Preparing to Depart - Iraq Project II
This is a reposting of my Iraq Project II. I will post a dispatch-entry Monday thru Friday until the original project is recreated. The real-time journey was posted by The Janesville Gazette in February and March, 2008.
Introduction
posted February 21, 2008
People often ask me how it is possible I can travel to Iraq and am going back again? Look at it this way among many answers to that question. We Americans have invested billions of dollars in Iraq since the war started in the spring of 2003, not to mention a presence in that region since the 1991 war. Much of the region I will visit has benefited from that money and presence. Wisconsin has lost 86 soldiers in Iraq. Last time at least, after a brief explanation at the border of my intentions to actually see some of the places where all our investment and sarcifice has taken place, the authorities in the North of Iraq issued a visa at the gate for one dollar and let me in. In that culture, of course it is logical for someone to check on their investments and loses.
And it was fine as well, that I was just an average guy and not royalty of some sort. Because I have limited means, I must travel at the street level. The average people I had to live amongst last time, took me under their wing. That in itself is already information that is contradictory to conventional wisdom about the place. Also in regards to traveling to Iraq, our State Department does not restrict travel to such places. I however, must understand it is my responsibility to travel there with due regard.
It might be obvious but it must be emphasized that at any point a journey like this can take a turn for the worse. Or, at any point I could abort the journey if I feel it is merited. The region I will travel is "relatively" safer than say Baghdad for example. Yet, there are several competing regional governments, political parties, religious sects, thiefdoms, and militias controlling or sharing control of much of the no man's land I must travel through. Make no mistake, the northern region of Iraq has complicated dangers of its own aside from Baghdad's. The Turks and the Kurds continually shoot at one and other in the West. The Iranians loom on the East. And, the border-in-flux between the North and South of Iraq is at best precarious to travel near and around.
Hopefully, my next dispatch will be while en route or in-country.
Bob Keith
Janesville, Wisconsin
Introduction
posted February 21, 2008
People often ask me how it is possible I can travel to Iraq and am going back again? Look at it this way among many answers to that question. We Americans have invested billions of dollars in Iraq since the war started in the spring of 2003, not to mention a presence in that region since the 1991 war. Much of the region I will visit has benefited from that money and presence. Wisconsin has lost 86 soldiers in Iraq. Last time at least, after a brief explanation at the border of my intentions to actually see some of the places where all our investment and sarcifice has taken place, the authorities in the North of Iraq issued a visa at the gate for one dollar and let me in. In that culture, of course it is logical for someone to check on their investments and loses.
And it was fine as well, that I was just an average guy and not royalty of some sort. Because I have limited means, I must travel at the street level. The average people I had to live amongst last time, took me under their wing. That in itself is already information that is contradictory to conventional wisdom about the place. Also in regards to traveling to Iraq, our State Department does not restrict travel to such places. I however, must understand it is my responsibility to travel there with due regard.
It might be obvious but it must be emphasized that at any point a journey like this can take a turn for the worse. Or, at any point I could abort the journey if I feel it is merited. The region I will travel is "relatively" safer than say Baghdad for example. Yet, there are several competing regional governments, political parties, religious sects, thiefdoms, and militias controlling or sharing control of much of the no man's land I must travel through. Make no mistake, the northern region of Iraq has complicated dangers of its own aside from Baghdad's. The Turks and the Kurds continually shoot at one and other in the West. The Iranians loom on the East. And, the border-in-flux between the North and South of Iraq is at best precarious to travel near and around.
Hopefully, my next dispatch will be while en route or in-country.
Bob Keith
Janesville, Wisconsin
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