Iraq Dos and Don'ts

I visited Baghdad in the summer of 1972, shortly before going to Munich for the Olympics. Almost NOTHING I remember of the city would hold true today. I remember staying in a spare hotel with a ceiling fan, narrow beds, concrete walls and floors and a garden straigh from A Thousand and One Nights : it was green and lush and ablaze with huge roses. I got up very early the first morning there and sat in the garden enjoying the clear desert light and the fragrance of the roses. A barefoot teenage Arab boy, dressed in a galabea that looked as if it was made of mattress ticking, brought me some fragrant tea and small tomato and cucumber sandwiches...not something I had ever had for breakfast before; that morning will stay with me forever. It is impossible for me to visualize the Baghdad of today; it is painful to try and reconcile my memory with the reality of news coming from there every day. Saddam Hussein was around already; he was the vice-president. Who would have predicted that his ascent to power would ultimately lead to the disaster that is contemporary Iraq? Who would have predicted that early summer morning in Baghdad that the whole world would soon watch in horror as terrorists took Israeli hostages at the Olympic games? To travel is such a wonderful, uplifting, sad and sometimes disillusioning experience. I would have loved to return to Baghdad; I fear I never shall.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damian says : Jul 19, 2008 Not a bad place to spend the spring in. Vibrant local population, hardily constructed buildings, inexpensive items from roadside peddlers, including ak-47's. However, the summer is extremely hot, the winter is extremely cold. The people are extremely crazy, (not really, just the ones that want to kill you), the kids are extremely dirty (...), the camels aren't around as much as you'd expect, the bombs aren't professionaly made ( I mean come on, if someone is going to set one off as I drive by, atleast take pride in your work and make sure it works) tried twice but couldn't get me, the food sucks, army logisitics is a joke, military pay sucks, usually half the retards that the army recruits are idiots, contractors walk around like their shit don't stink just cuz they get paid great at the military's expense, politicians walk around diverting personnel to be their bodyguards just so they can say they've been there, don't get too close to friends 'cuz chances are some won't be going home with you, and oh yeah, they want to kill us in a lot of parts of the country, but otherwise, not a bad place to shack up in the spring.

keep your head down! wear your flak and kevlar!

Bring some armor ..haha....no seriously bring some