A popular radio talk-show host here in Seattle reports from a downtown hotel in Baghdad, Iraq...
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Freedom has become a tough sell in Iraq
By Dave Ross
Special to The Times
FROM:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001902418_daveross14.htmlAL MANSOUR HOTEL BALCONY, Baghdad — The birds and the palm trees are enjoying today's hazy heat, the Tigris is only a little rippled by the latest explosion, the car horns sound like a football victory and my balcony has but one bullet divot in the plaster. Life can be good for an American in Baghdad when the TV is off, your hotel is thoroughly guarded and you have a paid, confirmed return flight in your pocket.
The news this past week cratered the arguments for occupation like the mortars that fall every day into the Green Zone, a Hollywood back lot of pristine and ruined palaces with blue and white signs at the intersections reading, "What have you done today for the Iraqi people?"
What the signs don't mention — because it's obvious — is that those Iraqi people aren't allowed into the Green Zone unless they work there. They inhabit the Red Zone, which is probably safer for them anyway. It is one of the many ironies of this benevolent occupation that the Green Zone is the most check-pointed, flak-jacketed and bunkered place in Baghdad. Ambassador Paul Bremer has an escort (which I witnessed but will not describe in deference to national security) that would impress Saddam Hussein himself.
Even Freedom Radio, the coalition's all-hit FM station, boasts that it's "... broadcasting from an 'undisclosed location.' "
As I write this, I can look south into the zone and see black smoke drifting north — the likely result of that dull rumble a few minutes ago. It has happened every day this past week. The coalition never announces what got hit, so these attacks never make the news unless they hit near the reporters' hotels outside the zone. The explosion behind the Sheraton on the April 9 anniversary of the fall of Baghdad — which warranted breaking news banners on all the cable networks — is just another form of precipitation in the Green Zone.
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