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Other entries in Baghdad

I'm actually here

Baghdad. The city I've seen on TV so many times and now here I am, in the midst of it all. Our convoy arrived a couple of days ago and with getting settled and ready for whatever may come, it's been crazy! There is a lot of difference between the world outside of Iraq and here but a lot the same too. Fortunately, ballofdirt.com is one of the small parts of the internet that remains the same on both sides (my other emails accounts do not and are out of bounds...).

So here we are. Human shields in Iraq to stop a war that is beginning to look like more and more of a possibility! I'll confess that my motivations to be here have only gotten stronger. There is no reason a country should have its sovereignty stompted upon and whether or not you agree with the top - I'll be careful about wording here because I am in a different kind of society - there is no excuse to go to war to achieve economic or political aims. This is a country of happy, beautiful people who should remain free to pursue their way of life.

It's funny, there aren't any McDonalds or Coke products here. The Malboro-looking cigarettes are Mikado brand. It's the only bastion of non-American culture I've ever visited. Sure is different. You can see that the last twelve years have been spent under sanctions from the UN: cars are old, people are looking pretty tired and the basic infastructure of the society looks like it hasn't seen a decent run of maintenance in about that time. The media in here does their own job of telling the truth too: there was an article the other day about the history of mental illness in American presidents.

It seems I have access to this site, so I can keep you posted on what's going on from inside. For the moment, it would appear that the people and government are most concerned with stopping the war. So am I. For the moment, let's see if it works.

With peace.

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