the checkpoint...

A snapshot of life with checkpoints in Baghdad, compliments of Iraq Dispatches:

Salam and I said our prayers for safety and braved the airport road.

Sitting in a long line of vehicles we were quiet. Holding our breath.

Imagine sitting in a long line of cars knowing that any one of them could be a car bomb, waiting with you to inch closer to the checkpoint.

I only saw one US soldier there-the horrible duties of searching cars and manning the checkpoint is being handled almost entirely by “Global” security contractors, most of them Nepalese. The rest are ING. Imagine that as your job.

This bit intrigued me because the airport road is one of the most dangerous places in Baghdad, and once again we see the US farming out the very dangerous job of checkpoint "duty" to non-American "contractors" and the Iraqi National Guard, in this way getting others to take the heat off the Occupying Power.