Green Zone

December 29, 2007

I made my first real trip into the Green Zone today. They don’t call it “The Green Zone” anymore. It’s actually the “International Zone”, or just “IZ” now. A few people from the crew run over every Saturday to do a mail run and then to go shopping at the big PX and Haji-Mart’s. Or they just like to go and have a nice cappuccino at the Green Bean Coffee, or a Whopper from the Burger King they have at one of the big FOBs. (And they always make a stop at the Pharmacy.) It’s a voluntary run since technically it’s outside the wire and we have to go with a PSD. But there is never a shortage of people willing to go. So the PSD ride over was uneventful. We did, however, roll right by the spot that got hit with a car bomb yesterday. It was a sectarian attack aimed at each other, not the US. They blew it up in the middle of this run down little shopping area and killed 30 people. It was on the news. There was a big hole blown out of the side of this now scorched little building. Because of the blast there was a big Iraqi military presence on the streets which made things safer for those of us traveling through them.

So once we got to the IZ our PSD escort peeled off and we were on our own to drive ourselves around. I have to say it was pretty awesome seeing this part of Baghdad since it’s so publicized in the States. This is an area that Saddam really built up since his palace is in the middle of it, (now the US Embassy.) It was weird seeing a giant palace, (many of them actually), in the middle of this place where I’d only so far seen strife and poverty. And even stranger was seeing all the bomb damage that hasn’t been repaired yet but the places are being occupied by the coalition forces. The pictures I took are from the palace the Marines first took when they stormed Baghdad, (I forgot its name.) The US 2nd Cavalry, or the “Black Jack Brigade”, now calls it their HQ. The building with gaping holes in it is actually occupied by us and open for business. It’s a big FOB with a giant PX, a Green Bean Coffee, and tons of Haji-shops. The Iraq’s are certainly taking advantage of their new found capitalist ways. I especially like the FOB barber and where he decided to hang his shingle. Like any other businessman dreaming of making a buck he must have been thinking, “Location, location, location.”

We made a stop at the Pharmacy too. It’s down a dirt road in a building that’s among a bunch of run down apartments. It is a popular stop because the doctors there are so good. We waited in a line to get prescriptions filled by Dr. J. Daniels, Dr. W. Turkey, and Dr. P. Smirnov, to name just a few. I can tell it’s a really good pharmacy because of all the satisfied “cases” that go out the door. And oddly, there happens to be a little smoke shop next door. I can’t figure out why they would put a tobacco dispensary right next to a place of healing like that. Oh well, I’ll just have to chalk it up to those crazy Iraqis I guess.

The last stop we made today was at the parade grounds where Saddam used to sit in his luxury box and watch the tanks and missiles roll by on parade. As they rumbled by they went under the huge crossed swords and rolled over Iranian army helmets built into the pavement. There are lots of reminders of the Iran/Iraq war like this all over the IZ. Remember the video of Saddam at the podium holding the shotgun up in the air and firing it? Well, that was at this place and I stood on that very spot! It was eerie, to say the least. I wondered if the Allied soldiers who took Berlin in WWII felt the same way as they stood in the places that Hitler had held his rallies. The whole place is in shambles now though. Every window is broken out, every room in the place gutted, and the weeds grow everywhere out of control. And right under the swords there are 2 Haji-shops peddling Iraqi military mementos to the hordes of Americans who flock there for photo opportunities. I wonder if Saddam would raise his shotgun today, (if he were alive of course), in honor of this shameless ode to the ever growing plague of capitalism?

Jim Franks