Baghdad from a distance

I'm going to be out of email touch for the next few weeks, and what I have to say isn't probably very interesting to most of you, so I'll keep this short.

It's been about ten days since I left Baghdad, and things seem different from this distance - at once more real and more unbelievable. It seemed like the whole year went past in the blink of an eye, like I hadn't been away at all, until I start thinking it through. I've given a couple of talks in the last day or two, and that's forced me to go through the experience week by week, processing everything that happened. I've got a good baseline narrative written down as a result, and I think I'll keep developing and building upon it.

The oddest part, though, is the mental distance that's sprung up between me and what happens there. Sure, every time I see the news I can visualize the events. But you remember how BC was talking about being on vacation and everything in Baghdad seeming more harsh, losing his numbness? For me it's the other way around. In the past ten days several guys I knew have been killed, including one Iraqi officer I worked relatively closely with, but rather than being more upset, as BC was, I feel even more unaffected than I was in Baghdad.

Another strange part is seeing the way the media covers Iraq. I mean, it's like they haven't a clue what's going on there. People ask me what it's like and they expect me to wince, or shudder or something, and are taken aback when I tell them about the good friends I made, or the great experiences I had, or the fact that I still support this fight.

Oh well. I'm off to go have fun somewhere warm (warm! Not 120 degrees!). While I'm away, please tell BC to stop being so cheezy.

TJ