The surrealism of this place continues, as witnessed by these photographs. As I mentioned, we have a fleet of German cars (BMW, Mercedes) here. I managed to latch onto a full size Mercedes, I had spotted that it had been lightly armored (maybe level II, hand gun only) when no one else had noticed, so I snagged it. It's a little, uh, "tired" but it works; all the cars are a little beat up here.
Driving around Baghdad, inside the GZ, only adds to the surrealistic effect (video).
You kind of have to see it to feel it, but this place is wacky-wack. I don't groove on it as much as I did when I was out here last, there was a greater sense of optimism when the coalition ran things and, frankly, things ran better. Also, given the worsening security situation some things have definitely backslid. Remember the Green Zone café from the June trip (pics)? Well, a suicide bomber hit it and the market inside the GZ in the fall, they're both shut down now. Carry out only.
Posted by rick at January 7, 2005 12:29 AM