Baghdad

[elleflies]

One of my last trips took me into Kuwait. Not an unusual occurrance as I seem to end up in Kuwait quite a bit, but we were fortunate enough to be heading towards Leipzig, Germany. Meaning that we were treated to a birds eye view of downtown Baghdad and its surrounding suburbs and towns.

This ultimately meant that I was jammed in the back row perched (quite precariously) on the seats and surrounded by supplies clicking my little heart away.

I've spent the past two hours scouring the web for detailed maps of the Baghdad area and sadly, this just does not exist on the world wide web. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and just buy a map if I want to figure out what exactly we were flying over (besides the Tigris River which is pretty obvious and can get somewhat boring)

The one image I was able to positively identify was the Al Taji Army Airfield:



The runways can't be seen in this image, they are farther to the south, but the support facilities in the lower left can. The airfield is located about 20 miles to the north of Baghdad. Back in the day it used to be an Iraqi military installation but is now jointly used by the troops and the Iraqi National Guard.

I'm hoping to get that level of detail for the other images sometime in the future.

More shots of the Baghdad area can be found here

Comments

[thekatebeyond.livejournal.com]

That is a view I imagine not too many American civilians are seeing these days! I can see why it was worth the precarious perch.

Interestingly, I got an email from Iraq this morning, from an Iraqi orthodontist who has MS and wanted to know if we could give him more information about the treatment protocol his doctor has prescribed. It made me very sad - not the MS question, I see those every day - but just that here was the normal ordinary course of everyday affairs going on between an Iraqi and an American, meanwhile our people are killing one another.

[elrina753.livejournal.com]

The beauty of troop transport is that I end up in all the places I never thought I'd be, and unlike the soldiers, I get to leave (big perk from my point of view)

I hear about that stuff from the soldiers quite a bit. If they'll talk to me, I'll listen and I especially like hearing about the Iraqi people. It's the middle of a war zone but people are just trying to go about their normal lives. But I guess that is the biggest testament to the human spirit, carrying on against overwhelming odds.

Since you're in the medical community I think you might find this (http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/update-on-the-books-of-salah-al-din.htm) interesting, seeing as how Americans and Iraqis are are sharing information and trying to help one another even though a war is going on around them.

[thekatebeyond.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for that! How heartening! I have to say, as much as I hate having to go to the doctor for my own health issues, I love doctors. By and large, they are very generous with their time and knowledge (and in this case, their books). That's just a beautiful story.

But I guess that is the biggest testament to the human spirit, carrying on against overwhelming odds.

So true.

I think it's really neat that you sometimes get to hear the soldiers' perspective on these things. Sometimes it's difficult to separate the war from the soldiers, but they are just human spirits trying to carry on too.

[elrina753.livejournal.com]

I loved that story too. It made me smile when I first stumbled upon it. It was so nice to hear about a community of people banding together to help others in need and to really live by the spirit of their profession. I'm betting those books have done worlds of good for so many people already.

The perspective from the boots on the ground is usually the best perspective to get. They see more then the journalists do and if you talk to enough of them you can get a pretty good idea of what's going on and what everyone thinks about it. It's easier to see soldiers for people when you sit down and talk to them and look at pictures of their kids and hear about what they want to do when they get home. There are days I wish I everyone could experience that for themselves. I'm thinking all the bickering and infighting and finger pointing might die down a bit. As for the soldiers, they know what they signed up for and it's just one day at a time.