Coolness

It was a cool day. As I shut my trailer door on my way out this morning it was remarkable how pleasant the air was. So I remarked. All day long people made comments about how lovely the weather was getting; how breezy it felt; how pleasant being outside was today. Every other night we have a staff meeting where we go over the intelligence report for the day and brief the director on our ongoing projects. The staff joke is that every night they ask me who the Mayor of Baghdad is. I continue to not have a definite answer. I find it annoying. As well as being somewhat inconvenient for the nearly 7 million other people here in Baghdad. I was told again that the issue will soon be resolved. The guy they tried to rub out last week has decided to remain a candidate for the job, and I was told he will take office later this week. I know not to be too optimistic about that- but it’s a good development. Good for him; good for Baghdad; and good for me. So I don’t have to force a fake chuckle for my co-workers anymore. And because it reminds me there are some damn courageous people here. I have decided to tackle an issue that I’ve been warned not to. With all the discussion focusing on the constitution and fundamental issues of the Nation of Iraq, not many people are looking at how local governments are operating. The Province of Baghdad is operating without a true legal Charter. A charter was written under the Transitional Administrative Law, but the methods by which the current Provincial Council came to power and the ambiguities allowed in the document have produced a nebulous state of governmental authority. I’ve decided to bring up the issue of the need for a review of the basic law of the province; in parallel with the creation of a new national constitution, we ought to be supporting the Iraqi process of establishing effective administrative law for local governance. My ex-governor friend Ali is most in support of such an idea. I got to treat him to lunch here at the Embassy yesterday. He commented that he wasn’t all that fond of American food because he could never identify what it had started out as. He did like the do-it-yourself soft-serve ice-cream machine. We agree that we’re undertaking a big project with an uncertain end; we agreed it was worth it. There are many who prefer an ambiguous state of law, particularly those already in power. During the weather portion of tonight’s intelligence brief, they gave the high and low temperature for today. On this wonderfully balmy day we only hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit.