Life in Iraq interesting and, at times, frightening

Originally published in Cumberland Times-News on June 10, 2005

Editor’s note: Phil Smith, a 1963 graduate of Ridgeley High School, moved around the United States until the mid-1990s when he became a consultant in developing countries. His work has taken him to Kazakhstan, Russia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Currently residing in Moscow, he has kept journals of his travels. The following are excerpts from those times.

Basrah, Iraq July 2003
Life here continues to be interesting and, at times, frightening.

Each night now there are more incidents in this area. When we arrived seven weeks ago, we only heard occasional shooting. Now it is every night. And there are more soldiers involved in gun battles with the locals.

The peace the British Army had established seems to be melting away. The army is changing over to a new group with the first division leaving the theater and fresh troops coming in. The new folks are more tense and they have had more incidences of violence.

During the last few weeks we have accomplished more than I expected. More branches of the state-owned banks are being opened each week. We now have 16 locations opened in the four southern provinces. With a bit more luck, there will be 10 more open by the end of July. In August, there could be another five or so. That means about 80 percent of the bank branches that were open before the war will be open.

The funding for paying pensioners and over 128,000 salaries comes from Baghdad. Last Monday we made another trip in the Hercules transport plane to Baghdad to sort out the financial issues for the southern region and ask for more funds. The Coalition Provisional Authority had mistakenly not sent enough funding to pay all the May and June salaries. After our meetings with the Minister of Finance and the
Central Bank advisers, they agreed to send an additional $25 million. Overall, not a bad day.

On Tuesday of last week, they sent a total of $49 million for the funding through the end of July. Too bad they couldn’t run it through my personal bank account – the interest earned would be helpful.

On the evening we came back from Baghdad, we got caught in the middle of a problem in the center of the Basrah. There were three vehicles in our convoy with seven armed soldiers. I was the only one without a weapon.

Driving down the main street, we were slowed by traffic and a large crowd of Iraqis. A sniper was on top of a building and had shot one of the local people in the bazaar just moments before we arrived in the area. The locals pounded on the sides, roof and windows of the car, called us thieves, and spit on the windshield. All the soldiers were ready to respond but we finally got through the crowd and sped away
toward the palace.

We also made a quick trip to Kuwait City on the first of July to sort out the visa situation. Because of the problem with the checkpoints at the Kuwait/Iraq border, we didn’t get the proper exit from Kuwait when we first arrived in June. So we ended with a day a rest by the pool (into which they put ice to keep the temperature down) at the Radisson Hotel in Kuwait City while the paperwork was completed for us to travel back across the border into Iraq the next day.

It is getting warmer every day. Since July 1 (when it was 56C -132F) it has been in the range of 120 to 130 every day. With the wind blowing, it is the same feeling as a hot hair dryer blowing in your face. The clinic here keeps track of the temperatures in the sun and in the shade. There have been several days when the temperature was over 140.

This is my last week here – five days to go. I will drive down to Kuwait with a group on Friday. On Saturday, I will fly to London for a de-briefing and meeting with my successor on Sunday. Then on Sunday evening I will fly to Estonia to get my new Russian visa for the next year. (Each foreigner must leave Russia to get a new visa each year.) And by about July 23rd I should arrive back in Moscow.

Most of the Iraqis I deal with on a daily basis have been difficult and stubborn. Only a few have made a positive impression. Most want everything they can get as quickly as they can get it. The pensions and salaries are never enough, even though the amounts they get now are more than they received before the war. And no one says thank you.

Oh, well!! This has been another interesting place to work and see. And more countries for the list. So I don’t know whether I would come back. Certainly not in August or early September when the temperatures are the highest. Maybe when things are a bit more stable.

Meanwhile, it looks like I will go to Moscow and continue with the accounting seminars in various regions around the country.