Kurdistan Elections

At the end of July, the Kurdistan Regional Government (a semi-autonomous area in northern Iraq) held elections for their parliament and president. I was part of a small team from the embassy that travelled to Erbil for a week to help monitor the voting and ballot counting.

The election monitoring teams were split up, and I travelled to Sulaymania and Dohuk. Each location is about a 3 hour drive from our base in Erbil. Kurdistan is very safe compared to the rest of Iraq; in fact, the Kurds like to boast that not a single American has been killed in the region (I guess that’s true of you don’t count certain cities in disputed areas along the border with the rest of Iraq).

Despite the safer environment, our security was tight. Our convoy included 5 armored Suburbans and 11 armed bodyguards. Our driver was a “banged up” former Special Forces soldier from Georgia who addressed everyone as Sir or Ma’am. We wore our body armor in the car. This was not a low profile movement.

The first day in Sulaymania I observed the special needs voting for the KRG soldiers, called the Peshmerga. The second day in Dohuk I observed the general voting. Our main job was to observe the actual voting process to make sure everything went according to the regulations. But the part I enjoyed the most was talking to the Kurds. Most seemed very happy to answer my questions (through an interpreter), although it’s likely they were just interested in a pleasant distraction from waiting in line in the extraordinary heat.

I was happy to see their enthusiasm and their confidence that this would be a free and fair election. I saw a surprising number of elderly people, but also young people. Some voting centers were more orderly than others, but standing in the heat for a couple hours would make anyone cranky.

As it turned out, the elections had a large turnout and the new opposition party, the Change party, won nearly twice as many parliament seats as expected. It was a historic election and I’m glad I got to see it up close.

Independence Day Baghdad Style

When it comes to holidays or special occasions, we have a saying - this is Baghdad, we make do with what we've got. Today, July 4, is a good example of this.

I woke up this morning to yet another duststorm. Let me try to describe what this is like. The dirt is so fine, it hangs in the air effortlessly. It sneaks into the buildings and fills the hallways with a haze. It creeps past doors and blast-proof windows and settles on everything. Walking outside results in a grimey coat of dirt on skin and in hair. People cover their noses & mouths with surgical masks or handkerchiefs to avoid breathing in the dust.

But today is the Fourth of July. Grilling outdoors is not ideal, so we make do with eating our hotdogs and burgers inside the DFAC. The staff did a wonderful job decorating and it even cheered me up a bit. I enjoyed a traditional American meal of BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad, and root beer, followed by apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Not bad.

Embassy volunteers set up carnival-style games and contests. Throwing footballs through hoops and bouncing ping pong balls into bowls, all in the hope of winning a t-shirt. The highlight, of course, was dunking my roommate. I can't imagine how we got a dunk tank in Baghdad.

I missed the parades, the music, the outdoor BBQ, the flags, and the fireworks. But in Baghdad, no fireworks is probably a good thing.

A New Regime

There have been many changes in the front office. With the exception of the DCM's OMS and myself, the entire staff has turned over. I recently returned from a 3 week vacation and found myself in the position of being the office veteran. Change can be both good and bad, but I think the positives are outweighing the negatives. The demand on us staffers is different; the hours are still long, but I am not chained to my desk as strictly as before.

The best change for me has been a sense that I can make a valuable contribution if given the chance. As the "office veteran," I am being utilized in a way that I haven't been before and it's nice. Of course, my time in the front office is coming to an end so this nice feeling will be short-lived.

A junior officer emailed me the other day because she is thinking about bidding on this position. She asked me to tell her about the job and it forced me to summarize the past 11 months; it wasn't easy. I told her about the dark side of what is a thankless job - the mundane tasks and the monotony. But I also told her that when I look back on this assignment when it's over, I will probably focus on the unique experiences it offered and the amazing people with whom I had the privilege to serve.

Two more months to go!

A Day at the Museum

The Charge was invited to tour the newly re-opened Iraqi National Museum and I tagged along. As we pulled up to front of the building I saw a small group of people holding signs and a few reporters with cameras. I panicked because I had told the Charge there would be no press and she doesn't like surprises. It turned out that they weren't there for us; they were protesting the removal of the previous Director of the museum. This is Iraq, after all, and even something as seemingly innocuous as a museum has political intrigue.

The Deputy Director led us on a tour of the museum's impressive collection. Being a history nerd, I got a kick out of the small clay tablets with cuneiform writing that served as ancient trade contracts. I also saw statues and wall carvings that are thousands of years old. And illustrated manuscripts that reminded me of old illustrated bibles painted by monks.

The Embassy has been collaborating with the museum to not only preserve, catalog, and display its artifacts, but also to help return artifacts that, one way or another, ended up in other countries. The National Museum has come a long way in a couple of years and I hope it will become a great source of pride for the Iraqis.