The Baghdad Scene

BBC News reporter Anderw North writes about his latest experience in Baghdad and what the actuality is on the ground.

Here are some excerpts:

We were at the airport. Just before we were due to leave, the entrance car park was hit by a car bomb...

...While we waited with scores of other vehicles, mortars were fired at the airport. Fortunately for us they landed on the other side of the runway, plumes of smoke shooting into the air. You won't have heard about any of this because at the same time a series of other far more serious attacks was taking place.

One was at the Sadriya market in the city centre, where a massive car bomb killed more than 140 people.

...On our drive into the city, we encountered several Iraqi army checkpoints. But almost every vehicle - including ours - was being waved through. Many new checkpoints have been set up across Baghdad. But what is their purpose, many Iraqis ask, when they seem to stop so few people?

North reports that last month there were over 100 car bombings, an average of three per day. Yet we are constantly being told that the "liberal media" isn't reporting the good things happening in Iraq, especially in Baghdad, where John McCain took his ridiculous safe stroll a few weeks back, to show that the troop surge is working. The only thing the surge is doing is increasing the American troop causalty rate.

And what happens when the checkpoints do stop the cars and trucks? North writes, "...a couple of times we have been pulled over by Iraqi soldiers who ask us if we have any bullets to give them. "