Easy Sailing Along Once-Perilous Road To Baghdad Airport

Washington Post ^ | 11/04/2005 | Jackie Spinner

[RepublicanPizza]

Easy Sailing Along Once-Perilous Road To Baghdad Airport

Army Steps Up Presence to Quell Attacks

[RepublicanPizza]

BAGHDAD -- It used to be the most dangerous highway in Iraq, five miles of bomb-blasted road between Baghdad International Airport and the capital cityscape. It was a white-knuckle ride, coming or going. To reach Baghdad or leave it, you had to survive the airport road first.

For 2 1/2 years, the road was, in many ways, a symbol of the U.S. failure to secure Iraq. Military convoys roared past in a frantic attempt to escape the looming dangers of suicide bombers, grenades, rockets and booby-trapped litter. But insurgents' relentless attacks claimed a steady toll.

In April, 13 people died along the route, including an American aid worker, Marla Ruzicka, who was killed on a sliver of pocked pavement that intersects threadbare fields and modest cement homes. In the median, the flying-man statue -- a familiar landmark that pays homage to a medieval astronomer who tried to fly, and ultimately died, using homemade wings -- was the silent witness. People died on this road in fiery, awful ways, and the flying man seemed to take it all in.

Then, two months ago, the killings stopped. In October, one person was wounded on the road and no one was killed, according to the U.S. Army, which also calculated the April deaths. The turnaround was owed to simple, boots-on-the-ground military tactics, Army officials said.

[RepublicanPizza]

60 Minutes episode tonight showed the worst case scenario....from several months ago. Was this a current show or a re-run?

[q_an_a]

I had the same question. Because this WP story is the second time in two weeks this road's safety record was listed as fantastic. What is the truth? CBS lied!! Wait maybe the name is SEE BS.

[Kozak]

Probably a safer ride then to Charles DeGaul Airport in Paris.....