Not A Good Travel Day

There was some sort of multi-country talks going on today in Baghdad so the roads were clogged with security teams, police and the Iraqi army; all of which are a huge, dangerous, pain in the ass. It was obvious that they were there solely to give the impression of security to the delegates, nothing more. There was absolutely no coordination between the different elements.

It got more than a little tense out on the road as we're trying to make our way to the airport. At one checkpoint one armed guy is telling us to drive forward into the checkpoint while another AK-toting guy, standing right beside him, is motioning for us to immediately stay where we were. Both were getting very nervous with our apparent non-compliance. My partner and I were really confused as to what they wanted us to do. We looked at each other and agreed that if the shooting started we were going to hunker down in the armored car because these morons were going to be spraying everything, including themselves. Not a fun time.

At the underground parking garage the SUV-mounted PSDs were screaming up and down the narrow passageways doing about 50 mph with, horns blaring, lights flashing, and guns hanging out the windows.
They were not about to slow down or yield to anything or anyone regardless of who or what they had to run over. I can see why the average Iraqi hates them so much.