Baghdad Journal: May 7, 2006

— -- I survived Fallujah, but the treadmill nearly got me. If you have followed any news from Iraq, you know the power here is only on for about eight hours a day, and that is on a good day. One grows quite used to the lights going on and off and on and off, and generators turning on and off and so on.

Nevertheless, I wasn't thinking about any of this as I was going for my morning run today on the treadmill (yes, wearing my hunky lilac sneakers). I was on about mile 2 when all of a sudden the power went out. The treadmill stopped, but I didn't. I launched myself forward in a manner so clumsy it defies imagination. Somehow I survived. Only in Iraq.

I don't mean to make light of the electricity situation; it is a serious, serious problem. In the summer here you need air conditioning -- the temperature gets up to 130 degrees, and that isn't some journalistic exaggeration.

On the subject of exaggeration, below you will see a Reuters snippet about a car bombing in Karbala, a horrific event to be sure. Reuters reports that 21 people were killed. It claims it got its information from the Interior Ministry. When we called police in Karbala, they told us five people were killed. And this evening, the U.S. military put out a press release saying that two people were killed.

Whom do you believe? What number do you use? Numbers are strange things here, and everyone has a different motive behind the number given. Karbala is a Shiite city, and the Interior Ministry is run by Shiites. Is it possible that it gave an inflated number to Reuters to make Shiites seem like greater victims? The U.S. military clearly has an interest in the situation improving here, so is it possible that it wants to use a lower number to make the attack seem less violent than it was? And the kicker is, we will never know who is right. Only in Iraq.

We heard some gunshots today not too far from the bureau, nothing terribly alarming. But it is that last statement -- "nothing terribly alarming" -- that requires explanation. The first time one hears "shots fired in anger," it is a truly remarkable and terrifying thing. My first time was in the desert outside Nasiriyah during the invasion in 2003. People started shooting, and I jumped into a trench and managed to get myself stuck. No joke. It wasn't particularly heroic, but I wasn't aiming for heroic at the time.