Middle East Diary - McClatchy Newspapers

Five years into the war, business is still booming for the producers of cheesy Iraq souvenirs. In addition to kiosks on US bases or at the Baghdad airport, dozens of Web sites have sprung up to hawk Iraqi kitsch.

If my day in Baghdad were described through Facebook status updates:

Some behind-the-scenes anecdotes from this week in Iraq:

Yesterday afternoon I was interviewing a young Iraqi man for a story when he disclosed that he'd worked for Blackwater, the notorious U.S. private security firm that protects diplomats and senior officials in Iraq and other conflict zones. Blackwater has come under scrutiny for its involvement in a string of high-profile shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians.

Never thought it would actually happen, but I was able to visit one of my dearest friends, J, on her base in Baghdad today. J is my old college roommate who has allowed me to reprint her letters home on this blog to show the evolution of a military mom on her first deployment as a medic in Iraq. (The latest installments -- 10, 11, 12 -- are at the bottom of this entry, making for a much longer post than normal.)

Today is World Refugee Day, and the UN has released a report with the latest, typically grim figures on the exodus of Iraqis from their war-ravaged country. Below is just one of more than 3 million stories from Iraqis who've been forced to flee their homeland and scatter around the globe.

I've just returned to Iraq for my final two weeks of reporting before taking a year-long leave. I'm just getting my bearings, trying to figure out the political and security developments and plan to report and blog during this bittersweet trip to Baghdad.

When your most famous construction project is called "The World," what do you do next?

Just received another update from J, my friend and college roommmate who was recently deployed to Iraq as a medic with the National Guard. She's agreed to let me post her letters home to chronicle the transformation of a mother serving in a war zone.

Exactly two weeks ago was the first anniversary of Middle East Diary. I had planned to do a special entry commemorating the date and thanking all the wonderful readers and contributors and commentators for helping to create this forum. However, the date slipped by and I forgot all about it in the scramble to pack up, head to Iraq and then take off for a year-long leave in the States.