September 14, 2003

An Adult Paradise

Heh P: My driver took me to Adhamiya today. Ironically, he lives across the street from the Palace, so he promised to check in on me to make sure that I'm OK. Only in Iraq: he's worried about me.

It feels good to be out of the hell called Central Baghdad. It feels like I spent the last week waiting in traffic.

Without any fanfare, I was let into the Palace and given a tour. It's amazing--you couldn't build a better location. The main building, a gaudy monstrosity with massive columns, was bombed during the "shock and awe". One JDAM went in through an elevator shaft and imploded half the building. The other half is where 2/3 has their Tactical Operations Center.

Out back, there is a massive pool, a putting green and a stocked fishing pond. Beyond the Palace, there are many other buildings, the oddest is a pumpkin shaped building they have dubbed The Love Shack. It used to be Uday's private quarters--complete with a circular bed right out of an Austin Powers movie. 2/3's commander, LTC Bill Rabena, calls it, "An adult's paradise."

P replies:

I can see the photogenic appeal of a shot-up palace, but is it relatively safe there, I mean to go on patrol etc. ? (Today an army convoy hit a mine again outside Fallujia, one was killed) the double reality of playing hopscotch with some little girls in the park and knowing you in some human-unfriendly place is a little disturbing, distracting...

Your daughter says you should come home as soon as possible with the fastest airplane -this means: stay as long as you need to, but don´t go there again.

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