Word: jordanian
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...first sign of change comes when I board the Royal Jordanian Airlines flight from Amman. It's an Airbus A320, and that is good news. It means the flight will not end with the heart-stopping corkscrew landing that characterized all my previous arrivals in smaller, more nimble aircraft. If Royal Jordanian is willing to use a large jetliner, it can only mean that the likelihood of a missile attack has greatly diminished...
...John the Divine, the medievally furnished Cloisters museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On the way to Kennedy Airport, the car stalled halfway through the Midtown Tunnel, between Manhattan and Queens. O'Connor trudged to the Queens side, where he found a mechanic--who happened to be a Jordanian Catholic, recognized the Cardinal and rushed to his aid. O'Connor recalls Ratzinger, up and running again, saying "There is every sort of person in New York, and they're all helpful." A few minutes later, just after he stepped out onto the curb at J.F.K., someone rear-ended...
...Baghdad welcome," that heart-stopping corkscrew dive that characterized all my previous landings. The maneuver was designed to evade any terrorist attack by surface-to-air missiles, and executed to petrifying perfection by former South African air force pilots flying smaller, more nimble Fokker F-28 aircraft. Now Royal Jordanian Airways is willing to risk using the larger, more cumbersome (and more expensive) A320, it can only mean that the likelihood of a SAM attack has greatly diminished. Reassured, I actually sleep through most of the 75-minute flight, waking in time to enjoy my first "normal" descent into Baghdad...
...barely mentioned in the public sessions, aside from a few perfunctory Islamic calls for immediate U.S. withdrawal. It was a different story in the private conversations in the corridors. "Obama and Hillary Clinton can't be serious about leaving Iraq in 12 to 16 months," a well-informed Jordanian said to me. "If you do that, there will be chaos. The Turks will attack the north. The Iranians will take over the south." I pointed out that the same may or may not be true if we leave in 10 ... or 100 years, as John McCain has defiantly suggested...
Faeza's adjustment has been slow. At first she barely left the apartment. She had always used her Jordanian cell phone as a clock, and when its battery petered out because her charger didn't fit the wall socket, she lost all track of time. She didn't know how to let her relatives know she had arrived safely in the U.S. Police patrol cars appeared regularly at the complex, and loud fights broke out in the hallways. Even the boisterous schoolkids getting off the bus, clowning and shrieking, spooked...