By David Mac Dougall, Baghdad Bureau

Me, producer Nicola and cameraman Delimir arrive at Camp Victory to shoot this story

Education about the heat here begins pre-deployment - with soldiers learning about the role fitness levels, hydration and nutrition can all play in staying healthy.

When they arrive in-country, each soldier will take a different amount of time to acclimatize (depending too, of course, on what time of year they arrive in Iraq). I talked with LTCDR Dennis Faix, one of the physicians at the TF-62 medical center at VBC.

He told me that heat is a constant challenge in Iraq. He said “It’s one of the few things, like malaria or typhoid that can take out an entire operational unit, and decrease their effectiveness very quickly”. LTCDR Faix is normally stationed in San Diego and tells me I’d enjoy the surfing there more than the desert sands of Iraq!

Getting my temperature taken by Dr Laurel before the experiment

Of course we weren’t hoping to find a soldier with a heat-related illness to prove our point. I’ve had heat stroke three times over the past five years in Iraq and wouldn’t wish that on anyone. But I did want to try and show how even a short exposure to the heat and sun here can affect the body: measuring vital statistics like heart rate, blood pressure and temperature before and after.

So I figured it was time to get dressed in 65lbs of extra gear, similar to what a combat medic might wear out on patrol (minus the gun of course, they tend not to let journalists carry those!)

I put on a helmet, backpack containing medical equipment, body armor and started walking about (under medical supervision of course, and with cameraman Delimir Babic filming every step).

Cameraman Delimir finds a space for the clip-on microphone

After 5 minutes I thought I was doing okay - sure, it was hot and I was sweating and the pack was heavy, but I felt not bad. After 10 minutes I was feeling the strain - out of breath (which had as much to do with my poor fitness levels as the sun!) sweating a lot and getting pins & needles in my fingers due to the weight of the backpack not being properly distributed.

I walked around for about 15 minutes, then decided to stop, figuring that was enough time to get some changes in physiology.

At the end of the experiment I was surprised my shirt wasn’t more sweat-soaked, until I remembered I’d bought some fancy hi-tech material that wicks away moisture, so not the best way to show how hot I was feeling. As expected however, my blood pressure had gone up, my heart rate was racing, and my body temperature went to 98.8 degrees (an increase of almost 3 degrees after just 15 minutes in the sun).

65lbs of extra gear, including a back-pack filled with medical equipment

Five minutes of walking, and already feeling the strain as the temperature rises

Finishing the experiment, I looked better than I felt!

Producer Nicola Sadler was there to take pictures and document the whole experiment for the blog (and laugh at me later, naturally). I’ve looked better, but you get the idea a) how out of shape I am and b) how hot it is out there for the military personnel who have to endure the heat and sun a lot longer than I did.

Afterwards, Dr Laurel notes the increased temperature, heart rate and blood pressure!

By Ghalib Tawfiq & David Mac Dougall, Baghdad Bureau

We don’t often get the chance to show you what life is like after dark in Iraq’s capital city. For a start, it’s still probably too dangerous for Western journalists to venture out very much when the sun goes down - personally, I don’t think I’d feel very comfortable visiting restaurants and cafes for any length of time.

For Iraqis of course, it’s a different matter: they don’t have a much of a choice about the city they live in. And after many years of violence, they’re keen to get out and about, and resume as much of their old lives as possible. So we decided to send our cameras out to show you what a bustling city Baghdad can be - and how people enjoy themselves now that the security situation is improving.

Bureau producer Ghalib Tawfiq narrates the story of a night out in Baghdad. Enjoy his video!

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By David Mac Dougall, Baghdad Bureau

We’ve got a story running tonight about Iraqi Airways, a company investing more than $5 billion in new aircraft from Boeing. Not a bad boost for America’s economy.

This was the perfect assignment for me: a self-confessed airport & plane geek (is it any wonder I’m single?) I figure if you spend a lot of time on planes and in departure lounges, you might as well enjoy it, because life would be very depressing otherwise. Iraqi Airways has been known for years by travelers in the Middle East as “Insha’allah (God Willing) Airlines.”

To say they’ve had a bad reputation is an understatement. Poor service and unreliable scheduling are their hallmarks. Over the years they’ve been hit by UN sanctions, a military no-fly zone and legal disputes that left jets rusting on tarmacs in at least three regional airports. Now, the tail-winds of change are blowing through Iraqi Airways with their $5 billion purchase (which includes ten of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft).

They’re making a tidy profit, flying routes around Iraq and across the Middle East. And they have big plans to expand too – with new routes scheduled for India, Europe and hopefully the USA. It might seem like an odd time for an airline to grow, considering the number of airlines which have gone bankrupt in recent months, but Iraqi Airways is a state-owned company and they don’t really need to make a profit to stay in business.

I’ve flown Iraqi Airways a few times out of Baghdad International Airport. It’s a unique experience to say they least. They’re known as a carrier that will take-off in all but the very worst sandstorms (which has advantages and disadvantages as you can imagine).

My story about Iraqi Airways has a stand-up shot on board a Boeing 727. The camera and editing work looks great (thanks to cameraman Uday and editor Pete) but behind the scenes, this was a tough shoot. The plane we videoed on had been sitting, locked up, on a side runway at Baghdad airport for about a month. It was 115 degrees outside, and much hotter standing inside what is basically a metal tube underneath a blazing sun. We kept our time inside the 727 to a minimum!

Oh – and in case you wondered about the title of this blog. Sometimes I try to reference TV shows in my blogs (the product of an over-active imagination). “The High Life” was a Scottish airline comedy from the mid-1990s, about the crew of a fictional national carrier called Air Scotia, starring actor Alan Cumming. DVDs available from all good retailers. Or maybe not.

Click on Photos for Enlarged Version

By David Mac Dougall & Ghalib Tawfiq, Baghdad Bureau

After years of reporting from Iraq, viewers are familiar with some of the most common personalities connected with events here: from Saddam Hussein to Prime Minister Maliki; Moqtada al-Sadr to Ayatollah Sistani. But what about some other Iraqis making an impact in their chosen professions?

Nashat Akram, Dr Ala Bashir, Hussain al Shahristani, Dana Abdul Razzaq,
Maysoon al-Damluji, Zaha Hadid

We put together a list of ten people we think you should know about. Click their name to learn more about them!

Dana Abdul Razzaq: Iraqi Olympic athlete
Hassan Abdulrazzak: Author / playwright
Nashat Akram: Star player on Iraq’s national soccer team
Suhair al-Qaisi: Iraqi journalist for Arabiya TV
Dr Ala Bashir: Plastic surgeon
Ayad Jamal al-Din: Shiite member of parliament
Maysoon al-Damluji: Women’s rights activist
Nadhmi Auchi: Businessman & philanthropist
Hussain al Shahristani: Minister for Oil
Zaha Hadid: Architect

Keep Reading …

By David Mac Dougall

“Sofa Talks” might sound like the old-school Saturday Night Live “Coffee Talk” sketch, but it’s arguably the single most important issue facing Iraq right now.

“Sofa” stands for Status of Forces Agreement – a deal between the US and Iraqi Government about what happens to tens of thousands of US troops stationed in Iraq, when a UN mandate to keep them here runs out at the end of December. The US Government wants to strike a deal by the end of July, but it’s such a complicated and controversial subject, the self-imposed deadline will not be easy to meet.

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The Iraqi Government is single-handily shaping the agenda and public perception on this story. The US Embassy here in Baghdad has said little on the subject. The sticking points in coming up with an agreement both sides can live with are many:

How many long-term bases will the US be allowed to keep on Iraqi soil?

How long will the bases be here for? Is there a “get-out” clause if either side changes their mind about the agreement?

What will US forces be allowed to do here? Arrest people? Carry out unilateral military operations? Launch attacks on other countries from bases inside Iraq?

What happens if US troops commit a crime – which country has jurisdiction?

There’s been some progress however: on what happens to thousands of Iraqi prisoners currently in US custody; and making US contractors working in Iraq answerable to an Iraqi court if they break the law.

But despite these few points which have been hammered out, this issue really is firing up Iraqi passions. Muqtada al-Sadr - no stranger to organizing anti-US or anti-Iraqi Government protests - has encouraged his followers to demonstrate against any sort of long-term US presence here. And a final agreement will have to be approved by the Iraqi Parliament - potentially with a two-thirds majority. As we’ve seen with past votes and legislation, the Parliament can be an extremely cumbersome place to do political business, and there are never any guarantees of success.

We went out in one Baghdad neighborhood to ask residents what they think about the issue – here’s a short video with a couple of good responses.