The Iraqi elections of 2010 played out against a backdrop of reduced but continuing violence, unresolved issues of governance, and a U.S. government determined to exit fast. This project assesses the cross currents, on the ground in Iraq.
Iraq: Policing the International Zone
Published March 5, 2010
Print and Image by Dimiter Kenarov, for the Pulitzer Center
Baghdad, Iraq
Pickup trucks, SUVs, military trucks, Humvees, fire trucks, ambulances. Honking. Singing. It all looks like a big tailgate party. "If we were in America, there'd be shitloads of beer," observes Dave Lee, a US Airman and now a cop with the International Zone Police in Baghdad, as we slowly drive past the commotion. It is the 4th of March, sunny, high 60s. Today all Iraqi Security Forces—army, police, and emergency personnel—are scheduled to cast ballots, a few days ahead of the official elections, when their job will be securing other people's right to vote.
There is only one polling site in the International Zone, located in the so-called 215 Apartments, but access to that area is highly restricted, even for the IZ Police. "Normally, it shouldn't be a problem to get in, it's all part of the International Zone, but the IA [Iraqi Army] wouldn't allow us that. They like to show who's in charge now," Matt Farr, another IZ cop, tells me...
He wakes up at five in the morning and washes away his deep-sea dreams, the hot water spilling off his balding crown, running down his goatee and his bulky paunch...
Print and Image by Dimiter Kenarov, for the Pulitzer Center
Baghdad, Iraq
Grantee
Dimiter Kenarov is a freelance journalist based in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a contributing editor at The Virginia Quarterly Review. His work has appeared/is forthcoming in Esquire, Outside,...
