A realisation. And a tank.

Something happened recently that gave me much more of a sense of how hard it is for Iraqis. I would say it "brought it home to me" but really I can have no idea. Just a better one than I did. One of our guys went to a meeting and ended up being pushed into doing translations for the Iraqi speakers, who were members of one of the government Ministries. Our guy didn't know the meeting would be filmed, nor did he know he would be asked to translate. It just happened when he got there. He came back after the meeting visibly shaken. Some people can have a scared look, like a kid who's been caught doing something naughty at school and knows his parents will find out, or maybe like someone who's been caught smuggling drugs through customs or something, but this was a look like I have never seen. It made me scared just to see it. The problem was that the film was to be released to all sorts of media outlets in the region, including online. He would have had both Shia and Sunni after him. It's not being melodramatic to say he'd have been dead within a week. I know his circumstances outside the IZ, and he would have been well and truly fucked. He was too frightened to think straight, so I made him get on the phone to the right people and arrange an appointment with the media folks while the footage was in post production. I was dropped him off at the checkpoint out of the IZ and watched him walking towards the exit. It was the walk of a man who was beaten - shoulders sagged forward, a slow trudge, no reason to want to get to his destination. That's when it occurred to me what risks he takes to do his job here. I went to the media office the next morning and arranged for his face to be edited out of the end product.

Having had some more time to see a bit more of the place and meet a lot of people, I have to say life here so far has exceeded my expectations. It's nuts, for sure, but I'll never forget my time here and I don't regret coming for a second.

We have been using an armoured Suburban the last week or so to get around. I'm no petrol head and still have no interest in cars, but this thing is awesome - I feel like I've added another couple of inches. It's heavier than Harry Rednapp's eyelids and takes a wee while to get any speed up but you could leave a Rolex on the dashboard in Rio de Janeiro with an invitational sledge hammer and it would still be there when you got back. Bulletproof. We took it to fill up with petrol the other day and it took 135 litres, amid fits of laughter. Most surreal driving experience so far: giving way to a tank on a roundabout. I had right of way but you can't really argue with a tank.

Some of the monumets and architecture here is pretty amazing. This link has more information and pictures but here are some pictures I took of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier and the Hands of Victory.