BAGHDAD—Several years ago I posted a photo on social media of a beautiful sunrise over Karbala, Iraq. A close friend soon responded, “Keep your head down!” I had been sipping tea, in coat and tie, at the Lebanese restaurant on the roof of the Rotana hotel. Why on earth would I keep my head down?
Douglas Ollivant is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) and a former director for Iraq at the National Security Council. He is a retired Army officer and a veteran of the 2004 battles of Najaf Cemetery and Second Fallujah.
