Driving in the IZ

"My job requires that I leave the Embassy fairly regularly and go to other places in the International Zone (IZ). Up until the end of the year, we were pretty comfortable in doing that at almost anytime. I mean, we had these big honking up-armored SUV's that look like regular SUV's, but opening the door takes the strength of Hercules because they seemingly weigh about 400 pounds apiece. Americans had a lot of immunity in the IZ anyway. So we weren't worried about getting stopped by Iraqi army or police forces because the Americans pretty much controlled the whole area.

January 1 brought a new order of business. Americans aren't in control of the IZ anymore, Iraqis are. There was a good bit of anxiety about that because nobody knew what would happen. Would they pull people over left and right? Would they set up checkpoints all over the place? Would they block off streets to all but official Iraqi vehicles? Would traveling in the IZ be hazardous to our health? Nobody knew.

As it turns out, not much is different. Iraqis have control over the IZ and have indeed set up some new checkpoints. But they have Americans with them and they all seem to be getting along just fine. After a bit over a week under the new order of business, it looks pretty much like the old order of business."
Ramblings from a Painter