What it Feels Like to Be in Baghdad

A friend today asked, after perusing my blog, for the real story of what's happening here. What's it like for Iraqis and American soldiers? Why am I optimistic about the US mission? -- or has the U.S. screwed the pooch and now it's all damage control? How does it "feel" to be in Baghdad at this point in history?

Well. All this is coming, believe me, and I don't want to go off half-cocked without really knowing the facts on the ground (literally) or seeing things for myself. Today is only my sixth day here, remember, and seemingly half of this time has been spent getting various badges, emails, clearances, keys, and the like. No, I will not dedicate all my blog posts to Saddam's pool or vignettes of bureaucrats run amock. (Though I hope those help to provide some local color.) Heck, after a little while, the newness/surreality factor of it all will decline -- how many times will I need to mention working in a palace ballroom under beautiful murals framed in gold leaf? -- and I will be compelled to write about serious political, social, and military issues.

For what it's worth, my quick and dirty observation is that yes, we're completely on the right track now; General Petraeus and the policy/strategy he has in place represents a difference in kind, not degree. The only remaining question is -- ay, the rub, and it's a doozy -- is it too late given American domestic political realities? I'm convinced that if we were doing in 2004 what we are now, with the numbers we have now (actually, we should have used even more initially), it would be a completely different ballgame. I'm not going to point fingers, trying to allocate shares of blame to the President, this or that administration official or cabinet secretary or general, or the media for that matter. My point is just that this mission is necessary and that from this point forward, given less limited time and resources, it would undoubtedly succeed. I agree completely with this excellent op-ed in the publication where I am an erstwhile columnist, TCS Daily.com.

Finally, fyi, most or all of my contact with Iraqis will be at the ministerial level, so I may neither have the opportunity to cover the "Iraqi street" nor the inclination to go play investigative reporter (which isn't my role here anyway). As for our brave soldiers and marines, let me just say that, while I have little to compare it to, morale is incredibly high.