Green Zone blues.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills

For seven years, I traveled extensively around the Third World visiting Peace Corps programs. One of the most consistent complaints of our volunteers concerned the tendency of other Americans to live together in compounds, isolated from the people of the country in which they were living. Whatever social contact they had with the locals was usually confined to the elite. There were, however, some brave exceptions to this rule, an occasional foreign service officer or CIA agent who would break out of the compound. Alas, even those exceptions do not seem to be present in Baghdad, where Americans are confined to a "Green Zone," four square miles surrounded by concrete walls and barbed wire.

Those who are supposed to work among the Iraqis or who simply want to find out what's going on out there face a daunting prospect: "Forms must be filled out explaining the reason for the outing, requesting transportation and a protective detail," reports The Washington Post's Ariana...