Living inside Baghdad’s Green Zone seems to encourage a dangerous disconnect between its occupants — American or Iraqi — and the chaotic and violent reality outside its bounds. American journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran takes a sobering look inside for the UK paper The Sunday Times.


The Sunday Times:

The sectarian fighting that is occurring on the streets is not simply about religious zealotry.

It’s a naked grab for power that begins inside the green zone, where Iraqi political leaders are fighting for influence. They continue to bicker with one another because they are largely cut off from the consequences. They do not live in fear that their neighbours might turn on them or that Shi’ite militiamen or Sunni insurgents might come and kill them.

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