Победители Ирака или Новый Вьетнам?

[CEBA]

Вот так живут Победители Ирака.
(пытался дать ссылку но ресурс требует регистрации, поэтому запостил) -

Nov 7, 2004
A slice of America in Iraq
Pizza takeaway and DVDs at the Green Zone only serve to heighten the US isolation in Iraq
By Borzou Daragahi
Middle East Correspondent
Baghdad

LURED back to Iraq by the promise of helping to rebuild her country and reconnecting with her past, the Iraqi-American weeps as she prepares to leave for good.

The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she has been unable to do either during the year she has been here.
The main dining hall in Saddam Hussein's presidential palace has been converted into a cafeteria. Some 5,000 meals are served here daily. -- REDUX PICTURES/KAREN BALLARD

She has been mostly trapped inside The Zone - the 10 sq km American fortress in central Baghdad that is the seat of Iraq's interim government.

She said: 'I don't know where I am going now. Maybe Indonesia.'

The Green Zone, now officially called the International Zone by US officials and occasionally derided as 'the bubble', is a massive compound in the heart of Baghdad that is home to some 5,000 Westerners and 5,000 Iraqis, many of whom are squatters.

Protected by concrete walls, barbed-wire fences, guard dogs, armoured vehicles, radar systems, gun turrets and helicopters, the zone includes the Republican Pa- lace, the former headquarters of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, mansions and villas, as well as some of the capital's greenest and plushest neighbourhoods.

Numerous Western firms have their offices and residences there. They include Kellogg, Brown and Root, the Halliburton subsidiary that has become the main supplier of food to the Americans, as well as many private security and construction companies.

The zone is off-limits to most Iraqis and it has become a massive symbol of the US' arrogance, failure and isolation in Iraq.

'The most salient quality of life in the Green Zone is the isolation from what is going on in Iraq,' said a high-ranking US embassy official.

'There are reminders from time to time of the continuing conflict - rockets and mortars coming into the Green Zone, and even occasionally hitting something. But by and large, it is isolated physically and psychologically.'

Many observers have likened the Green Zone to a small piece of America, but there are no iconic fast-food outlets or coffee shops, just a few supermarkets and grocery stores, Chinese restaurants and one pizza takeaway, all charging about the same as in the West.

For entertainment, bootleg copies of movies are sold by enterprising Iraqis, with titles like Troy and The Return Of The King on offer at US$5 (S$8.30) each.

Residents can choose from a few shopping strips, fruit stands and bakeries, but the one bar is accessible only to those with special US Department of Defence badges.
It's mostly cafeteria food for the soldiers and contractors who live and work in the Green Zone. There are not many dining choices in the area. -- CORBIS

Security has become the overriding concern for the Green Zone.

Westerners who enter the zone beyond the convention centre - a sort of reception area - must be accompanied by official escorts, who must always vouch for them.

Even US citizens who want to visit their own embassy - well guarded by numerous layers of security - must be under the watchful eye of an escort at all times.

Iraqis who visit or live in the Green Zone are subjected to body searches and must carry special identification cards.

US diplomats with business outside the Green Zone must either travel in convoys of armoured vehicles or board helicopters.

One US official likened life in the zone to a minimum-security prison. US embassy employee Victoria Stein said she longed for some of the joys of home back in California.

'I miss being able to drive forever. I miss being able to eat any kind of food in the world I want. I miss window-shopping,' she said.

Despite the security measures, the Green Zone still gets bombarded with mortars and rockets. On Oct 14, two suicide bombers killed six people at a popular cafe in the zone.

Construction worker Sagban Husain, 29, said he feels nervous whenever he heads inside. 'You don't feel safe for your life because any minute a rocket might fall on you. The foreigners are afraid that all of us are carrying bombs.'

After the bombings, most Western officials and contractors were ordered to stay away from the restaurants and shops that had made life bearable.

'There's no fun, very little time for fun,' said the US diplomat, before correcting himself and adding: 'The job is fun. It's exciting zipping across the earth at 240kmh in a helicopter.'