Adventure tourism

It's going to be a pretty interesting few months in the IZ. The plan is for pretty much all of it to be handed back to Iraqis by next January. The only bits that are due to be under ongoing US control are the new US embassy and something else (which I forget for now). It will be a gradual process too. Initially (and this is already happening) companies and compounds are leaving and the T Walls are coming down inside the IZ. It will take several months but you can see the beginnings of it now. Around the end of the year the external walls will come down and there will be no IZ! It's a scary prospect and as you can imagine my eyes are fixed on the exit big time. I'm sure it will be fine until after the end of summer, but then how many people will be sticking around (me included) will depend totally on the situation outside and how that develops. Those companies that stay will have beefed up security arrangements so it will be interesting to see how they work out.

Today I've had to escort a few staff in and out of the IZ. This involves going close to the other side of whichever checkpoint they're coming in at and getting them through the inside search points where they hand in their passports. They collect them on the way back out. Usually I don't have to do this but my staffs' IDs have expired and we need to wait a while for them to be renewed. It's mildly scary going to the checkpoints at all but going towards the other end of them quickens the heart a fair bit. Not something I plan on making a habit of that's for sure. I took a photo going over the Tigris to one of the checkpoints today, facing away from the IZ. I'll try and get one looking back towards the IZ on the next suicide run. I think you can just see smoke from one of the bombs today in there.



On which point, here's a report from Al Jazeera:
"At least 17 people have been killed and nearly 50 wounded in a series of car bombings in Baghdad.

In a market in the southern district of Dora, three bombs in quick succession killed at least 10 people and wounded 30 on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Three more died in a car bomb in the east of the city.

Earlier, four people were killed and 11 wounded when a car bomb hit a police patrol near a cinema on Baghdad's central Sadun Street. Two of the dead were policemen.

A fifth car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding seven."

Pretty nuts. While there's so much to say about this you feel at the same time like there's nothing to say. Seems the baddies are getting it in before the extra troops arrive.

Another interesting thing today, Bush had a meeting with the new secretary general of the UN and actually asked him to increase the UN's presence in Iraq. It was only a matter of time, this. Having undermined or ignored the UN systematically during his shitty tenure, Bush is now grovelling for help. I was always troubled by his attitude to the UN. For all its failings, and yes there are many, it still remains the most legitimate body to deal with much of the trouble in the world. Instead of ignoring or undermining it for their own political and economic gain, the major countries should be seeking to making it stronger for everyone's benefit, including updating the permanent members to reflect the changes internationally that have happened since 1945. It's good that Bush belatedly realises that the UN is the only external body that can come here longer term and have any chance of keeping some sort of peace.