- published: 25 Aug 2011
- views: 37630
Umm Qasr (Arabic: أم قصر, also transliterated as : Um-qasir, Um-qasser), is a port city in southern Iraq. It stands on the canalised Khawr az-Zubayr, part of the Khawr Abd Allah estuary which leads to the Persian Gulf. It is separated from the border of Kuwait by a small inlet. A bridge across the waterway linked the port with Kuwait prior to the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Umm Qasr was originally a small fishing town, but was used as a military port on several occasions before advancing trades and jobs by building a deep-water port on the coast. It was said to have been the site of Alexander the Great's landing in Mesopotamia in 325 BC. During the Second World War a temporary port was established there by the Allies to unload supplies to dispatch to the Soviet Union. It fell back into obscurity after the war, but the government of King Faisal II sought to establish a permanent port there in the 1950s.
After the Iraqi Revolution of 1958, a naval base was established at Umm Qasr. The port was subsequently founded in 1961 by the Iraqi ruler General Abdul-Karim Qassem. It was intended to serve as Iraq's only "deep water" port, reducing the country's dependence on the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway that marks the border with Iran. The port facilities were built by a consortium of companies from West Germany, Sweden and Lebanon, with a railway line connecting it to Basra and Baghdad. The port opened for business in July 1967.
It's cold here in the city
It always seems that way
And I've been thinking
about you almost everyday
Thinking about the good times
Thinking about the rain
Thinking about how bad
it feels alone again
I'm sorry for the way
things are in China
I'm sorry things ain't
what they used to be
But more than anything else
I'm sorry for myself
Our friends ask all about you
I say you're doing fine
And I expect to hear
from you almost anytime
But they all know I'm crying
I can't sleep at night
They all know I'm
dying down deep inside
I'm sorry for all
the lies I told you
I'm sorry for the
things I didn't say
But more than anything else
I'm sorry for myself
I can't believe you went away
I'm sorry if I took
some things for granted
I'm sorry for the
chains I put on you
But more than anything else
I'm sorry for myself