Christmas in Baghdad

Interesting times in Iraq. The question of whether the British operation against the serious crimes unit in Basra was right or wrong should exist independently of whether invading Iraq was right or wrong. I was dead against invasion in 2003 but think it was, on balance, probably right that they took down the station last week. This is part of Operation Sinbad to try and root out the worst elements of the security forces in Iraq. I understand that western troops and private security companies have committed many disgraces, some reported but most not, but the simple fact is (probably) that dozens of people were saved from torture and execution by this operation. Isn't that a good enough end in itself? Taking down the building itself I think was right as well, why not remove what for many in Basra would have been a symbol of corruption and murder.

I was surprised to see Saddam's death sentence upheld so soon. They weren't bound by the constitution to issue an appeal decision within any time limit, so they could have stuck it on the shelf for a couple of months. Maliki's keen as mustard to get Saddam hanged so I wouldn't be surprised to see the sentence carried out within the next week. Some of my Iraqi friends are very, very worried that this is really going to make the violence escalate. Of course there's a perverse asymmetry to this - to remove a negative symbol in the shape of the police station in Basra might well improve things down there but removing one in the form of Saddam in Baghdad is going to lead to more death and destruction.

Aaaanyway. Christmas in Baghdad has been great fun. Hopefully I'll have a couple of days off before the round of New Year parties kicks in. My liver needs a break.

Here's wishing you and yours a safe and happy Christmas, and all the best for 2007 wherever you are.

S

Back to Baghdad

It's never easy flying Iraqi Airways. I had problems with them when I left Baghdad to go on leave and was flying back in from Kurdistan the other day. We boarded the flight 2 hours after it was scheduled to depart, which was fine. We expected that and 2 hours isn't too bad for this airline. So then we sat there for a while and nothing happened until they asked everyone to get back off the plane again to check the luggage. They'd lined all the bags up on the tarmac and we had to go and identify them to get them put back in the hold. Nothing to do with security measures - just plain incompetence. It puts you in the mindset that you are back in Iraq though, so it's not all bad.



Being back isn't that bad, though it's much tougher to come back after leave than it is to come here in the first place. You get used to normal life and seeing friends and family again and then it's back to this madness. One of our guys' brother was shot and killed 3 days ago, the cleaner whose husband was kidnapped (and has now disappeared altogether) had a brother murdered 2 weeks ago, and another guy saw someone dragged out of his car and shot in the head yesterday outside his front door. This place is much worse than it was when I left and the sense of fear is palpable. The main obstacle for security is the government. They are a total disaster for the people of Iraq. Many Iraqis think even talking to Syria and Iran won't make any difference now. Maliki and his corrupt, partisan government should be overthrown as soon as possible. I wouldn't lose too much sleep if they were kidnapped tomorrow.

As for today's suicide bombing that killed over 50 people looking for work and injured 3 times as many, it will be blamed on Sunnis. I'm not so sure though because Iraqis aren't usually suicide bombers - Arabs are. So my guess is the suicide bomber this morning was Syrian or in any case a foreign terrorist. Not that that will stop the Shiites going on a sectarian death squad jolly though.

In other news gunmen stole USD 1 million from a bank truck in Baghdad. That probably translates into a lot of rockets, so soon, in a sense, it will be raining money.

Something didn't smell right......

This is pretty funny. Lighting your farts when you're a kid is one thing, but this takes the cake. Presumably her farts didn't smell like sulphur in the first place...

So the long awaited and much leaked Baker report came out yesterday. Already Bush is ruling out direct talks with Iran and Syria. Well clearly he's got it right so far, so why follow the advice of the Baker Commission? If it wasn't so tragic it would almost be funny. Any plan that doesn't involve Iran and Syria is doomed to failure. The Iraqi police and army are so corrupt that without Iranian and Syrian involvement they will never be able to function as they should. The big difference between the Iraqi army and the army in Kurdistan is that the former are easily bought but the latter are not. You wouldn't ask prisoners to police the streets of the US or the UK, so why do it here? Simply embedding another 20,000 troops with the Iraqi security services won't make a blind bit of difference if you're not getting the neighbours involved. The borders are more leaky than England's middle order so unless you contain the problem you're always treading water. If the Iranian and Syrian borders are sealed and the weapons and terrorists stop coming in, then you can at last begin to deal with a finite quantity of shit. But Bush seems more content to piss in the wind. He must rate the size of his bladder...

A very different Iraq

I'm in Kurdistan at the moment, which is broadly the northern part of Iraq. A brief history lesson. In 1992 Kurdistan (or the Federal Region of Kurdistan to give it the full name) became semi autonomous. It has its own constitution and has passed some of its own laws, although these are not significantly different from Iraqi law. One difference is that laws passed by the CPA in 2003 and 2004 are not recognised here as they were not legislated through the regional assembly (parliament). Between 1992 and 1997 all sorts of shit was hitting the fan as rival factions battled for power, being the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) and KDP (Kurdish Democratic Party). The PUK was led by Jalal Talibani and the KDP by Massoud Barzani. These days they are President of Iraq and Kurdistan respectively. After the imposition of the UN's Oil for Food program in 1997 and intervention by the US, things calmed down and they've been working alongside ever since.

Being here is bizarre - I don't even feel like I am in Iraq. Life here is normal. There are no bombs, rockets, mortars, helicopters or kidnappings. There is no razor wire. Kids go to school and walk down the street freely, restaurants do a bustling trade and there are hundreds of them, many run by people who fled Baghdad. So yeah, it really is hard to believe this is Iraq. I'm not looking forward to going back to Baghdad this time. I'm sure that at some point in 2007, maybe in Spring or Summer, even the IZ is going to be getting too dangerous. So I will hunker down in Baghdad for the next couple of months but after that I'll have to either come up to Kurdistan or get out of Iraq altogether. Not much use making fistfuls of dollars if your fists have been blown off or you're dead.

Bye bye Bolton

I was happy to see that Bush has now given up trying to permanently appoint John Bolton as the US ambassador to the UN. Bolton has been doing that job for over a year, but only on an interim basis as his appointment hadn't been formally approved by the US Senate. The Bush administration has shown total contempt for the UN and Bolton's presence on its behalf was a symptom of that. Bolton was a critic of the UN and he was sent to "shake it up" which really means to bully other members into approving things that were in the best interests of the US. Given his public criticism of the UN, even before he was appointed temporarily, he was the very last person Bush should have been thinking of, but that shows the mentality of the Bush administration. The UN does have its faults, but to seek to undermine it further is in nobody's interest. International law does matter, as the clear breach of it in invading Iraq has shown. When countries start disregarding it, as the US and UK did in 2003, who are they to turn round and object when other countries do? So yeah, laters Bolton.

Back again

I've been out of Iraq for a while and am now back. I caught up with a lot of people who mean a lot to me in various places and had the best holiday I could have hoped for. While I was away I felt strangely detached from what was happening here, but maybe that was no bad thing. When you're here, the things those people are doing to each other start to grind you down so it's good to get out and have some normality for a while. Of course the Iraqis don't have that luxury. Being away made me really take stock of where I'm at and it was really hard to come back. I'm not sure I'll be here longer than another 12 months now, though circumstances on that ground may well mean I'm not even here that long. I have been sounded out for another job here which pays more and is doing something that would probably be more constructive for this country than what I have been doing so far, which has been a mixed bag. What I've been doing isn't counter-productive for Iraq, but I have always felt like I wasn't doing what I came here to do, or at least to the extent I'd like. So we will see. I should know in the next few days whether I will be changing.

So.... what's been going on the last few weeks? There was that horrific day in which a couple hundred Shiites met their maker courtesy of a series of car bombs, and a couple of days ago some more car bombs killed another 51. The number of horribly disfigured people must be at least 500. Religion's a strange old thing. The things people do to each other, and all in the name of this god they've been brainwashed into believing in since birth. A book I was reading on holiday had a quote that interested me, something along the lines of "the more a religion tends towards monotheism, the more barbaric it becomes". My own view is that religion is a problem full stop. On a small, personal scale it can help people in times of need and give them hope. On a large scale however it's a disaster for the human race. Look at history, and the present for that matter - when people stop thinking of themselves (and others) simply as people, and move towards narrower groups based on religion or race (which often overlap), their ideals start to conflict and all hell breaks loose. When you look at black and white clips of WWII and see human beings slaughtering each other you wonder what the hell was that all for. And on it goes. Religion is, for me, a way of the human race absolving ourselves of responsibility for our actions (the theory being that we'll all be judged by a higher power at the end of the day). Moral values such as not stealing exist totally independently of religion, so quite why anyone needs to have a god to adhere to those virtues is beyond me. If you're religious, then good luck to you. Just don't try and convert me.

Iraq's government is in a bit of a mess with Sadr's lot pulling out in protest about Maliki's meeting with Bush. I will try and get hold of a link to the press conference they held - I didn't see it as I was probably on a beach somewhere, but apparently Bush was just plain embarrassing. What's new, yeah I know, but apparently he was off the scale of muppetry. More later.

Confessional and Mid Terms

Last week we got a call in the evening saying our cleaner's husband had been kidnapped and they needed 5,000 dollars by 10 the next morning. We loaned the money and last I heard they were trying to negotiate it down, but I'm out of country so am not sure what the latest is. It's a tough spot to be put in. I am forever ashamed that my initial reaction (albeit only for a couple of minutes) was to wonder whether it was a scam and whether this would become a habit. It's true that many, many scams are done in this way in Iraq. I was also wondering why they couldn't find the money from family or friends, as most Iraqis can get hold of that amount of money if they ask their extended networks. But to put it in perspective... The worst case scenario if it was a scam is that we loan her the money and it's a scam and maybe we never see it again. But the worst case scenario is if it's genuine is that we don't loan her the money and her husband gets his head cut off. Which would have happened - these guys are barbaric and don't mess about. It brings it all much closer when you have to make decisions like that. These things are happening on a huge scale (the genuine ones as well as the scams). A guy we do some work with had 2 people he knew kidnapped a couple of weeks ago and released after paying 50k.

So Bush got his kicking. Nice. Great to see that prick Rumsfeld get his orders. I'd love to see him get a whole lot more than that though. If he got kidnapped I wouldn't hand out a dime. Let's hope Cheney's next. So what happens now for Iraq? I don't see Saddam being executed, despite all the noises coming from Maliki. I heard it's scheduled for February but will believe it when I see it. So the US will either bring in a whole lot more troops and try to secure Baghdad, or they will gradually cut troop sizes and get out. They're saying they want to give control to Iraq troops but that would be a disaster. They aren't properly trained and more importantly they won't do their job properly because of sectarian alliances. I would rather they talked to Iran and Syria and bring more troops in initially, get Baghdad calmed down, and then have a clear and short timetable for getting troops out of Baghdad altogether. If Iran and Syria are properly involved and the US and UK don't try to impose their own conditions on the outcome, then the Iraq Army can probably get on and make the place safe. The difficult part is then what to do when the country inevitably parts into three, which again is really going to depend on Iran and Syria.

So now they're talking about bringing Iran and Syria on board. Sounds sensible to me, seeing as they're probably backing so much of it. If it does result in improving the sectarian violence, I'll feel sick if Blair and Bush start taking credit for sorting out the mess they created. What they should really be looking at more immediately is getting rid of Maliki and most of the ruling coalition. They've been hopeless and done absolutely nothing to disband the Shiite militias which have been causing so much of the problem.

I am never flying Iraqi Airways again. Totally useless. There were about 30 people (including me) who had tickets for a flight out of Baghdad last week, but couldn't get on because they over sold the flight. They lease their planes and had brought the wrong size aircraft in for the flight. There was no effort to help anyone or make alternative arrangements. It was just tough shit. That's pretty typical in Iraq - nobody pulls their finger out to try and get anything done, even for other Iraqis. Lazy bastards. So I got a different flight, and even that was lucky. No boarding calls or anything, you just have to watch the gate and go and ask from time to time for news. It ain't Heathrow that's for sure. Deathrow maybe.

Sheep coup

This from a local newspaper a few days ago:

Details Of US Coup Attempt Against Al Maliki’s Government [¨Nabaa Newspaper] (3 NOV)

Summary: Secret reports confirmed that the US is preparing for a military coup to frustrate Al Maliki’s government. The plan is that a group of Palestinian women will dress like beggars and go to Shiite areas, such as Buratha, to give information. At the same time, Sunnis will move from Sunni areas toward Shiite areas such as Shula and Kadhmiya. The Sunnis will dress like cleaning, electricity, and water workers. The plan also includes placing bombs in at least 100 sheep and spreading them in local Shiite markets. They will then detonate them to create chaos in these areas. The coup plan focuses on Baghdad but there will be other attempts in Najaf. The plan in Najaf will be to take fake coffins which will contain bombs. There will be 100 funerals heading to Najaf during one week and there will four people escorting each funeral. These people will stay in the city and they will make contact with other people on the out side in order to prepare for their missions. Iraqi authorities found out on OCT 26th that Najaf was closed by someone for hours. Many holy shrines were closed such as Kufa, Imam Muslim Bin Aqil, Imam Mukhtar Al Thaqafi, Imam Ali’s House, and Sahala Mosque. All these shrines were closed because there were attempts to blow them up and push Iraq into sectarian war. Because of these explosions, people will lose trust in Al Maliki’s government and demand to replace it. Then Iraq will ask for the US help to form a salvation government. US forces will bring the former army and use it again. Parliament will be dissolved and its members will be arrested. The new constitution, political parties, and militias will be canceled. There is information saying that there are officers already prepared in one of the neighboring countries in order to receive the leadership of Iraq. The new government will include a small number of ministries led by military officers. An election will be held after one year. The US plan ensures that the new government will be able to break the Shiite plans in their areas. It will also clean Iraq’s hot areas of gunmen. Alliance members are worried about a change of power in Iraq. US forces are trying to reoccupy Baghdad. These US forces will withdraw after the coup and the Iraqi Army will receive the security missions.

Erm, "The plan also includes placing bombs in at least 100 sheep and spreading them in local Shiite markets."??? Dolly the insurgent?

couple of links

I meant to post these but keep forgetting.

Here's a little something from Simon Jenkins on the hysteria the media have created in their portrayal of terrorism. Self serving too - a scared public = bigger circulation. Great! Presumably the same reason they never asked the right questions in the run up to Iraq. They allowed Fox's brand of "journalism" to set the bar. Way to go.

And here's something about the strange death of Dr David Kelly. A bit fishy, that was.

It's been relatively quiet as far as I could tell while the curfew was on. That got lifted this evening so we might start seeing things get nasty. I wandered outside a few minutes ago and heard heavy machine gun fire from across the Tigris. Also one of our staff lives in a Sunni neighbourhood. We called him yesterday and today to make sure he was ok and he said there's been trouble in his neighbourhood. Bullets whizzing over his roof and the sound of gunfire very close to his house. Today there have been a lot more fighter jets passing over than there usually are and the helicopters have been different. Instead of the usual Black Hawks that take people to the airport or wherever, there have been those sinister looking things with weapons all over them. God knows what's going on out there. The authorities have shut down some Sunni TV stations as well (see Riverbend's entry from yesterday) so it's even harder to find out what's really going on, as opposed to what they want you to see. Aah, good old freedom of speech, Iraqi style.

Nice to see Riverbend is still alive. I thought she'd fallen victim to a Shia death squad as she hadn't posted for a long time.

The sentence

So he got death in the last few minutes. We heard a rocket or bomb go off around the time the sentence came down so we're hunkering down today. There shouldn't be a great deal going on while the curfew is in effect but the coming days could be interesting. Maybe this is all worrying about nothing and the Sunnis won't go nuts. The Shiites certainly like it - they're out in their cars today beeping and whistling and hanging out windows.

This is by no means the end of it anyway - there is an automatic appeal process because the sentence was death. Saddam doesn't need to request an appeal, it just happens. So within I think 10 days 9 judges of an appeal court will review it and they have a minimum of 20 days to grant or deny the appeal. They can demand a retrial or if they uphold the death sentence it has to be carried out within 30 days. No new evidence is heard, they just review how the trial was conducted. There have long been concerns about how fair this trial was so it's not 100% that the sentence will be upheld. It could be a lot longer than 30 days before we hear anything in any case.

The thing that disturbs me is the timing of this. It was pretty clear that he was going to get a guilty verdict and most people thought he would get the death penalty. I thought they would defer sentencing to avoid Iraqis killing each other on a bigger scale than we've seen. Funny how it's come on the weekend before the US mid term elections. The Republicans are in the shit because of Iraq and a whole host of sex scandals, plus the way they botched the relief effort after Hurricane Katrina. Sadly this stunt will give them a boost. Once again it's a case of saving Bush's arse instead of saving Iraqi blood. These fuckers make me puke.

I'm out of here for a holiday soon. Good timing.

Iraq's big day

So tomorrow is the big day - the verdict for the Dujail trial. Hard to see a not guilty verdict coming in. So far, so good. If they also sentence him tomorrow, i.e. confirm or not the death penalty, this place explodes. I don't know what will happen but if they sentence him tomorrow they're nuts. Not just Baghdad but the whole country will go ape shit if they do the sentencing tomorrow.

Not too much new happening lately. There was that American soldier/translator who went to see his Iraqi wife and never came home, so they locked down Sadr City looking for him. There was an air strike there one day last week as well which we hear took out a major terrorist too. It's about time they had a crack at that place. The Iraqi PM wasn't too pleased about it but that's because half his cabinet members have got malitias too of which Sadr is just an example, directly or indirectly. He is a disaster for the Iraqis and Americans alike. His days must be numbered but let's see how he goes.

There was a real upsurge in rockets into the IZ after he lifted that siege. Not that much of a shock really.

Soundbites #2

First, thanks to Rach and Fraser for a couple of Bushlines:

"You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror."

"I would guess, I would surmise that some of the more spectacular bombings are done by al Qaeda suiciders"

"The United States of America is engaged in a war against an extremist group of folks"

"Trying to stop suiciders -- which we're doing a pretty good job of on occasion -- is difficult to do. And what the Iraqis are going to have to eventually do is convince those who are conducting suiciders who are not inspired by Al Qaeda, for example, to realize there's a peaceful tomorrow"

"After the bombing, most Iraqis saw what the perpetuators of this attack were trying to do."

"Frustrated? Sometimes I'm frustrated. Rarely surprised. Sometimes I'm happy. You know, this is -- but war is not a time of joy. These aren't joyous times. These are challenging times."

Erm. "SOMETIMES I'M HAPPY" ?????

And yesterday he came out with a series of little nuggets:

"I think I owe an explanation to the American people." You really think so???

"The people need to know that we have a plan for victory." Another useless word. There is no victory, just varying shades of defeat. The world isn't as black and white as Fox viewers might like to believe.

He's always banging on about "the enemy" as well: "As the enemy shifts tactics we are shifting our tactics as well" No, as the American public shifts its opinion and starts waking up to what a mess you've made, and you start to shit your pants because you can't fool them anymore, only then do you find it within yourself to change your tactics.

"This notion about, you know, fixed timetable of withdrawal, in my judgement, means defeat." Ha ha ha!! Your judgement? That's served you really well hasn't it!

Tony Blair came out with another one yesterday as well. He said that to pull British troops out before Iraqi troops were confident they could handle security would be "a complete betrayal not just of the Iraqi people, but of all the sacrifices that have been made by our armed forces over the years". This coming from the man who has unequivocally betrayed the British forces by sending them into an illegal and unnecessary war with inadequate kit in the first place, and shat on the Iraqis in the process. This man is a lunatic.

More shifts in the last couple of days. Bush called the Iraqi PM only 3 or 4 days ago and said he fully backed his government ("heck of a job, Maliki" anyone?). Yesterday there were signs that patience in Washington is running out and Maliki's days are numbered. About time too. Maliki's been useless. There have been whispers of a coup of some sort going around here for 2 or 3 weeks now. Watch this space.

Yesterday the US carried out a raid on Sadr city for the first time. They must have been looking for an interpreter of Iraq descent who went to visit some family of his and never came back. A raid on Sadr city's been overdue for months. Maliki's not happy about it at all.

Yesterday 200 serving members of the US Armed Forces signed a petition calling for an immediate withdrawal of US troops. Apparently they don't like the idea of being asked to put their lives on the line not for their country, but for corporate oil interests. I wonder why. Blair take note.

Soundbites #1

It's incredible how bland politicians sound when they're yapping about anything, but particularly in the case of Iraq. Here's a sample taken from today alone:

Bahrham Saleh, Iraq's Deputy PM: "Failure is not an option" (unless you get Rummy involved in the planning, in which case it's COMPULSORY)

Margaret Beckett, British Foreign Minister: "We need to keep our nerve. We need to get Iraq back on its feet. We need to establish greater stability" (You need to piss off until you have something useful to say instead of the blindingly obvious)

Tony Blair, twat: it's hard to know where to start with this goon, but today he said Britain would "hold its nerve" (I'm sure that's steadied a few nerves. Thanks, Tone. We trust you. Really.)

Des Browne, British Defence Secretary: "out when the job is done" (oooh, a nice little variation on "stay the course" as coined by Karl Rove. What job is that, anyway?)

Don't even go there with Bush, Cheney or Rumsfeld. Actually on second thought, please do. I'd love to hear the ones you like best.

Contrast this from Sir Menzies Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the UK: "If we are to salvage anything from Iraq the essential first step is an admission from the prime minister and President Bush that they got it wrong" (Absolutely. It's a shame they've got their heads stuck so far up their arses they'll never have the humility to acknowledge their humiliation)

Just reading about some researchers backing up the method used in the recent study on Iraq deaths that was published in the Lancet. I came across a surname I thought must be made up. It's got a Gary Larson kind of edge to it - maybe a crocodile with a spotlight in his face protesting he know nothing. See for yourself. You'll know it when you see it.

Climbdowns

Last week the chief of staff of the British Army dared to state that the British Army's presence in Iraq was part of the problem and that it was time to get out soon. The next day he was doing the rounds of television studios trying to back pedal but the genie was out of the bottle. A couple of days ago a senior State Department official in the US, Alberto Gonzalez, said the US had been stupid and arrogant when it came to Iraq. Apparently this morning he's withdrawn his comments too. Hell I'll stick them back in the ring. It was like Donald Rumsfled was almost determined to mess it up. An incredible lack of competence, driven largely by the fact that the Pentagon was determined to take full control from the State Department, despite State having done a lot of work on post invasion planning. Rummy ignored them at every turn, the idiot. Check this out.

A doomed marriage

There's been a real shift in the last few days. People that are well placed to know are coming out and saying that the mission here is not working. There are two schools of thought. One (which I believe) is that the US and UK are going to have to get out of here soon and leave the Iraqis to sort their country out with assistance from Syria and Iran. The other is that the US will have to bring extra troops in and try to retake Baghdad. I don't see how that can happen. There's no way I can see that we can stay until we hand over security to the Iraqis. We'd be here forever. I hate to say it, but they are in many cases lazy and corrupt. Everyone is on the take here. For foreign companies to get licences to run security companies they have to first pay tax and social security in respect of their Iraqi employees. There's two ways of doing this: 1. Pay what you're supposed to by reference to the salaries you've got in the company accounts or 2. Pay an official at the Tax authorities a bribe and get them to lower the amount payable. This is how business is done in Iraq. This video is an example of how the security transfer is going. It's just not plausible for us to stay "until the job is done". It sounds as if Bush is starting to accept this at last.

Alert Levels

sent to me from the UK recently.

FRANCE
Following the recent events in London, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from 'Run' to 'Hide'. The only two higher levels in France are 'Surrender' and 'Collaborate'. The rise was precipitated by a recent fire which destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralysing their military. In response to the French raising their alert level other European countries have responded in kind.

ITALY
The Italians have increased their alert level from "Shouting Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing". Two more levels remain, "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides".

GERMANY
The Germans have also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Full Dress Uniform and Marching Songs". They have two higher levels, "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose".

US
Seeing this reaction in continental Europe the Americans have gone from "Isolationism" to "Find Somewhere Ripe for Regime Change". Their remaining higher alert states are "Take on the World" and "Ask the British for Help".

GREAT BRITAIN
Finally, here in GB we've gone from "Pretend Nothing's Happening" to "Make Another Cup of Tea". Our higher levels are "Chin Up and Remain Cheerful" and "Win". The British are still feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and security threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666

Swiss Toni

No, not Tony Blair, but the Vice President of Iraq....



"Being Vice President of Iraq is a lot like making love to a beautiful woman, Paul..."

Bleak outlook

The future isn't looking good for Iraq. Last week it was reported that the Iraqi Parliament approved a new law that will allow Shiites to form their own semi-autonomous region in the south, in the same way as the Kurds have had (with the Federal Region of Kurdistan) in the north since 1992. Sunnis boycotted the vote, as did some Shia parties who didn't like some of the measures in the law. There's a dispute as to whether the law was validly passed - 138 out of the 275 legislators need to be present for there to be a quorum. The headcount had to be repeated several times. The session was behind closed doors but some parliament staff spoke to the press on condition of anonymity. Those who were Shia said 140 voted, Sunnis said 133. So who knows?

Either way, this is the first step in the break up of Iraq into federal regions. The Sunnis would have the central part of Iraq. They're not happy with that idea as the oil is concentrated in the north and the south, so they'd be left with a raw deal. Although no changes are to be made, i.e. the merging of governorates in the south into one Shia Region, until 2008, don't be too surprised to see a massive upsurge in violence in the months ahead.

It's too late to get the security situation under control now. This place is one Grade A basket case. The media reported that the "leaked" draft Baker report last week suggesting that Iraq may be split into federal regions was directly at odds with what Bush would want to be said. Yeah right. This is the new policy and that's their way of testing public reaction. Whatever happens in between now and when the policy is announced is filler.

Iraqis are fleeing in their thousands. Well over 1 million have left already and the rate goes up every week. I wouldn't be too surprised to see Coalition forces out of here in 6-12 months. So I guess I will be out of here too, unless I can work in Kurdistan.

This is worth a look even if you don't think Cheney's a complete c***

655k

By now you've probaby heard about the report from the Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health that since the start of the invasion in March 2003, 655,000 Iraqis have died. In case you didn't get the detail, researchers interviewed 1,849 households at 47 random locations in Iraq this summer. Heads of households were asked how many members had lost their lives in the year before the invasion and how many in the three subsequent years. Crucially, researchers asked for death certificates in 87% of the households and, of those, 92% produced them. The results were then applied to the population of Iraq as a whole. Of the total estimated 655k, just over 601,000 were violent deaths and included insurgents/combatants, police and civilians. Just under 200,000 of these were directly attributed to coalition forces and the rest were "other" or "unknown".

The figure to concentrate on I think is the 601,000. Naturally Bush, Inc. and Blair.con have rejected the findings, but remember Rumsfeld saying "we don't do body counts"? They either didn't do body counts because they simply didn't care (despite being there "to liberate the people") or didn't want the bad news to come out. The Lancet study in 2004 that estimated 100,000 dead springs to mind, and the (neo)cons were very quick to scramble their spin and discredit machines into work on that one. The media took it as read that the study was flawed, probably after a few rednecks said so on Fox (that bastion of truth and balance), so the Lancet study was never given the credence it should have been.

But this is harder to ignore. The British government prefers to rely on figures from the Ministry of Health here, which recorded 7,254 deaths in all of 2005. I nearly choked on my cornflakes when I read that. BushCo and Blair.con prefer the figure of around 50,000. Has anyone called a nurse for those two? Okay, to be fair, even I think that 601,000 violent deaths figure is probably a bit high, but I reckon that as a minimum, 400,000 (including during the invasion) is totally realistic. Even that's something to be properly ashamed of. It just amazes me how these two both got voted back in 2 years ago. Admittedly in both the US and UK the Opposition stuck a real fucking donkey up against Bush and Blair respectively, but come on, isn't this important? It shows what shit state democracy is in on both sides of the Atlantic if your choice is to vote for a donkey or a prick. And we're exporting THAT???

Bit of excitement tonight........... It's raining!

So that thing the other night was the thing down at FOB Falcon (the US base) but in separate news, there were some rockets lobbed in here too. Never a dull moment, apart from the fact that there's nothing to do.....

spin

I woke up this morning and flicked on the news and it's saying those blasts last night were from an ammunitions store in a US base in southern Baghdad. I don't believe that for a second, unless there was that AND rocket attacks into the IZ. Last night, some of the things we heard were so loud and made the windows rattle that there's no way they were in the south of Baghdad - they must have been around here. There were other, quiter ones, more thuds than bangs. Some media reports are of around 20 explosions but I heard upwards of 50, mostly sounding further away. I doubt I'll get any more info about it as whatever it was they're obviously not letting on.

Rockets

I hadn't really heard much in the way of rockets or mortars landing when I first got here, except for the occasional one off in the distance somewhere. I can sure as shit hear them tonight! They're apparently landing a few streets away but it sounds like next door and still makes the windows rattle and has that weird vaccuum sound of a bomb. Tasty!

By the look of this today was a bit more spicy...

Saddam's Trials

The first thing to make clear is that there isn't one "Saddam trial". There has been one set of court proceedings already, relating to the killing of 148 Shia in Dujail in 1982. The one going on now is for the slaughter of tens of thousands of Kurds in 1988 in what was called Operation Anfal. Among others also on trial are his cousin, "Chemical Ali".

I went to the Anfal trial today. It was a strange experience, being totally mundane on one level and totally unreal on another. It had the participants you'd expect - judges at the top (five of them, of which the chief presiding judge sits in the middle), prosecutors on one side, defence lawyers on the other, a witness box facing into the courtroom with a curtain around it which could be drawn at the witness's request, and defendants in the middle as you can see from TV footage. There were also interpreters and scribers and bailiffs and people responsible for document production. And a few Americans with the little earphone wires that make them look like extras off 24 but much harder. So far, so normal.

Then you start listening to testimony and despite the normality of structure, this isn't exactly a petty theft trial. Rather than "witnesses" as such, the people that testified were "complainants". The first one spoke from behind the curtain and spoke of how the army came with tanks and destroyed the village and arrested busloads of people. They were taken to Tikrit and held there for a day and then taken to a military prison where they stayed for 7 months. People were malnourished and some died of disease, others torture. Some women were tied to the fence and left in the hot sun all day. Some women were beaten with cables. The stories went on and on. People's families were split up when they were arrested and she, like others, never knew about the fate of hers until their ID cards were found in the mass graves in which they had been buried. The court showed pictures of the ID cards that were found. Her brother and sister can have been no more than 10 at the time. I still stand by the comment from my last post about a life being a life but it's those pictures that left a bigger imprint on me than anything else did today. (They actually fucked up by also showing the complainant's ID which obviously doesn't sit well with the fact that she was giving testimony from behind a closed curtain. The court deleted it from the record but everyone in the courtroom was able to see it for the 15 seconds or so it was on screen.)

The other complainants gave similar accounts about how their villages were destroyed, how their families went missing to never be seen again, how long they were in detention for. One referred to the army taking his ID card off him and saying he didn't deserve it as he was Iranian - the "justification" being that the army accused the Kurds of siding with the Iranians. Not that this will make the headlines, but he also said that he had heard (at the time) that leaflets had been dropped from helicopters telling villagers to leave his village because there would be big trouble, but they didn't believe their village would be hit as they were just simple people and besides they had nowhere to go. All they had was the land their families had been farming for generations, and their livestock. They had nowhere to go, or no way of taking their livestock with them.

At the end of each of their testimonies, the prosecutors and the defence lawyers asked further questions, and when that was done the judge asked whether the complainant had any questions for Saddam or the court, and who they held responsible. They asked him, why did this happen to them when they were just poor farmers? Why if they were accused of siding with the Iranians did they not get a trial like he has today? I guess it was just for the record as the defendants weren't invited or extected to respond. As to who they held responsible, Chemical Ali seemed to be equally culpable in their eyes - his name and Saddam's were the only ones that came up consistently. Bizarrely in the case of Chemical Ali, that was the name three of them used (as interpreted) rather than his actual name (Ali Hassan al-Majid). They were also asked by the judge whether they wanted to claim compensation, which was interesting - i.e. that they had to formally request it, or that it was even part of the proceedings. Maybe it makes sense if you think harder about it, i.e. they're complainants, so why shoudn't that be the case? It's just that this isn't Judge Judy so after hearing all this crazy stuff you get reminded of the normality of structure again.

The judge that now presides over the trial (it's actually, like the others, called a Tribunal) was appointed 2 weeks ago after the first judge was removed. He was good at making clear that he wasn't going to stand for any shit. In the past the court has at times looked like a bit of a circus. Today there were no theatrics from Saddam (which was almost disappointing) but he did get told off once. The 2nd defendant had been passed a copy of documents that were produced to the court and passed it to Saddam to look at. The judge stopped proceedings and told Saddam that if he wanted a copy of anything he had to ask him, not speak to the other defendants. As the judge got on with the proceedings Saddam was passing the papers back to the other guy and the judge stopped again and said "Look! We've just talked about this! We will give you a copy" which was amusing as Saddam was just passing them back.

Now for the legal bit. This Tribunal, well the Supreme Court, was set up under last year's constitution. There is no article in the constitution allowing removal of a judge from presiding over a case unless an individual request to withdraw has been made by the judge himself or parties in the case on grounds of prejudice being shown by the judge and/or public prosecution. The court has to act with full independence of all other authorities, including the President, government etc. Now, when the request to remove the last judge was made, it was made by the prosecutor. The problem is that it was made by him because of pressure to do so from the government, after the last judge said that Saddam wasn't a dictator. So, whether that judge was right or wrong, the way he was removed broke the rules in the constitution.

Then there are the major difficulties they'll have in the Dujail (i.e. the first trial) sentencing. That was scheduled (and, officially, still is) to be handed down next Monday. The inside, unofficial, word is that is unlikely as they just don't know what to do. It's pretty likely he'll get a guilty verdict, but the problem is what sentence to give. If they give him death, then the Sunni will go nuts. If they don't, then the Shia will kick off. So it's a no win situation that's been created by the insistence on having the trial here in Iraq - whatever the sentence is, there will be a lot of blood spilled because of it.

Both those reasons would be justification for just transferring the whole thing to an International Criminal Court but it's probably too late for that now. That would be seen as a defeat for the Iraqis and egg on the face of Bush & Co. Clearly saving some embarrassment for the White House is more important than getting it right in the first place. Oh but now the Americans are apparently going to advocate a break up of Iraq on sectarian lines, so that's ok then.

Dogs & Politics

I went to a party at an embassy the other night which was good fun. It was only then that I realised that I hadn't really met anyone here on the diplomatic side of things here yet. A good bunch, and they sounded keen to get me out from time to time which will be good. I have been invited to another embassy this week so I look forward to that. I was talking to one person and the conversation started getting political. She was basically blaming the country's ills on the Sunni and pointing out that they have killed women and children with their brand of violence. I had to bite my tongue and excuse myself to go for a piss.

I think the general view is that Sunni = insurgent and Shia = sectarian death squad. To my mind, anything which is designed to destabilise security here should be considered insurgency whether it's sectarian or not. I am no apologist for either side - for me a coffin is a coffin, no matter the size of it. That's one aspect of western reporting that has always had me scratching my head.

The impression I get from what is happening out there is that a lot of the security situation is attributable to the Shia. The Ministry of Interior is controlled by the Shia, and therefore the police are almost, if not entirely, Shia. There is pressure on the PM now to start reigning the Shia in, as he is considered to be cutting them too much slack. Sunnis don't trust the police so the Sunni neighbourhoods have their own security forces. There were a couple of mass kidnappings last week - one from a meat factory and one from a computer centre - and the Sunni are saying that the Shia police stood by and allowed it to happen. Of course, none of this makes the Sunni insurgents blameless, although many Iraqis believe there are a lot of foreign terrorists, particularly Syrians, in the country whipping up hatred. It is a tiny minority of the population carrying these acts out, and often with assistance from outsiders. It may therefore be that some of the bombings are being perpetrated by Syrians but blamed on Sunnie. Either way, Iraqis just want this to stop so they can get on and rebuild their lives.

Things have definitely got worse out there the last 2 or 3 weeks. It's hard to get an objective view of what is happening, but I think that fragmentation of neighbourhoods has been happening on a pretty big scale sadly. Q moved last week to his wife's parents' place so at least he is safer but how must it be for him to have to do that? Some Iraqis I have spoken to think there will be no such thing as Iraq in the long run - it will split along ethnic lines. I can certainly see why that is what some are resigning themselves to, but it's still too early to tell. I still hope that things will get better in the long run.

Enough of that. Here is a picture I got emailed that has been making me laugh all day. Nothing to do with Iraq.

Let down

A while back one of our guys, let's call him Q, was doing translations at a meeting and, long story short, it was filmed without prior warning to him and he was worried that if it was broadcast he would be in big trouble outside the IZ. If anyone in his neighbourhood knew he was working in the IZ with foreigners he would have been sniffed out and killed before long. I had gone to the media office and arranged for his face (and another guy's) to be edited out, so thought all was fine.

But it turns out these guys didn't do as they promised. The other guy's face was on the satellite channel broadcast, which this other guy found out through a family member of his and told Q. So odds are that Q's was on it as well. Q moved his family out of his neighbourhood the other day so hopefully they are now safe. I told Q he should come live with us in the IZ but he's not going to for now. He's staying away from his neighbourhood but I still feel uneasy. Not nearly as uneasy as him though. I can't figure out whether those clowns in the media office are incompetent or sinister. You can never tell over here, and you sure can't trust anyone. There was a rumour going around that people from within the palace they are based at were plotting to allow car bombs to be set off inside the IZ but in a place like this there will always be rumours like that. I will always be on my guard here. Some people have got a very messed up agenda. It doesn't matter whether their skin is white or brown, whether they carry a briefcase or a bomb, they're the same.

There was a meeting yesterday in the convention centre (which is where a lot of the high level meetings are) between the PM and some Shia and Sunni leaders, to put in place a plan to try and stem the sectarian violence. This has happened before and the results speak for themselves, so it's unclear whether this latest initiative will help matters. The one potential difference this time is that al-Sadr has given it his backing and will ask the "Mahdi Army" to can it for a bit. If they follow his orders then that will be a major turning point. If on the other hand they think of him as a "suit" these days and he can't control them, then it's another probable failure. Fingers crossed.

More photos

A few more photos here of the 14th July Bridge (named after the day the Baathists came to power in 1958 in a coup to overthrow King Faisal II) and the 14th July Monument (often called 14 July roundabout), plus one of a dusty road (in case you're reeeeallly curious) and one of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier facing the sunrise.








Not much new here the last few days. The brother-in-law of the new judge at the Saddam Tribunal was murdered last week. The trial resumes next Monday. It was adjourned until then anyway, so the killing and the adjournment are not related. Closer to home, the ex husband of one of the women we employ was killed recently. I don't know how but sectarian violence is probably it. I haven't heard of any big blasts or discoveries of dozens of bodies for a few days. Not sure if that means it's genuinely been quieter or nothing's been reported. On Friday night a curfew was announced for all of Saturday so nobody outside the IZ was allowed to be out of their house at all, whether on foot or in a vehicle.

Oh, and today I saw my first cloud here.

Traffic enforcement

Penalty points and fines clearly weren't working....

United Colours of Bennetton, classy driving and questionable phrases.

There are a lot of nationalities out here doing various things. As far as civilians are concerned I guess there's everything under the sun, though I have not been here long enough to meet that many. Also I guess you need to be connected to an Embassy or something to get to meet the full range of nationalities.

It's worth mentioning something about the security personnel (by which I mean military, as opposed to private security companies). The checkpoints outside the IZ are manned by the Americans, but they are gradually handing over control to the Iraqis. At the many checkpoints around the IZ you'd think it is American military who are carrying out duties. From what I have seen, that isn't the case. Most I have come across are South Americans, Colombian I think. Good guys, ready to have a bit of friendly banter even though they are doing a really shitty job. They have to sit there under the hot sun for hours on end just checking people's badges and doing vehicle searches. Maybe they're bringing some goodies from back home to keep themselves from falling asleep from the monotony...

Then there's the Georgians. They're a different breeed altogether. Not respected. Everyone (apparently) looks down on them, including the Iraqis. I hear that in the past they have sometimes taken bribes and I know they are unduly aggressive in their approach to their work. When they drive around the IZ they speed around expecting everyone else to yield to them. When you see a military vehicle at the back of a convoy with someone sticking out the top manning a machine gun you need to keep a distance of 50-100 metres. In the IZ it's not really necessary for them to be sticking out the roof at all, as they are usually returning from the Red Zone and are obviously no longer in a hot area. Sometimes you inadvertently get within the range (for example if they pass through a roundabout and you're at one of the entries). With anyone but the Georgians, this is fine, but the Georgians do the universally understood sign for stop or keep your distance, which is a raised fist on a straight arm. This means, come any closer and we might shoot, and they mean it. It's just not necessary in the IZ though, which is why everyone gets pissed off with them because they're being over the top. But they're the ones with the guns, so I just stay back.

Driving here generally is pretty bad, but very funny. Nobody seems to know how to use a roundabout, so basically the biggest vehicles (or the Georgians) have right de facto right of way. It is pretty amusing. Some of the overtaking is pretty classy too. This place makes India look like a driving school.

A PSD was taking personnel out of Baghdad the other day. Their vehicles were properly marked, i.e. had their company logo on the side, so they could easily be identified as a PSD and not a militia. This is required as they have armed vehicles front and back. Anyway, they were passing through an American checkpoint, and the Americans started shooting at them. Unbelievable. They were properly marked, so what was the deal? You have to wonder why they arm kids to the teeth and don't ensure they can read or carry out basic mental functions to make decisions that, ultimately, other people's lives depend on.

Which got me thinking, why the hell do they call that sort of incident "friendly fire"? Doesn't sound very friendly to me. "Yeah I'm just off to Pete's for a barbeque, we'll pound a few beers, eat some steaks and maybe fire a few rounds at each other, it'll be great". Just like the term "collateral damage" which has always made me sick. I'm sure it's not very "collateral" to the people you're killing or their families.

For that matter, why does the word "stutter" have so many t's, or "stammer" so many m's? Why is phonetic spelled with a "ph"?

Close shave

One of our guys was in the Red Zone the other day and was stopped in traffic. He saw three men with guns approach the car in front, drag the driver out and stick him in the boot of the car, and drive off. He was, understandably, shit scared. He said the thing the frightened him the most was the look on the man's face as he was bundled into the boot. Hving seen the look on his own face the other day after that meeting, I can see exactly what he means. He makes a point of not washing his car and he drives an old banger because kidnappers target expensive cars or expensively dressed people. Not that I ever had that excuse....

Conflicting graffiti, exaggerated media stories, Ramadan and the UN

I remember before I came here I was reading in the papers that previously mixed neighbourhoods of Shia and Sunni in Baghdad were fragmenting and becoming predominantly Shia or Sunni enclaves. Under Saddam, society was much more secular and Shia and Sunni (and Christians) intermarried, lived next door to each other, went to the same schools, built and worshipped at their mosques (and churches) in the same neighbourhoods, etc etc. If this claim of fragmentation were true, it would have been one of the worst aspects of the consequences of the invasion. Upon speaking to Iraqis here, the message I get is that those stories are exaggerated and that, although it is happening to some degree, it's not as much as the papers say.

Ramadan started yesterday and will last for the next 30 days. The authorities are predicting an upsurge in the sectarian violence. It started yesterday with a big bomb at a place where people had gone to get cooking oil. 35 or more dead and who knows how many maimed for life. Even before I found out about that, there seemed to be something in the air that didn't feel right. It wasn't the feeling I was in danger, just generally an uneasy feeling. I wondered if maybe I'd reached the end of the honeymoon period, but today's fine, so maybe it was just something intangible in the atmosphere. Maybe we're tuned in to fear like animals are to earthquakes or eruptions.

I hope it doesn't go too ape shit during Ramadan, otherwise those stories of fragmentation will probably be closer to the truth than they are at the moment.

One of our guys handed in his notice the other day. He's been offered a job in Jordan and wants to get out of Baghdad so his daughters can go to school again. It got me thinking, well if it gets bad enough outside the IZ that more of our staff decide to get out of Iraq, then that will be curtains for my job. So I registered with the UN to try and keep a step ahead of the game. It means my personal history can get checked out by them now so that if I need to find something else in a hurry further down the line I shouldn't have to wait as long. Assuming they take me on of course.

Two conflicting pieces of graffiti. No prizes for guessing which one cracked me up.

A realisation. And a tank.

Something happened recently that gave me much more of a sense of how hard it is for Iraqis. I would say it "brought it home to me" but really I can have no idea. Just a better one than I did. One of our guys went to a meeting and ended up being pushed into doing translations for the Iraqi speakers, who were members of one of the government Ministries. Our guy didn't know the meeting would be filmed, nor did he know he would be asked to translate. It just happened when he got there. He came back after the meeting visibly shaken. Some people can have a scared look, like a kid who's been caught doing something naughty at school and knows his parents will find out, or maybe like someone who's been caught smuggling drugs through customs or something, but this was a look like I have never seen. It made me scared just to see it. The problem was that the film was to be released to all sorts of media outlets in the region, including online. He would have had both Shia and Sunni after him. It's not being melodramatic to say he'd have been dead within a week. I know his circumstances outside the IZ, and he would have been well and truly fucked. He was too frightened to think straight, so I made him get on the phone to the right people and arrange an appointment with the media folks while the footage was in post production. I was dropped him off at the checkpoint out of the IZ and watched him walking towards the exit. It was the walk of a man who was beaten - shoulders sagged forward, a slow trudge, no reason to want to get to his destination. That's when it occurred to me what risks he takes to do his job here. I went to the media office the next morning and arranged for his face to be edited out of the end product.

Having had some more time to see a bit more of the place and meet a lot of people, I have to say life here so far has exceeded my expectations. It's nuts, for sure, but I'll never forget my time here and I don't regret coming for a second.

We have been using an armoured Suburban the last week or so to get around. I'm no petrol head and still have no interest in cars, but this thing is awesome - I feel like I've added another couple of inches. It's heavier than Harry Rednapp's eyelids and takes a wee while to get any speed up but you could leave a Rolex on the dashboard in Rio de Janeiro with an invitational sledge hammer and it would still be there when you got back. Bulletproof. We took it to fill up with petrol the other day and it took 135 litres, amid fits of laughter. Most surreal driving experience so far: giving way to a tank on a roundabout. I had right of way but you can't really argue with a tank.

Some of the monumets and architecture here is pretty amazing. This link has more information and pictures but here are some pictures I took of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier and the Hands of Victory.

First impressions

So here I am.

The flight into Baghdad is a bit of a laugh, instead of a straight descent the plane comes down in big loops because a straight descent is considered too dangerous. I'm told the take off is the same when you fly out, and because you're pointing upwards instead of down, motion sickness is a problem. NASA could probably recruit from these flights - if your stomach is strong enough you're in!

I was brought to the Green Zone (called the International Zone or IZ by everyone here, so that's what I'll start using) in a PSD (personal security detail) convoy. Before I came, I had the impression or expectation that the PSD guys would be a bunch of Rambo's with no necks and steroid addictions, but actually the ones I have come across have been very professional and focused on their job. They look after you and make sure you know what to do in the event of any trouble. IEDs (roadside bombs) are not so much an issue now because vehicles have to be searched to even get onto the road, so the more common issue is incoming automatic fire. The armoured vehicle you're in has 2 inch thick windows so even if there is incoming, it's not a problem. Plus there are armed vehicles front and back of the convoy with guys out the roof with machine guns so you have extra protection there.

It's very weird being in a place where you can walk down the street freely, go to the beer shop, sit on the swinging sun lounger thing on the front lawn and have a smoke, while there are people being blown up within a few miles. At night instead of police sirens you hear helicopters, but it all means the same thing - someone's having a much worse time of it than me. Instead of a normal fence there's an 8 foot one with razor wire. Instead of a postman there are armed guards. You get the idea. I'm not sure whether it's because of these things or in spite of them, but I really like it here. It will be better when I have my badge and can move around freely and use things like the pool and gym, dining facility ("DFAC") and the big general shop ("PX") which is basically Tesco Armed Conflict, but for now it's all new and exciting so not having those freedoms is no biggie. It beats being blown up by a car bomb. We have Iraqis working for us and they sometimes have to go out into the Red Zone to go to one of the Interior Ministry buildings. One of them went out today and 10 minutes ahead of him was that car bomb that killed 5 Iraqi police. He was fine, just had to go another way round. This is reality for these folks. They've been through a hell of a time but still have spirit like you'd never believe.

I'm learning a new Arabic word or phrase each day and really like being able to say little things to the Iraqis in their language. They have good English, but you can tell they have pride in their language and like to teach you, and appreciate the effort. Like most nationalities I guess, except maybe the French who live in Paris, who get the arse with you just for being there.

It's pretty hot in the daytime, usually around 42 - 46 celcius, but it doesn't feel as hot as that because there is low humidity. It's still the hottest midday sun I've ever experienced but in the shade it's not too bad. It's showing signs of cooling down though, and by Christmas time it will be hovering not far above freezing. The nights will start to get cooler next week. On days when it is windy, there is a lot of dust. It makes the Northern Line look like a Swiss mountain railway. The locals are sneezing a lot but so far it hasn't affected me at all, except for one night when I felt like I'd been sitting in an airport smoking lounge for a couple of days.

So this is where it starts...

Soon I will leave for Iraq. I don't know how long I'll be there. Friends and family think (know?) it's a somewhat crazy thing to be doing, but with risk comes reward. And I'm not on about the money, because that would have been the entirely wrong reason (although a sweetener, for sure). No, life is, or should be, an adventure. In a strange way I feel like life is there for the taking but it's when you take bigger risks that you take more from it.

I'll save ranting about the invasion and the reasons for it for another entry, as everyone has their own view anyway. Though I think it was wrong, or at least done for the wrong reasons (which have been made abundantly clear by the lack of post-invasion planning), we can't turn back the clock and I want to at least try to make a positive difference. I knew the moment they got resolution 1441 in 2002 what would happen. Yet another totally unnecessary conflict with a fuzzy beginning and an unpredictable end. Some people may say it's a "my god is better than your god" thing, but it's always, at its core, about power. This time it was about indescribable amounts of money too.

I want to learn Arabic so I can speak to Iraqis in their tongue, because using their language will allow me to discover so much more about them than I would having to rely on translation. I didn't foresee the civil war that's been unfolding for the last several weeks, and I feel so guilty for the Iraqi people. In time, I want to talk to them, understand them, and above all to say I'm sorry, and that we're not all like that. I have spoken to people who are out there, and I have been reading a blog by riverbend (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/) which is amazing.

The sectarian violence will pass, though it may get worse before it gets better. It's possible that getting electricity back to a stable supply and giving people some hope, something to live for, will reduce the ranks of those disenfranchised young men. Their land is occupied and the world watches and does not, or cannot, do anything. Is it that much of a surprise, then, that some of them have turned to violence? Of course this isn't to justify it, but beginning to understand something is very different from justifying it.

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