maybe a fish & chips store...

This is inside the green zone downtown Baghdad, also called the International Zone. I heard they're going to turn Iraq into a tourist attraction and I want to be the first person to open up a Starbucks right here along the river! I haven't posted a picture in a while. There's a real hesitation to post pictures which might be confidential or unlawful, they've had a problem with people posting pictures of destroyed vehicles or worst. They end up as recruiting tools for the bad guys, so I have to be careful what goes out.

We were downtown at one of the FOB's (Forward Operating Bases) which is just a fancy word for base camp and asked our guide if we could get a picture here. The bombing last week at the hotel is outside of this zone, it was inside the Red zone and that's a little bit more dangerous than the green zone. The red zone is Baghdad and the green zone is a hunk carved out of the middle and heavily defended. It has the embassy's, headquarters, etc. But make no mistake, there is heavy security in and out of buildings and checkpoints and lots of loaded weapons pointed at everyone, lots of barb wire and concrete bunkers. Even in full battle-rattle, they check our ID's, and I'm glad they do, not a problem for me.

I owe many email responses, thanks for keeping up with me even though I don't always get a chance to write back except for maybe a /wave or two. All is well here, they're taking good care of us and in turn we watch out for our people from back home. More later, but best wishes to all!