Allegra, I'm just curious.
What do you think are the actual chances that the jihadis could get even one (let alone "multiple") car bombs inside the perimeter of the IZ as al-Masri is hoping to do?
At Balad - because of the constant ongoing construction - we were always a little concerned about the gravel trucks more than anything else, certainly the KBR fleets were OK. The troops were pretty careful with gate inspections.
But little Toyota VBIEDs wouldn't have had a chance of actually getting inside the wire. Zero.
I would think the same about the IZ?
The IZ is a fortress and appears to be pretty secure. But there's always that chance. I know what you mean about Balad...we had the same concerns when we were at Taji and occasionally bad people did get on the base there. Fortunately, they were always caught before they could do anything.
One yahoo was caught talking on his cell phone during a mortar attack on the chow hall at Taji (those were frequent but they always missed.) One mortar had just come in and they caught this idiot saying "aim the next one HIGHER" in Arabic on his cell phone. He was promptly arrested.
So, there's always that chance, and they've pulled stuff at the checkpoints but haven't managed to get into the IZ yet.
Fingers remain crossed! ;-)