit that the State of the Union Address contained one untruth -- Iraq did not attempt to buy enriched uranium from Niger. I wonder what else Bush got wrong.

OH, AND ABOUT THAT URANIUM... It's nice to see the Bush administration step forward and admit that the State of the Union Address contained one untruth -- Iraq did not attempt to buy enriched uranium from Niger. I wonder what else Bush got wrong.

WAR? WHAT WAR? In case you forgot -- as many people seem to have -- we had a noble purpose in going into Iraq (even if it was a veil for some ignoble objectives). We were going to bring democracy, and improve people's lives, and be welcomed as liberators. And we sort of halfway delivered. Unfortunately, Iraq is suffering from the summer news blues, a time when shakr attacks or amusement park ride tragedies dominate headlines. Howard Kurtz explains:

Iraq is turning into one heckuva mess.

We won the war and are losing the peace.

This is not a "quagmire" argument, just a recognition of the fact that American troops have been put in a near-impossible situation in what remains a hostile environment, and some are paying with their lives.

You'd have to conclude that the Pentagon's postwar planning was terribly inadequate.

Three months after the media invasion of Iraq, the coverage of the aftermath has been maddeningly episodic. Yes, the big papers still have correspondents there and the nightly news shows check in on Iraq, but the rest of the news has been more about Laci, Reese, Kobe, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo and the like.

What about all that noble rhetoric about our intention to rebuild the post-Saddam country as a democracy, a shining example for the Middle East, etc.? The Supreme Council of Pulse-Taking News Executives must have issued a decree that the subject was a ratings and circulation loser.

Media interest picks up when American soldiers are attacked, but even on that score there's an obligatory quality to the stories. The soldiers are, well, anonymous--Tommy Franks has retired, Saddam is missing, President ('Bring 'em on!') Bush is off to Africa. That leaves Iraq as something of an ugly media stepchild.

ESPOSITO'S PERSPECTIVE John Esposito is simultaneously respected and suspect, controversial and authorittative. One of a handful of American scholars with a deep understanding of Islam, he has been called an apologist for radical Islam. His politics and bias aside, Esposito does have clear views on events in the Middle East, which he shares in this interview with Egypt's All-Ahram online newspaper.

IRAQ IN PHOTOS The Washington Post's Camera Works has created one of the best photo presentations I have seen of Iraq as seen through the eyes of several dozen photojournalists. The multimedia show features audio impressions from the photographers, and a slide show of their work, which ranges from combat photos to surreal snapshots of post-war Iraq. This is simply a stunning collection of images and impressions.

HUMBLE PIE As the situation in Iraq creaks back and forth between stability and conflict, the need for action from the Bush administration rises, argues this Washington Post editorial. Many things are better in Iraq today than they were in March, but the things that are worse are fuel for a dangerous fire -- the electrical and water infrastructure, in particular, and the increased resistance north and west of Baghdad. More supplies, more equipment, more administrators, more NGOs and more troops are needed to stem the backslide, and the Post notes that the administration's poor diplomacy has resulted in few volunteers from the 70+ countries contacted for assistance. Perhaps it's time to be humble and mend some fences with our European allies. And it wouldn't help to be more candid with the Ammerican public.

While reaching out to U.S. allies, President Bush also needs to speak more clearly about Iraq to the American people. Last week he finally acknowledged that rebuilding Iraq would be "a massive and long-term undertaking," but his shallow "bring 'em on" taunt to the militants merely underlined his failure to clearly explain the objectives of U.S. forces and how long it may take to achieve them. Americans are now dying in Iraq at the rate of nearly one per day. Mr. Bush needs to tell the country why that sacrifice is necessary -- and what he will do to mitigate the threat.