Here is a look at the Green Zone, Past, During Occupation, And Present.

Iraq's Green Zone: seat of power, heart of protests, a hated symbol and devastating tale of imperial folly.

The Green Zone, known as  al Mintaqa al-Khadraa in Arabic, but also known as "The Bubble" or “Little America” or “Spaceship Green Zone.”

While visiting the Green Zone by Taxi a taxi driver said “The area has an important place in our memory. It has been under occupation by the Americans.”

On my Ziyarat trip to Karbala, Iraq, it was mostly out of personal curiosity that I wanted to visit the fortified Green Zone which is 6.2 square miles (10 Sq. Kilometers) in the heart of Iraq’s capital Baghdad.

I made all efforts to meet with the communication director, or ambassador Alina Romanowski through my Congresswomen Susan Wild and directly with the embassy and State department two weeks before my departure.

On Tuesday May 16^th at 3;00 pm I was at the Green Zone; I saw a couple Iraq security guards (uniformed) and requested to enter the area to visit the US embassy. They went behind the wall to consult someone.

The two security personnel suddenly appeared who refused to give me their names, but said they were Americans from California. I did explain my motive to write a piece for my blog and talk to the press staff at the embassy.

They suggested calling the embassy or your Congresswomen to see if they can facilitate the visit. I called the embassy; the switch board operator refused to give her name nor connected me to the press director.

The staff at the Susan Wilds office from Washington called me to facilitate the visit, but he also failed. I waited for an hour, being a working day the taxi driver suggested we leave and visit the surrounding areas like Ab Nuwas.

The embassy is on 104 acres, it is the largest embassy in the world; it is nearly as large as Vatican City. After two decades of occupation the U.S. combat mission formally concluded on 9 December 2021.

At present 2,500 U.S. troops remaining in the country are deployed mainly at Al Watani (green Zone) and Al-Khalis (Rock City), and Asad Airbase.

What is the Green Zone (GZ).

The Green Zone is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It is an area in the Karkh district of central Baghdad, Iraq. It is described as the calm state of alertness by the US military.

Today it has the Iraqi parliament, the United States and British embassies, the prime minister's official residence and military headquarters.

However, Before the invasion the area served as the headquarters of successive Iraqi regimes. It was the administrative center for the Ba’ath Party.

After the invasion Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) fortified with armed checkpoints, coils of razor wire, chain-link fences, and built "T-Walls' ' (reinforced and blast-proof concrete slabs).

The area was defended by M1 Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and HUMVEEs with .50 caliber machine guns on top and installed hundreds of surveillance cameras.

I did see a boomed-out tank and requested to take a picture, but was refused.

CPA reconstruction team built the Republican guard palace into government offices, and private contractors, eventually five thousand contractors settled in the palace.

The first embassies to take occupation in the green zone were US, British, Australian and Egypt in the southern part of Green Zone overlooking Tigris river.

However, many diplomatic missions have opted for locations outside of the Green Zone, including the French, German and Spanish missions.

In 2019 Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone was reopened to the public during Eid ul Fitr celebration. The government  removed 12,000 concrete walls and barbed wire from the area.

US and  CPA administrator, Paul Bremer created Frankenstein's monster which remains the legacy of the 2003 invasion and occupation.

Before the invasion.

Green Zone was Saddam’s Republican Palace and landmarks like “Victory Arch” – a 131 feet tall arch of two swords held by bronze cast of Saddam’s hand to commemorate the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

During Saddam Hussain the Green Zone had villas of government, military bases, government ministries, and Saddam Hussain’s palaces. It was Saddam Hussein's primary seat of power.

It had a playground named Uday's Playground" comprised of the Presidential Palace (now the U.S. Embassy Annex); numerous villas for Saddam's family, friends, and former Baath party loyalists.

It had an underground bunker (Believers Palace); the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Military History Museum, the new Baath party headquarters (unfinished), the Al-Rasheed Hotel, and the Convention Center.

It was also a home to Saddam's man-eating lions, which have since been moved to the Iraqi National Zoo.

The area was also known as Karradat Mariam, so named for a locally famous woman who helped the poor people of Baghdad.

During the occupation Green Zone was known as “Emerald City.”

The Green Zone was a different planet with 17-foot-high walls The green Zone became the home of the largest CIA operation in the world, the gigantic US embassy and a vacation and entertainment place for US military personnel and contractors.

In the holiest country, where Muslims do not eat pork or drink alcohol, CPA served pork, bacon and hot dogs and had seven bars. There was a disco at the al-Rashid Hotel where girls in mini-shirts with high heels came to have sex.

The walled-off Green Zone housed hundreds of palm trees and green pasture with swimming pool, bars, disco-tech, pizza parlor, gym, radio station 107.7 FM and luxurious amenities all operated by private contractors like Bechtel and Haliburton  who skimmed the US government.

The eye-catching luxurious tavern was the CIA’s watering hole known as “OGA bar”- stands for “other government agency.” OGA bar had a dance floor with a revolving mirror disco ball and game room.

On a typical night hundreds of  security and military officers would be smoking tall hookahs and drinking beer with their guns on the sides. Whiskeys, vodka, and wine were sold freely.

The CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] had plans to build "Tigris Woods Golf Course and Resort," with views of the Tigris River. While Marriott International had already signed an agreement to build a luxury hotel.

Many Iraqis I talked to on my visit said CPA stood for "Can't Provide Anything.” The CPA operation became an exercise in amateurism.

Green Zone & Abu Nuwas At Present:

Life in the Green Zone is thoroughly disconnected from reality and the Iraqis are still a traumatized society.

It is a country that's been invaded, occupied, before that it had Saddam's tyranny, 8 year of war with Iran  imposed by US, decade of sanctions which absolutely devastated that society.

Three of Iraq's biggest and best-known hotels--the Palestine, the Ishtar Sheraton (no connection to the Sheraton company), and the Baghdad Hotel are in the Green Zone  in the town of Abu Nuwas.

Today, while the three buildings sit half empty, Abu Nuwas itself has made a comeback. A ghost town during the worst years of the Iraq invasion.

On my visit I saw that the Green Zone is heavily guarded. They have electricity, which most people do not. They have water, which most people do not.  Poverty is rampant and life that is very divorced from the everyday reality of most Iraqis.

Every Iraqis from taxi drivers to hotel workers I talked to said  “the Americans helped destroy our country while the politicians would say they liberated us, they got rid of Saddam.  

When I visited Abu Nuwas after my visit to Green Zone, I saw very few Iraqi families stream to Abu Nuwas to eat at its waterside restaurants, or take their children to play in a new mini-amusement park complete with a large pool.

The hotels, by contrast, appeared largely deserted, a child-sized train set, and large, bouncy slides topped with an image of Mickey Mouse all empty. My taxi driver said maybe people will come during holiday or in the evening.

American forces, meanwhile, have entirely disappeared from view. Abu Nuwas Street, a broad promenade directly across the Tigris River from the walls of the Green Zone may be coming to life, but with the economy and currency destroyed it is hard to predict.

I saw lots of restaurants and shops doing business and  where men gather to play backgammon and dominoes, smoke shishas, and eat mazgouf, a local delicacy made of carp cooked around a charcoal pit. I did try this dish in Dubai, it was very delicious.

To Be Continued! What is a door?

Mothers was your door to this Dunya (world), Mother will be your door to Jannah (heaven), Take care of this door.