On My Way to Iraq
Michael J. Totten
I’ll be spending some quality time in Iraq over the next two and a half months doing consulting work, journalism, and video – first in the northern Kurdistan region and then in Baghdad and the heart of the Sunni Triangle.
My first job starts two weeks from now and will be another private consulting gig in Kurdistan with my business partner Patrick Lasswell. This will be my fourth trip to the region, which is becoming a regular beat for me now. I’m more comfortable there than I was when I first visited. The people, the terrain, the logistics, and the job are all familiar. The learning curve has flattened out, which means I can multitask now.
Last time I went there as a consultant I had no time for reporting or writing. This time I will because I know how to squeeze it in, even though my first obligation will be to my employers, not to my blog. I won’t be able to write full time, but I will be able to give you something now and then.
This time I’m going to give you some video as well as writing and photographs. Stay tuned for taped interviews with Kurdish civilians and officials, and also some video postcards of what this place actually looks like. Kurdistan always shocks people when they see it for the first time. It doesn’t look anything like the hellish images that come out of Baghdad.
Glad to see you're back in God's Monkeyhouse again.
Take care of yourself and remember that you are performing an invaluable service for us "armchair" commentators stuck in cubicle hell.
You are living one helluva life. Keep it up!
I agree with Scott, Keep it up!
You are the man whose interviews in Kurdistan confirmed all my earlier opinions that ethnic cleansing is the only sensible way to wind down the kinds of civil wars that occurred in the Balkans in the 1990s and are now occurring in Iraq in this decade.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Loved your insights into Lebanon. Godspeed.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.