“While bombs rip through buildings, rival factions assassinate each other’s leaders, and increasingly brutal occupation and resistance forces duke it out, Iraqi artists are playing it safe. This is in contrast to the art scene under sanctions, when poignant tableaux spoke of the suffering of a populace under siege, playwrights pushed the political envelope with veiled criticisms of the ancient regime’s corruption, and composers wrote angry orchestral anthems with damning titles like “To the U.N.” (which was, after all, the embargo enforcer).”