A Day in the 'Green Zone' With the Secretary of Defense

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 21, 2006 — -- True to military fashion, we spend the night in bunk beds. Seven men in one room always makes for an interesting night; most were quiet, but a few -- how to put this delicately? -- sounded like a chorus of underwater chainsaws. Showers were in a second trailer and the coed latrine -- women to the right, men to the left -- in yet a third.

Welcome to temporary living.

At the sprawling Camp Victory base, you get the sense that while a military operation is under way, it's not a war in the classic sense. Walking around, you see few people wearing body armor, and people are relaxed, going about their business as if they were on an Army base back in the United States.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates starts his day eating breakfast with some troops from the 10th Mountain Division and 1st Infantry Division, asking them about their impressions of the war and their mission. He spent an hour, mostly listening, and there was a general sense from the soldiers that they would like to have more U.S. troops helping them in Iraq.

The rest of our day was spent in the Green Zone in Baghdad. We took a 10-minute helicopter flight in UH-60 Blackhawks, flying low and fast across the sprawling megalopolis of Baghdad. Gunners sat on either side of the helicopter, scouring the ground below for any signs of enemy activity.

The Green Zone appears to be a maze of concrete -- concrete buildings, concrete jersey barriers, concrete protective walls. Everything is relatively close, but due to multiple checkpoints -- some which require no more than showing your driver's license -- and sharp, abrupt speed bumps that threaten to do a job on your vehicle's suspension, much less your back, it can take 10 minutes to go a couple of miles.

It is easy to become frustrated in Iraq. Mobile phone calls go through only a fraction of the time. When they do go through, they frequently get cut off midway through a conversation.

If you can get through, chances are there is a huge delay between the two callers, causing them to step on each other, requiring various pieces of conversation to be repeated over and over again, which will want to make you scream silently at the phone, or just burst out laughing because the whole situation is so comical.