Christian Isely, MS 03
Baghdad, Iraq
Baghdad Dispatch #14
August 11, 2004
Last night and today were quite exciting. I joined some friends for dinner at the local cafe last night and watched an Olympics qualifying match between Iraq and Portugal. Since it looked like the Iraqis would win, we thought it wise to proceed home to a hardened shelter. This course of action proved the wisest for upon victory, the entire sky was lit up with tracers and the roar of gunfire. From every direction, guns were fired into the air. Tracers were seen coming from the International Zone - even from the Ministry of Defense right next door. Can you imagine soldiers at the Pentagon firing off their weapons at will? Many people went on the roof to watch. Probably not a very smart move. The bullets have to land somewhere.
On another night earlier in the week, we saw tracers being fired in the air in the direction of Sadr City (I'm thinking probably at one of our helicopters), flares in the sky, and large flashes on the horizon in the direction of Fallujah (it is only 30-40 miles away). Blackhawk medic choppers flew overhead as well. The past couple weeks has also seen the return of mortars. Fortunately, not many people in the International Zone have been injured.
Today's events proved pretty noteworthy. I went on the roof this morning only to bear witness to massive amounts of demonstrators pouring over the nearest bridge toward the International Zone. They came wave after wave chanting in unison. Most groups were led by someone waving an enormous black flag. Seeing as the demonstrations were being held not very far from our residence, I thought it prudent to go down to the embassy for a while. I am still not sure what the demonstrations are about. Perhaps they are related to the fighting in Najaf yesterday?
Finally the weather is starting to cool down out here. Instead of being 120 degrees fahrenheit, we are now hitting 115. One day, it won't get above 100! The hot weather has brought the date harvest and the date palms throughout the International Zone are laden with big green, yellow, and brownish dates. As for eating them, they are quite good! I've never had so many different varieties.
One of my Iraqi coworkers has been bringing in Iraqi breakfast food. This usually consists of Iraqi bread (some of it resembles pita bread), yogurt, date syrup, buffalo cream, olives, and cheese (very salty with a texture and taste similar to mozarella). All of these make for an excellent breakfast and it is probably a great deal healthier than your typical American fare.
Baghdad has become increasingly dangerous for Iraqis in the last week. My Iraqi assistant told me that she was stopped by militia men on her way to work. They asked her where she was going and warned her to go home. Brave as she is, she told them she had to go to school to take an exam. They let her pass. Certain areas of the city are extremely dangerous - mainly Sadr City where between 2 and 3 million poor Iraqi Shiites live. Although many parts of that area have seen violence, apparently the parts where projects are underway (mostly sewerage construction) have been more tranquil. The Iraqi government has declared a curfew in Sadr City. In turn the militias have traveled to other areas of Baghdad and declared their own curfew.
Many people are speculating that the upsurge in violence is due to Sistani's absence (Sistani is the senior Shiite cleric in Iraq. He has proved pretty moderate and helped to quelch the radical Shiite insurgency last April). Currently he is in the UK for medical treatment. Perhaps this is a power play on the part of Sadr, the young upstart?
With regard to the progress of reconstruction, things are definitely picking up despite all the negative attention in the media. We have construction commencing tomorrow on a major railway station. As more projects commence within the month, employment figures are set to rise dramatically. Whether or not they will rise fast enough to see a decrease in violence by the time of the US Presidential election is another story. Then again, since I am away from the States, it is hard to tell what issues the elections are really about. However, I imagine that success or failure on our part here will have some impact.
One of the greatest challenges that we have faced and will continue to face as far as I can tell is the isolation inherent in the International Zone. I don't think there is enough interaction between the Iraqi ministries and the US policy makers responsible for the reconstruction process. Most ministries are located in the Red Zone and are therefore only accessible by coalition officials via armed security escort. These have to be booked well in advance and limit the amount of time available for face-to-face interaction between Iraqi and coalition officials. These security measures act as an artificial source of friction in getting things done and will continue to hamper coordination on a whole range of issues. I am starting to think that the creation of the Green Zone was a great mistake. By constructing an isolated fortress, we have kept too much distance between us and the surrounding government and country. I wonder if it would have been possible to establish smaller secure areas with the idea that most of the international workers could interact freely with the local population. I might be wrong but I think that would have made it easer to "win the hearts and minds of Iraqis".
The International Zone will one day cease to exist. Perhaps it will be declared officially nonexistent one morning or maybe it will fall away piece by piece. No one wants to be the one to do it and be held responsible for anything that might go wrong. Maybe change will have to come from within as members of the international community in the international zone take risks and travel outside to such an extent that it will become tacitly routine.
Christian