Road Blocks I’ve written a lot about the President of Iran, Mahmoud Admadinejad’s visit. He told the media Iraqis don’t like Americans and Americans should leave. It was expected and he’s right, many Iraqis don’t like Americans. Of course he didn’t mention that Iraqis have very similar feelings towards Iran. Both nations are generally seen as imperialists here. Many Iraqis fear the rise of Persian rule and many feel that most Shiite and Kurdish officials are more loyal to Iran than Iraq. But this is not what I want to write about. What I want to explain to you is the inconvenience of his trip. To have Ahmadinejad safely cruise around Baghdad, the capital shut down. I walked into the office on Sunday and our newsroom was empty, nearly our entire staff didn’t make it to work. Hussein, one of our Iraqi reporters, tried to take a taxi. Halfway through the trip he was stopped by security forces. No vehicle traffic was allowed on the roads to secure Ahmadinejad’s path to President Jalal Talabani’s compound. So, poor Hussein walked nearly a mile. But when he reached a central Baghdad bridge close to Talabani’s compound he […]