On the ground in Iraq

“Last Throes” indeed.

No district of Baghdad, with Iraq’s highest concentration of troops, is remotely safe. And a rare drive outside the capital last week showed how anarchic the hinterland has become. To move concrete blocks for a new checkpoint near a base at Taji, 15 miles from Baghdad, American troops blocked the main highway north for two hours with tanks, troop carriers and Apache helicopters circling overhead. In an 80-mile round trip, it was the only sighting of Americans, though the blight of war was everywhere. For mile after mile, the highway was strewn with rusting hulks of blown-up cars and trucks, with huge bomb craters beside the road.