To Hilla by Helo

Our work in Najaf is going well. After a few days of high-level meetings we began our visits to field sites, beginning with the Mishkab Rice Research Station in the heart of the rice-growing region of the country. Rice is one of the few agricultural success stories in Iraq with yields increasing by a factor of 10 between 2000 and 2007. In part this is explained by the use of high-yielding varieties from Vietnam, the Phillipines, and Thailand. Jasmine rice is very popular here, although the most desirable rice is an aromatic variety known as Ambar. There appears to be some interest in rice-fish culture here, although the prolonged drought means that water is scarce and rice is being farmed with the absolute minimum use of this precious resource. We talked with some farmers and landowners in the area, including one who owned about 350 acres and had a sharecropping arrangement with 50 households to farm this land. Unfortunately we did not have time to explore the full ramifications of this arrangement.

In the afternoon, our team split up, with about half remaining behind in Najaf, another group going to Baghdad for meetings and then on to Mosul in the north, and three of us going to REO (regional embassy outpost) Hilla. The REO is occupied mostly by folks from the State Department and the Babil PRT, with Blackwater providing security for most movements off the compound, and the Colombian army providing security for the base proper. The main part of the facility is a hotel that apparently was a playground for Saddam at one time. I’ve enjoyed having my own room (complete with in-room bathroom and TV!) for the first time since coming here.

The helicopter flight between Najaf and Hilla was amazing. We took off from the FOB, flying over a sandy plain dotted with Bedouin encampments, before passing by the edges of Najaf. Then, off to the right appeared the beautiful gilded dome of the Imam Ali Mosque, embedded in the old part of Najaf city.













Next we flew over the "Wadi as Salam" (the Wadi of Peace) cemetery, a vast expanse of above-ground tombs and below-ground catacombs where supposedly over 2 million people are buried, perhaps the largest cemetery in the world.














We then picked up the Euphrates River, following right along the emerald ribbon about 200 feet above the water, the door gunner waving at the kids who ran out of their houses as we passed by. We had beautiful views of the small farms and agricultural landscapes of the Euphrates River alluvial plain: date plantations, wheat and rice fields, fish ponds, bright green alfalfa fields, vegetable gardens, with canals going off away from the river. When the river took a sharp bend the helicopter accordingly banked steeply. Before long we were on the outskirts of Hilla and landed at the REO.

Can we go again?