By this time yesterday, I was meant to have completed my mission. I was supposed to spend the day touring the ruins of Babylon, the city that Alexander the Great took in triumph and died in several years later.

It wasn’t meant to be.

As I keep telling myself, Babylon has been around for many thousands of years, so it will stick around for a few more days.

Because I flew into Iraq with the US military, I didn’t need a visa to access the country. In order to visit Babylon without the military, though, I had a private security firm line up visa paperwork (which they did) so that I’d be allowed to leave the International Zone without the U.S. government. But a breakdown in a military badge making machine and an ornery immigration officer at the Baghdad airport conspired to foil best laid plans.

Of course, I’m condensing hours of phone calls, emails, and head banging into a short paragraph, but despite the best efforts of the security team (which has been operating in Iraq for years and has lots of connections in the country), the plan fell apart.

So as if I intended to string you along for several more days, I will be departing on a 4-day military embed tomorrow and completing my mission to Babylon just after that with a new, sturdier plan of attack.

I’ll be embedding in the Iraqi province of Wasit, southeast of Baghdad, with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR). I’ll mainly be focusing on how the new US mission in Iraq is taking shape. More specifically, I’ll zero in on joint US-Iraqi efforts to secure the border with Iran in this largely Shiite province.

With the drawdown of US troops, air travel around the country has also been reduced. It will take me 3 helicopter flights to reach Wasit tomorrow, though I’m hardly complaining. But more from there starting tomorrow…

In the meantime, I’ve been staying at Forward Operating Base Prosperity in the International Zone (formerly the Green Zone). I flew in several days ago at night on a Black Hawk that swooped low across Baghdad’s sprawl, crossing the Tigris River and setting down in this heavily fortified bastion in central Baghdad.

The quality of life at Prosperity has surprised me. The dining hall serves American food, with a taco stand, caesar salad bar, burgers, grilled cheeses, corn dogs, and more every day, complementing a daily rotation of other items. This base has a Subway and a Pizza Hut, numerous local Iraqi-run shops, and even a shisha cafe.

Most surprising to me, though, has been the level of security even within the International Zone itself. I knew that the area was heavily guarded, but I imagined that once inside, the place would be fairly open and easy to move within. Not so.

Everywhere I go in the IZ, I’m required to carry my passport and a letter from the military. I end up showing these all the time. The various bases and compounds around the IZ are protected by high blast walls and legions of contracted guards. Driving from Prosperity to the US Embassy today, just a few minutes away and safely within the confines of the IZ, I was stopped at numerous check points. Even going from my room to the dining hall, I have to pass through a checkpoint. And that’s all within FOB Prosperity. The heavily armed guards at this base are Ugandan and Peruvian.

Getting restless in the IZ the other day, I convinced a Sergeant at the press office to try to get me up in a nearby guard tower to try to get a look at the “Red Zone.” Prosperity is on the edge of the IZ, and 40 feet from my room, I was told, lay the “other” Iraq.

Once we climbed the tower, I was surprised to see how the bustling city of Baghdad lapped practically up against the walls of the IZ. I had figured that the military would have enforced a buffer zone. But right below our guard tower was a crowded street, with cars honking and members of the Iraqi police force anxiously hustling everyone along.

Those are but a few observations from within the confines of the International Zone. With any luck, I’ll be reporting more unique insights from a smaller base in Wasit Province by this time tomorrow.

Tags: Babylon, Baghdad, Black Hawk helicopter, International Zone, Iraq, Wasit Province