On Baghdad taxis, the Green Zone, and whether U.S. weapons are harming our

[MSgt213]

On Baghdad taxis, the Green Zone, and whether U.S. weapons are harming our own G.I.'s
By Graydon Carter

You think getting into New York is a hassle? This is what it takes to get to Baghdad these days. First, there's the $630, 80-mile flight from Jordan. Dodging surface-to-air missiles, the pilot zigzags the plane into a heart-pounding landing. A convoy of armored vehicles awaits the traveler who has made prior arrangements. Thus begins the trip into town, a trip that James Hider of The Times of London describes as "the most expensive, dangerous taxi ride in the world.... Your driver is more likely to ask your blood type than if you had a pleasant landing."

The cars set off on the 15-mile ride from the airport, southwest of central Baghdad, to the coalition's Green Zone at 100 m.p.h. The highway, which used to be lined with palm trees, is now barren. The trees were cut down by U.S. forces to eliminate sniper posts. The wide-eyed passenger runs a gauntlet of roadside bombs, suicide car bombers, and charred Humvees and trucks, as well as hidden insurgents wielding rocket-propelled-grenade launchers. According to Hider, the 10-plus-minute ride will set the intrepid traveler back about $5,000.

The driver will likely avoid the Hamra district-where armed gangs prowl the streets looking for Westerners to kidnap, whom they then sell to one of the Islamist groups for some $250,000-and make a beeline for the Green Zone, the walled district of former palaces turned government buildings that is the coalition's redoubt in Baghdad. The area is a protected, isolated bubble within Iraq, but even here journalists and contractors arrange for a couple of cars and a handful of bodyguards, generally former soldiers from the U.S., Britain, or South Africa, who come armed with assault rifles and submachine guns. Two cars and four men can run upwards of $10,000 a day. It's getting so expensive to get people in and out of Iraq that it's estimated between 10 and 20 percent of the Iraq-reconstruction budget is going toward this sort of security.

I think about this every time I see a Baghdad dateline in the morning paper or a television correspondent broadcasting from there. Forget the rosy picture the Pentagon is painting for the public-the situation there is in meltdown right now. And it's only getting worse.

http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/articles/041129roco03