Real life Frogger

It's been far too long since I updated this but I've been on break far from Iraq. It's probably going to be another week until I head back down so here's a post long over due about Iraqi driving:

In California stop signs are treated as a suggestion, in Johannesburg the same can be said about red lights after dark. Never though, have I experienced driving like Iraq, which often seems like a constant game of chicken.

I'm always in a military vehicle and that means we're not driving very fast and Iraqis constantly zoom by. In the U.S. we hope people won't pass recklessly, in Iraq I'm just happy if they are driving on the correct side of the road.

One day, I was heading north from Kirkuk along a major highway. Because of road work (not that there was any evidence of people actually actively working on the road) the highway went from four to two lanes. Apparently confused, the drivers on the road took this to mean that either remaining lane was fair game for driving either direction. This wasn't just a stray drunk, this was every third car going the wrong way.

At one point, a wrong way driver in a small sedan came over a rise in the wrong direction, swerving out of the way of an oncoming semi with about five feet to spare. It felt like we were in a game of Frogger, although I guess even in Frogger the cars use the correct lanes.

Not to be outdone, some other drivers frustrated with the 90 mph flow of traffic cut across the dirt median heading for the unfinished, equipment-laden, closed side of the highway and sped down the half-laid asphalt.

At least the driving takes your mind off the threat of roadside bombs.

People who travel in the Third World are fond of saying that, 'Well, it seems crazy, but they make it work.' This, of course, isn't true, as the driver of an overturned Heineken truck found out, spilling the contents across the median, as pictured above.