Christian Isely, MS 03
Baghdad, Iraq
Baghdad Dispatch #5
Baghdad - May 10, 2004
The weather is getting hotter out here. Pretty soon, it will be downright oppressive. I can't imagine what it must have been like last summer for the majority of the population in this city without power.
It seems the most significant event people have been wondering about lately is last Friday's car bomb. Don't worry, I'm safe and sound. However, I will say that for a few minutes I was pretty stunned. I was having trouble getting out of bed on that morning when Bam! The entire ground shook accompanied by the sound of an explosion. I've never seen so many people wake up at the same time. (Remember, I'm living in a large tent with at least thirty other people.) We all looked at each other stupidly - not knowing exactly what to do. Was it a mortar, a grenade, a missile? Should we put on our gas masks? A couple minutes later a loudspeaker voice told us to take cover. As I was leaving my tent to get to a more hardened shelter, I saw thick black smoke in the distance. Of course, the most immediate source for news was the internet. The rest of the day went on as usual as if nothing ever happened. Now, people are not even talking about it. I wonder what kind of press the attack stirred up back home. This week, it seems like a distant memory.
I have traversed at least half of the Green Zone by now. Today, I even made it to the "Assassin's Gate" where back in January, an even deadlier car bomb exploded. For the most part, the Green Zone is like one giant park complex. There are few large buildings with a great deal of open space in between. Some buildings are completely intact while others are reduced partly to rubble. The most imposing of such structures is the Ba'ath Party Headquarters which sits as a shell of itself home to nothing but wild cats. Sometimes, one can spot the occasional bat flying about.
Despite these remnants, life still goes on. There are many children selling Turkish chocolate bars, DVD rip offs, pornography, and cigarettes. There is one street dubbed the "Haji Mart" where one can purchase Ba'athist memorabilia on an almost similar vein to the Soviet stuff one sees in the former Eastern Block. I bought a bunch of old Saddam currency for kicks. Naturally, haggling is a must. The only vendor who doesn't engage in haggling is the liquor man. His establishment is affectionately dubbed "The 7-11". There are also two "Chinese" restaurants although I have yet to try them.
Iraqi police forces are used to guard sites throughout the Green Zone and they seem to wear their uniforms with pride. I have also seen soldiers in uniform from Britain, Australia, Romania, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, and a couple Canadians - I thought Canada wasn't part of the Coalition but who knows?
Last week, I got to see a house that an Iraqi family was trying to rent out to whomever would pay up. Houses in the Green Zone are commanding California rental prices. Talk about lucking out concerning where the Green Zone was drawn up. That's quite a fortune for an Iraqi family! The old cliche, "Location, location, location!" could not be more true.
Anybody have any ideas as to how the prisoner abuse scandal will impact the election campaign? I'm a bit isolated from domestic politics since I left DC.
Christian