FactSmoking - Iraq

2005-09-21T19:12:00.000-05:00

I mentioned a second and final note of optimism I witnessed on the way out. As we were boarding the C-17, a long line of new Iraqi soldiers marched by from a nearby training facility. As they saw American soldiers our way, they began to wave and give thumbs-up signs. Not only did we wave back, but I must admit I swallowed pretty damn hard not to choke up.

I hope it's not too long before we can leave their country in their hands entirely... and I hope everyone of them kills a terrorist before the terrorist kills him.

2005-09-21T19:11:00.000-05:00

Rounding out yet another theme of the trip, that of women in the military, Capt Jennifer King flew us safely to Qatar, even re-negotiating with Bahrain from out over the Gulf, when it looked like they were denying us clearance to fly over. Excellent flight, smooth landing, and then it was well & truly time to go home ... and be the DC bureaucrat again.

2005-09-21T18:35:00.000-05:00

Flight out to Qatar was a C-17, much bigger & better than the C-130 we barrelled in on during the night a week before.... Actual seats!

2005-09-21T18:16:00.000-05:00

Finally, out to Baghdad International Airport (BIAP), where by the way I watched a number of commercial flights land and take off, without incident.... That was one of two last optimistic signs I saw on my way out of Iraq.

2005-09-21T17:52:00.000-05:00

Seen from Flintstones land: across the way, the unfinished "Victory over America Palace," which would have been huge. U.S. bombs had quite an impact, but it's nice the construction cranes are still there, an appropriate though rusty symbol of the corrupt foundation Iraq is building on now.

2005-09-21T17:47:00.000-05:00

The elevator has been "remodeled" extensively. What was once an extensive sound-system has also been smashed.

2005-09-21T17:45:00.000-05:00

Any comment superfluous, cheers to the succinct perspicacity of the USAF Special Operations Command.

2005-09-21T17:39:00.000-05:00

Downstairs, some rooms still have attractive tiled murals.

2005-09-21T17:37:00.000-05:00

Lots of rumors about how Uday, Qusay, and Pops used to use the place... but "Criminal Number One," as soldiers refer to Saddam, isn't talking. There's a rumor that he himself was obsessed with the Flintstones cartoons and watched reruns every day. That one I'm not buying.

2005-09-21T17:31:00.000-05:00

The compound had a number of bedrooms, party decks, shower rooms, screened-in living rooms... well-designed and reminding me of some of the fancier Silicon Valley exec homes in the hills of Los Gatos or Woodside.

2005-09-21T17:26:00.000-05:00

The walls are covered in graffitti, added by US and coalition soldiers, who originally liberated the place and now visit it, not needing hallucinogenics to get a "weird trip" vibe from the surroundings.

2005-09-21T17:22:00.000-05:00

One can't escape the staggering irony, that all of Babylonia has been occupied by American forces - and the relics of corrupt totalitarian rule (like this odd spot) are simply relics, of a stone-age gone by...

2005-09-21T17:18:00.000-05:00

At the corner of Flintstone Lane and Yankee Road, on the outskirts of what is now Camp Slayer, lie the ruins of what probably was a cute little retreat for the chosen few...

2005-09-21T17:12:00.000-05:00

Okay, last day in Iraq - time to exceed all possible limits on Plausible Metaphors for the Iraqi situation. Yes, a visit to "Flintstone Village," the beyond-odd playground resort built by Saddam for Uday, Qusay, and children of them and other elites back in the heyday.

2005-09-18T12:05:00.000-05:00

From "Kubla Khan," by Coleridge:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !
...

2005-09-18T12:04:00.000-05:00

Saigon? Baghdad?

2005-09-18T12:03:00.000-05:00

Nightfall

2005-09-18T12:02:00.000-05:00

Letters from children line the walls of many buildings, offices, trailers and tents. Last line of the one on the right reads, "Thank you for keeping the bad people away from us."

2005-09-18T12:01:00.000-05:00

Fun on the base!

2005-09-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

Getting that tan! Armband holds various ID cards, which are checked incessantly

2005-09-18T11:58:00.000-05:00

One of many walls in Iraq with a few pot-shot holes

2005-09-18T11:57:00.000-05:00

Fine print reads, "Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again."

2005-09-18T11:56:00.001-05:00

The British have multiple units here, co-located on our bases...

2005-09-18T11:56:00.000-05:00

Some "differently-abled" Soviet-made tanks, now half-buried in a sand berm inside Camp Slayer

2005-09-17T15:26:00.000-05:00

Special post for Tom McEnery - inside the DFAC (dining facility) on Camp Liberty, Baghdad - the San Jose Sharks banner! I did the chomp...

2005-09-17T15:22:00.000-05:00

Fun time had by all!

2005-09-17T15:20:00.000-05:00

This fellow stood there like that the entire time, overlooking... either a commanding officer or one intense boxing fan

2005-09-17T15:19:00.000-05:00

I think there might have been money changing hands....

2005-09-17T15:18:00.001-05:00

Woman on left was knocked out in the third

2005-09-17T15:18:00.000-05:00

First fight was between two women soldiers (all fighters were, it goes without saying, soldiers on base)

2005-09-17T15:14:00.001-05:00

Full moon and lots of folks

2005-09-17T15:14:00.000-05:00

Crowd gathers for Saturday Night Fights at Camp Liberty

2005-09-17T15:13:00.000-05:00

Gus Tavares, "T-Money" as he incessantly refers to himself - our guide for nightlife

2005-09-17T15:11:00.001-05:00

Gorgeous moon came out over Baghdad... time to head out for Saturday night fun

2005-09-17T15:11:00.000-05:00

Read and heed

2005-09-17T15:08:00.001-05:00

Defense Intelligence Support Office - Iraq... their slogan on the shield reads, "Non Potes Occultare," or "You Cannot Hide"

2005-09-17T14:41:00.000-05:00

There's a mosque right inside the Camp Slayer wall, but I don't believe it gets a lot of foot-traffic

2005-09-17T14:39:00.000-05:00

The boys make fun of my driving here - the roads are almost as bad as Downtown DC

2005-09-17T14:32:00.000-05:00

I was issued a LandCruiser a few days ago. Driving around is great, but not allowed off base.

2005-09-17T14:31:00.000-05:00

Incongruous - we're smiling, but in front of two separate carbombs outside the base walls... a fact of life that redefines normalcy. Capt. Gus Taveras, U.S. Army... Gus is our guide to Camp Slayer nightlife.

2005-09-17T14:28:00.000-05:00

Let's get our PRIORITIES straight, people!!

2005-09-17T14:25:00.000-05:00

Soldiers dragging in the heat

2005-09-17T14:24:00.001-05:00

Hot, but not too hot. Dare I say it, "a dry heat."

2005-09-17T14:24:00.000-05:00

More bad stuff today... I'm lucky, because I haven't had to go outside the wall except for my first two days here. Nevertheless, one guy here on base was killed the day I left the US (Sept 11) by a mortar attack over the wall, and another on Sept 7. This is a car bomb near the airport.

2005-09-15T16:39:00.001-05:00

Goodnight, Baghdad

2005-09-15T16:39:00.000-05:00

Marble walkway down to the lake

2005-09-15T16:38:00.001-05:00

Yet another sink

2005-09-15T16:38:00.000-05:00

Spooky down on the deck

2005-09-15T16:37:00.000-05:00

One of the guest villas lit up... some general at work?

2005-09-15T16:35:00.001-05:00

Still working in the adjoining palace offices

2005-09-15T16:35:00.000-05:00

Shades of CNN, 1991! Up on the roof under a nice fat moon, shining down on Baghdad and Camp Victory, the nearby airport to the west, sprawling downtown to the east.

2005-09-15T16:02:00.000-05:00

A different room in the Perfume Palace... beneath this ceiling are offices and cubicles with our people working away, but around them is splendor

2005-09-15T15:45:00.000-05:00

Once again, my place of work over here - the Perfume Palace. A nice shot I took today...

2005-09-15T15:39:00.000-05:00

Sign reads, "RANDOM ANTI-TERRORISM MEASURES IN EFFECT! Sorry for the Inconvenience."

I never noticed anything particularly "random"

2005-09-15T15:38:00.000-05:00

A little Copper Polish and you're set

2005-09-15T15:37:00.001-05:00

Chicks with guns... they still like to shop

2005-09-15T15:37:00.000-05:00

All the treasures of Babylon and Mesopotamia...

2005-09-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

The PX also has a "Bazaar" -- since most of the soldiers will never get to spend any relaxing time in Olde Baghdad's shopping district, they've imported an actual bazaar, with real Iraqis selling real junk.

2005-09-15T15:35:00.000-05:00

Cinnabon? Seattle's Best Coffee? Burger King? Why, this is paradise!

2005-09-15T15:32:00.000-05:00

What kind of base would go without a Burger King? Note the dirigible - there are a number of them and they serve a purpose up there.... hush hush.

2005-09-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

You can't ask people to leave their weapons at the door - the door would look like a supercharged armory! So, you just try not to bump into anyone in the aisles

2005-09-15T15:30:00.000-05:00

The PX! Everyone's favorite place - we went today because Pflueger was leaving this evening for the US

2005-09-15T15:28:00.000-05:00

I haven't gone to the pool yet, but may do so if I get an hour off work on Saturday... almost everyone here works seven days a week, actually (oh yeah, they're soldiers)

2005-09-15T15:27:00.000-05:00

Idyllic, isn't it? What is now Camp Slayer / Camp Iraq was a sort of upscale retreat for Saddam and Uday/Qusay's favored VIP guests... the three each had Palaces here (including Perfume and Al Faw) but the place is dotted with villas, promenades, this pool.... like San Antonio's Riverwalk, without the Hooters franchise

2005-09-15T15:22:00.000-05:00

Entry door to the Perfume Palace

2005-09-15T15:21:00.001-05:00

The Perfume Palace, behind its protective skin

2005-09-15T15:21:00.000-05:00

Despite the violence, some people are riding their bikes to work... oh, wait - this is inside the base, behind tons and tons of concrete. I guarantee they're also armed - everyone is.

2005-09-15T15:09:00.000-05:00

On the wall of Al Faw Palace... I believe it means, "Under New Management"

2005-09-15T07:32:00.000-05:00

Pete Fisher of MNC-I, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence under Gen Zahner

2005-09-14T19:37:00.000-05:00

Iraqalypse Now (copyright Kathryn Ballentine Shepherd)

2005-09-14T19:20:00.000-05:00

Someone back in the States asked in an email if I was able to see much "devastation" in Baghdad, based on the impression left by endless close-up media footage of car-bombings, and even perhaps by the early "Shock & Awe" campaign. In fact, Baghdad is demonstrably whole, a relatively thriving Third World capital with some beautiful (not to say remarkable) buildings fully intact.

2005-09-14T19:14:00.000-05:00

Nice shot of what used to be something... until the war, when we aimed a precision munition right through that door on the roof

2005-09-14T19:13:00.000-05:00

Nice shot of something from the air

2005-09-14T19:12:00.000-05:00

Meeting with a very interesting, smart and hard-working Iraqi and his team.

2005-09-14T19:11:00.002-05:00

Smiley Dukakis

2005-09-14T19:11:00.001-05:00

Okay, enough of the macho crap

2005-09-14T19:11:00.000-05:00

Ready to leave the IZ

2005-09-14T19:10:00.001-05:00

California kid

2005-09-14T19:10:00.000-05:00

Me in front of the statue - here's a tidbit from General Schwarzkopf [It Doesn't Take A Hero, (Bantam, 1992) p. 455] "I had spoken to Gen. Powell regularly throughout the day. ...At ten p.m., I called to give him a final update. I was tired; at the end of the conversation I heard myself say how much I'd like to blow up the giant Saddam statue and the Victory Arch in downtown Baghdad. The Victory Arch, a monument to the war against Iran, was a huge sculpture of two hands, said to be Saddam's, holding two swords crossed. We'd spared both the statue and the Victory Arch during the air campaign because they weren't military targets. To my surprise, Powell was all for it-- although he suggested we check with the president first. Pentagon lawyers vetoed the idea a couple of days later..."

2005-09-14T19:08:00.000-05:00

The famous "Hands of Victory" statue erected by Saddam after the Iran-Iraq war... the Hands were modeled on his own

2005-09-14T19:05:00.000-05:00

Some mercenary tough guys ... guy on the left looks a little like Jay, with an attitude (I'd like to see Jay on his plane with THAT gun)

2005-09-14T19:04:00.001-05:00

Approach to the Ministry

2005-09-14T19:04:00.000-05:00

No, no, there's no corruption in the new Iraqi government... it's just normal that I counted 18 brand-spanking new BMW's in the parking lot of the Ministry of the Interior - all armored

2005-09-14T19:03:00.001-05:00

2005-09-14T19:03:00.000-05:00

To get to the Ministry, we had to do a sprint of 500 meters through the Red Zone - yikes!

2005-09-14T19:02:00.001-05:00

I would guess that i've seen eighty-six thousand Hummers on this trip already

2005-09-14T19:02:00.000-05:00

Convoy

2005-09-14T19:01:00.001-05:00

Landing party waiting for us to take us to the Ministry

2005-09-14T19:01:00.000-05:00

Ministry of the Interior, the home of the infamous Mukhabarat, Saddam's secret police. Torture was a regular staple inside, and we've cleaned it up enormously, now more reminiscent of the FBI, and trying hard to inculcate a clean sense of professionalism in its members. We spent a few hours inside today, on "courtesy calls."

2005-09-14T18:59:00.000-05:00

This traffic jam was actually caused by one of the bombings, near the Ministry of the Interior... I couldn't see the bombed cars themselves (other side of the helo) but the traffic at the bottom of the photo was being held up for remaining emergency vehicles.

2005-09-14T18:58:00.000-05:00

Stadium and sports complex - reminds me that flying over Bahrain (we stopped there on the way to Qatar), I saw a gorgeous, very ritzy racetrack, all lit up, huge grounds and enormous pools attached

2005-09-14T18:57:00.000-05:00

I regret not being able to wander around the city, I would enjoy that very much

2005-09-14T18:55:00.000-05:00

Eight million drivers!

2005-09-14T18:54:00.003-05:00

Eight million people!

2005-09-14T18:54:00.002-05:00

Along the river

2005-09-14T18:54:00.001-05:00

Oasis in the city

2005-09-14T18:54:00.000-05:00

Nothing funny about this - one of at least 10 attacks today, over a hundred killed... included in the attacks were at least two on US convoys - unlike ours, outside the IZ (in other words, out in the Red Zone). We were flying to the Ministry of the Interior when we saw this - pilot just flew on, of course

2005-09-14T18:52:00.002-05:00

I dig his helmet

2005-09-14T18:52:00.001-05:00

Pat Linehan goofing around (our liaison to MNC-I, the Multinational Coalition in Iraq, in country for most of the war)

2005-09-14T18:52:00.000-05:00

Okay, with the helmet on I'm definitely a DORK. It's Mike Dukakis all over again