Annoying:

In the news:

Rice gets a taste of Iraqi fear on road to Baghdad

Jack Straw and Condoleezza Rice experienced something they had never witnessed before in Baghdad: the fear faced by ordinary Iraqis every day in this city.

As their plane from Liverpool landed nearly three years to the day since American troops first entered the city bringing promises of a brighter future it was being lashed by thunderstorms.

The helicopters that would normally have flown them directly to the security of the heavily fortified Green Zone for the normal rounds of diplomacy with political leaders and coalition military briefings were grounded.

They had to go by road and they did not like it.

Baghdad's airport road is no longer the most dangerous stretch of tarmac in the world, as it was six months ago. It now has Iraqi police posted at every access road.

But it is still a place where roadside bombs are laid regularly and potshots taken routinely at vehicles.

And traffic is always a problem. Checkpoints - most legal and manned by Iraqi security forces - reduce its flow to a crawl.

Yesterday it was particularly bad. Baghdad's drains were never good but the lack of money to repair them means many have collapsed resulting in widespread flooding after a downpour.

As they sat for 45 minutes in the back of an armoured vehicle, hemmed in by cars and lorries and with their military escort trying to force the vehicles in front to move to one side, the Foreign Secretary and the US secretary of state were notably quiet.

Those who saw her said that Miss Rice was particularly annoyed at having to endure such a ride.

And who can blame her? It really is annoying when insurgents slow down the traffic, isn't it?


posted by Quiddity at 4/03/2006 07:49:00 AM