Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
A Reporter Returns to Baghdad
Like this ridiculous enterprise in Iraq, and particularly when cynicism becomes the hallmark of a war, everything starts to sound like an episode out of M*A*S*H*:
Outside our heavily-secured workspace you can hear gunfire and two or three times a day the horrible unmistakable thump of a car bomb exploding somewhere in the city. Even the "Green Zone" where most Americans live has lost the illusion of safety.

It's the size of a small city and access to it was completely shut down over the weekend after the U.S. military said it stopped a series of planned suicide car bombs there. Going into the Green Zone the following day I was surprised there wasn't more panic among its Western residents. "They never told us about it," one told me.

'Return to normalcy'

So when the official press release with the cheery note: "Yet another indication of Iraq's return to normalcy!" popped up in my inbox, I was a little taken aback.

It was about U.S. renovations to Baghdad's International Airport. It talked about the $13 million pumped into the facility. It didn't mention the worrying security breaches at the airport - the discovery of plastic explosives a few months ago - or fears that it had been infiltrated by one of Iraq's many militias.

But it did note the cafe was open and the duty-free shop featured a Harley-Davison motorcycle.
Written at 2:57 PM by Greyhair.
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