Green Zone Iraq

October 31, 2008

Donovan Wylie has comfort food with American troops.

I had dinner last night in an American Military Base here in the Green Zone.

The first thing you notice is the light; it is extremely bright, super fluorescent. At night the Green Zone is black, no street lights, except for the new American Embassy, which has been just completed and is now America’s largest embassy in the world. The embassy is vast, officially larger than the Vatican, and lies right on the banks of the Tigris River – the Tigris river! All that history....

But generally, the Green Zone at night becomes the dark zone. You just don’t move out of your compound as there is still the potential for kidnapping.

The dining hall served plenty of food, and plenty of comfort food, and I was very grateful to be eating there, having not eaten properly for a while. Actually, I was surprised the U.S. military, or in fact, any military, can be fed so well. It wasn’t the hard living which I so associate with war, it was like very good university campus catering – I mean very good – and for sure the British Army wouldn’t get this.

Anyway, while I decided between chili con carne, or a burger, or chicken, or rice, or a taco, or, or . . . (or crab – or was it lobster? – seriously!), the many plasma television screens, systemically placed around this huge hall, were showing the final debate between Obama and McCain. It was a great image, but not one I could photograph – not even mobile phones can be used in the hall. Having decided on chili con carne, I asked a solider next to me who he thought would win. “Obama,” he said abruptly, with a voice and face of resignation that showed, like him or not, he knew he was going to win.

I pondered on that for a while, and, thinking of the bright lights of the new embassy, thought to myself, “What would it mean, would it make any difference?” I concluded (conceded? either way) the Americans are here to stay, the troops one day may leave their super bases dotted around Iraq, but America has settled itself here in the Emerald City. The embassy sparkles, and this young country, America, continues to expand, on the banks of the Tigris River.

Dust storm all day, no helicopters tonight, but terrible indigestion kept me awake.