Jane Stillwater's Iraq blog: "In the last ten days, the Green Zone has been under siege."

http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html#2704186539822677855

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However, my bunkmate then changed the subject by dropping a bomb shell -- almost literally -- when she announced, “I almost got mortared in the parking lot of the PX today. And it really made me angry! I only have one day and a wake-up call standing between me and leaving Iraq. How dare they!”

Then a member of the International Zone military police patrol came by and asked me if I wanted to drive around with him for a while and get another tour of the Green Zone. Sure! First we drove by the PX parking lot. “See that hole there? A mortar shell was sticking out of it earlier today. Mortars took out 15 cars but luckily no one was injured.” And apparently there’s been a big insurgence of mortar fire lately. “In the last ten days, the Green Zone has been under siege. We’ve had at least 67 mortar attacks in the last ten days and several fatalities.”

Then we drove past the construction zone for the new American embassy. “It covers 15 square acres.” It was HUGE.

“But if this is the Green Zone, then what is the Red Zone,” I asked.

“The Red Zone is everything in Iraq that isn’t in the Green Zone.” Oh. “In the last month and a half, we’ve confiscated over 360 illegal AK-47s. Just from routine traffic stops.” Then we came to the Tigris River. The Tigris! Wow! The cradle of civilization! “This is the 14th of July bridge. This is where the bodies of people who have been executed by the death squads wash up – it’s not a pretty sight. But the river itself is lovely.” We stopped and I got a photo of me and the Tigris River and the Palestine Hotel on the other side.

I was supposed to be interviewed by CNN today. We had a time all set up and everything. I was totally excited! I was gonna wave to all my friends and everything! But just three hours before I was supposed to go on, CNN called up and canceled. I was really disappointed. I felt like the proverbial nerdy girl in high school who had been asked to the prom by the popular guy only to get stood up at the last minute. No corsage for me.

“Why did they do that?” I asked one of the reporters here.

“Because of what Michael Ware said at the McCain press conference yesterday.”

“But Ware didn’t SAY anything.”

“Yes, but McCain apparently thinks that Ware snickered when McCain stated that he had been safe on the streets of Baghdad.” Huh? I had been at that press conference myself. I didn’t hear Michael Ware snicker. I heard EVERYONE snicker. You can’t hardly even walk safely around the Green Zone right now let alone walk around Baghdad. Even McCain did his stroll wearing body armor and escorted by Humvees and troops. What’s the big deal?

“The big deal is that Michael Ware was trashed by the right-wingers. He got swift-boated. He got Howard-Deaned. And now it looks like CNN is refusing to go up against the swift-boaters and is backing down – and that includes not having you on their show, especially since you were the one who had actually asked McCain a question.” So I lose my 15 minutes of fame because Ware got swift-boated and CNN got scared? That’s so unfair! And I was all set to warn a worried nation about the Kevlar crisis too!

So that is the reason, America, that you are going to read about the Kevlar crisis here first instead of seeing it on CNN.