Hi,

I've been meaning to send a message for weeks, and never got around to it. I was always missing my lead, missing the hook that would make for a good story. And then today, as I was cleaning off my desk in preparation for three weeks of vacation, the bad guys gave me a hook. They killed my governor.

You've probably seen it in the press, and from what I can tell the press reports are relatively accurate. The Baghdad Governor's convoy (his armored BWM and a follow car full of bodyguards) was attacked this morning. A gunfight ensued. He was shot. Unfortunately, this happens all the time. The insurgents can't get the very top leadership, and they can't easily get Americans, so they go after the second-tier Iraqi leaders (not to mention interpreters, cooks, election workers, the guy who schedules meeting rooms in the convention center, contractors, and anyone else associated with us). They had attacked the Gov several times in the past, including a few months ago when they blew up a bomb next to his convoy and killed a couple of bodyguards.

This is a tough death to accept. Ali and I weren't particularly close, personally, but we worked together a lot. He was smart, arrogant, and occasionally rude. He was fond of telling me about all the bad decisions that the US had made. He refused things that we tried to give him, because they weren't fit for The Governor Of Baghdad. But my god he was enormously brave to keep doing what he was doing through all those attacks. He just kept pushing forward, trying to build the governorship into something worthwhile. Finally today they got him. It's a senseless, evil killing - a symbolic one rather than a tactical one. His personal absence won't change anything about the future of the city or the country. He didn't have any real power. He wasn't a threat to anyone. But what he represents is a threat to some people.

This just reinforces my belief that we need to have elections on 30 January. You might be aware that I don't agree with the President's position on every issue. On this issue, however, the President is dead right, and his stubborn consistency is a perfect tool. We just have to keep insisting. If they see that the elections are really going to happen, some people who have been dragging their heels will join in the voting. I can't see any reason to postpone elections, since the security situation is unlikely to be much better anytime soon. Iraqis need a government that a majority of them can call their own. An election, even a not very good one, will get them closer to that.

That said, I'm taking off for a few weeks. I'm going to visit my brother in Chennai India (out of the frying pan, into the fire). It's a long-planned, much anticipated vacation, and neither murder nor tsunamis will stand in my way. Not even a night on an army cot, followed by a night in Kuwait City, followed by a night in the Dubai airport will deter me. I'm going to India, inshallah.

I'm not big on prayers, but today I've said a couple. Maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion. Ali al-Haidary was one guy, not the incomprehensible number of thousands who died in the tsunami. But at the moment, other than saying a prayer, I just don't know what I can do for the future of Iraq.

rob