Back to Baghdad

[Robbien]

When a plane lands in Baghdad International Airport, it can't land the way that planes usually do. Instead of descending in a straight line toward the runway, it has to circle directly above the airport at a high altitude, and gradually make its way down. The chances of being shot down are too great over the areas surrounding the airport.

Much of Iraq is like this: small, heavily fortified areas of very tight security, surrounded by huge expanses of frightening terrain where anything can happen. It is true on a small scale ("secure" buildings within a city that armed convoys rush between), but it is also true of Iraq as a whole. There used to be certain cities one tried to stay clear of, now there's a very small list of cities that might be considered stable.

On my first trip to Iraq, I hired a vehicle to take me from Amman, Jordan to Baghdad. It seems quaint now that the trip was nerve-racking because bandits might rob us as we drove past Ramadi and Falluja. Beheadings never even entered my mind, but that was 2003, when lightly armed American soldiers patrolled the streets of Baghdad on foot, and British soldiers in Basra didn't even wear helmets.

Now things are very different. The Amman to Jordan route is unthinkable. So is the Kirkuk to Baghdad taxi ride I used to take. It was considered crazy then, but even I know not to try it now, and would never find someone to take me anyway. A few years ago, my taxi driver had to take out-of-the-way routes to avoid places like Tikrit. Then it was Baqouba, then Samara, and others, until there was no route left that offered even a chance of making it. Getting to Baghdad has gotten to be impossible by land.

That is why I flew there from the north.

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