The Green Zone

I got inside the Green Zone for the first time on Saturday to apply for an identification card. It was a long process. The most direct route from our office to the zone is closed to everyone without proper identification, and only two such identifications are issued per office, so I must take a much longer route. The advantage is that it winds through much of Baghdad (relatively safe neighborhoods throughout), which gave me a rare opportunity to see life outside. Non-government cars may not drive into the Green Zone, so we got out of the car just outside the gate and walked in. By the time we got to the building we needed, we had probably passed through a dozen checkpoints, all operated by soldiers with assault rifles. Since I didn't have the proper identification (that was what I was coming to get), I had to show a U.S. passport and company identification at each stop.

After about 15 minutes of walking, we arrived at the correct building. Sorry, the soldier out front informed us, they're out to lunch. When I asked when lunch was over, he politely informed me that it was from 12-1. I glanced at my colleague's watch and saw that it was 11:35. The soldier helpfully suggested that they had left early because "sometimes they want to go further away for lunch." Right.

So, we waited. And waited. I learned exactly what 112 degrees feels like, even if it is a "very dry heat." My colleague doesn't speak all that much English, and my Arabic is non-existent, so conversation was not really an option (although I did see a picture of his very beautiful 5-year-old daughter). At 1:05, they let us in.

Getting the ID was a relatively painless process--fingerprinting, mug shots and the like went pretty quickly. But by the time we got back to the office, a trip to accomplish one simple task in an area just a few miles away had taken nearly four hours. Ahh, Baghdad.