What would it be like to go to Iraq? If you were practicing law for 25 years, as I was, and you were not in the military, why would you think about it? After my nephew was seriously wounded there, I wanted to know. I interviewed for a Provincial Reconstruction Team position as a senior rule of law adviser, and got my health, ethics and secret clearances.
After four weeks of training, it was off to the Middle East. The first stop was the embassy in Baghdad. My roommate the first night, Wilson Myers, was in from his Provincial Reconstruction Team in northern Iraq. He gave me the inside story on his province and interaction with the local population. My Arabic was just this side of unintelligible, and he gave me some quick fixes for legal discussions.
