Word: baghdad
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...When I first traveled to the Kurdish North in August of 2004 to escape the heat and violence of Baghdad, the so-called "Switzerland of Iraq" was disappointing in just one respect: summers on the high plains of Erbil are almost as scorching. Otherwise, Kurdistan was a refuge. In Baghdad, journalists had begun hiring security entourages and erecting guarded compounds. Up north in Erbil, as a visiting American, I was practically given keys to the city. I did my reporting by foot or hailed taxis from the street, spent my evenings in beer gardens or pizza parlors, and slept...
...American-style school. The Turkish developers of Naz City, a high-rise condominium complex, are trying to sell house-proud Kurds on modern apartment living. An American company wants to build Iraq's first ski resort in the mountains near the Turkish and Iranian borders. While citizens in Baghdad struggle to survive, a sign in Erbil declares that the city is "Striving for Perfection...
...violence in this city of about a million people hasn't reached a level comparable to Baghdad. Infrastructure and services in the city are functional by Iraqi standards, no thanks to the central government, which delays projects by sheer inertia, say U.S. and Kurdish officials. Such neglect may soon reach a crisis point in Kirkuk. The Iraqi constitution calls for the city to hold a referendum by year's end on whether or not it should remain under control of the central Iraqi government in Baghdad or become part of Iraqi Kurdistan...
CONTEXT Senator John McCain strolled through Shorja--an open market in Baghdad--to prove that Americans have a warped view of the war-torn area. CNN correspondent Michael Ware challenged McCain's analysis: "I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad...
...solution to Iraq is not possible." Translation: This thing fails unless there is a political deal among the Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds. There is no such deal on the horizon, largely because of the President's aversion to talking to people he doesn't like. And while some Baghdad neighborhoods may be more peaceful--temporarily--as a result of the increased U.S. military presence, the story two years from now is likely to resemble the recent headlines from Tall 'Afar: dueling Sunni and Shi'ite massacres have destroyed order in a city famously pacified by counterinsurgency tactics...