The Capital

I visited the Iraqi Monument to the Unknown Soldier: a ziggurat-style flag pole and a massive cantilevered disc (online I read this is meant to represent a falling martyr's shield).  For some reason the monument does not contain remains.  But it was still solemn.  And it combines eras and textures in an arabic way.

I was with Diane (c/o 2001), a contractor who manages the arabis

ts who worked with my battalion in Yusufiya.   We parked next to an army checkpoint and started to walk towards the monument when a jundee (an Iraqi Army private) stopped us.  He called another soldier on his radio.  Several other jundees came over--one donned body armor, picked up an AK-47, and motioned us to follow.  He was our escort.

To reach the monument we had to walk up a wide, curving, ramp.  Its arc caused the awning of the tilted shield to slowly present itself to us.  First starting as a black arc--it grew into full shape, the pyramidal cones underneath bearing themselves like layered rows of shark teeth.  Under the shade of the shield is a cube of red fiberglass covered in metal shapes.  The jundee pointed to an Arabic word inscribed at the base of the cube: Khalid.  "The engineer," said the jundee.