Iraq: Policing the International Zone

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...