Report from Baghdad

Reader Bart's latest letter from Baghdad:

Embassy Without An Ambassador

Within the Green Zone, the U.S. Embassy is about a mile from the Republican Palace. The previous Ambassador, Negroponte, almost never went to the Embassy. He stayed in the Republcan Palace, where the military and all the other Federal Agencies are. Apparently, there are only a few employees in the actual Embassy. Negroponte wanted to be where the action is and also keep an eye on everybody at the Palace, thereby leading to the ridiculous situation of an Embassy without an Ambassador. Will the new Ambassador move to the Embassy? Fat chance of that.

They're building a new Embassy cafeteria. But it's next to the Republican palace, over a mile from the Embassy. And the Republican Palace contains the main DFAC, where everybody eats, just 100 yards from the construction site of the new cafeteria.

Meanwhile, a certain merry band of adventurers here, who shall remain nameless, purchased several Black H-2 Hummers (H-2 = the civilian version) and armored them. The armor hasn't worked very well, as apparently a couple of them were shot up as they were driving outside the Green Zone. So they don't take them outside the Zone anymore. But because the Black H-2 is rather distinctive, everybody knows who's behind the wheel when one of the H-2's goes by. So these H-2's are the most well-known commuter vehicles in the Green Zone. That's not exactly what this merry band of adventurers desired.

Excuse me while I flip through various passages of my well-worn copy of Catch-22.

Bart