I am in New York at Christmas time. The lights are brilliant, the crowds at Rockefeller Center take in the giant Christmas tree, and the Rockettes are already into their umpteenth performance of their Christmas extravaganza.

I would like to be thinking about things like Miracle on 34th Street and An Affair to Remember. But instead I am thinking about Iraq.

There was more bombing in Baghdad today, and dozens of people were killed. My heart wants to be light, but it is heavy.

To be in New York at this time of year, as Hanukkah candles and Christmas trees light living rooms, and as the U.S. begins its withdrawal -- from a country it has already impregnated with destruction -- is a tricky thing.

Well now, to what do we owe this honour? Within the space of a week, Vancouver will host not only Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's infamous foreign minister, an illegal settler who openly advocates ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, but also Mr. Dick Cheney, invasion apologist and torture architect extraordinaire.

While B.C. has long been a haven for aging Nazi war criminals and the odd Balkan massacre instigator, and more recently for Iranian parliamentarians hedging their bets and Israeli arms dealers hiding their assets, this will surely be a precedent setting week.

In light of the recent church bombing in Cairo and right-wing rioters burning down a mosque in Athens, I still say Canada (despite 'reasonable accommodation' dog and pony shows, and trumped-up charges laid against radicalized teenagers) is -- or could be with a few adjustments -- a global example of interfaith harmony.

While our racism/sectarianism may be somewhat polite and repressed, we're not so far from being a kinder, gentler (and colder) Andalusia.

I still think that Canada -- where Muslims fleeing xenophobia in Europe or persecuted Christians fleeing the Middle East are just as likely as not to rub shoulders on the Yonge street line (or on the skytrain to Surrey) -- has enough space and enough 'newness' about it to contain much of the world.

The two men sat across from each other in identical black suits -- very Brooks Brothers, very corporate machismo. Their feet firmly apart, they leaned forward on their chairs with purpose, as if they were discussing sales figures at an AGM.

The two shared similarly thinning hairlines and a certain pudgy middle-aged smugness. They occasionally smiled and guffawed good naturedly, called each other by their first names and one mentioned that "we go back a long way, don't we?" One almost expected them to reminisce about a long lost golf tournament.

I write this as Iraq's fortunes hang in a delicate, dangerous balance.

While the U.K. has resolved its hung parliament in a matter of days, and without the threat of, say, rival militias backed by Iran and Saudi duking it out or bombs in public markets, the Iraqi saga goes on.

Some two months since Iyad Allawi's nominally secular, Sunni-friendly Iraqyia party won a slim majority over Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki's State of Law Coalition, there is still no clear winner. With the exception of, perhaps, Iran, whose hefty funding of sectarian Shi'a parties will ensure a divided and weak Iraq, especially in the wake of the imminent U.S. withdrawal (now delayed again by a month due to continuing instability).

We hear plenty about the horror of Iraq. There are bombs in market places, at hotels and official buildings. There are sectarian rifts, dozens of militias and politicians who claim to be fighting terror yet who have their own private armies. Fifty-three billion dollars has been spent on post-invasion aid, and yet 40 per cent of Iraqis are without drinking water. Iraq is currently ranked the fifth most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International.