Thinking about Iraq

I admit to not following Iraqi politics nor the security situation there very closely. Here in Jordan there are enough politics to follow (what is the King doing, what’s happening with the innumerable subsidies – fuel, bread, fodder, why Jordan doesn’t like Syria.) But this weekend, Dan and I were both paying close attention to fighting in Iraq.

I think it is hard to follow war coverage – it all ends up sounding alike “x soldiers died, x dozens of Iraqis died” and it is all happening in different cities and at different times. And even though Iraq borders Jordan, the war is there and it is not here at all – and we have never feared that it would be here – it is not Jordan’s war.

A friend of ours has been serving this past year in Baghdad. Throughout the year, he has been in Amman many times and we got to hear when the attacks were frequent and near the embassy in Baghdad (last summer) and when things were quiet and Iraqis were heading back to markets and life inside the Green Zone was as normal as life there can be. And indeed it had been quiet in the Green (or International) Zone for several months until this weekend.

Our friend was in Amman this weekend (on his way back from R&R) and I was organizing the travel of a government official who is about to start a tour in Baghdad. We all spent the weekend tracking events in Baghdad to find out if our friend and my official would be able to travel back to Baghdad. Employees are sleeping in the embassy because it is a safer building than the temporary housing. We took our friend to the grocery store to stock up on Woolite and snacks to bring into the embassy there, since employees haven’t been allowed to return to their housing to get clean clothes.

For the past six months, a Jordanian economist who works in my office has been working in Baghdad. This weekend after a Jordanian driver who was also working in the Baghdad embassy was injured (and a contractor was killed), my colleague decided it was time to come back to Amman.

I’m not sure there is a point or epilogue to this post. But Baghdad has been in my thoughts this weekend. We wish our friend and colleagues safe travels and a safe stay.