Iraq’s Green Zone has been an Oasis for Western officials in the city since the advent of the war. Secured behind myriad checkpoints and high concrete walls, the flock of American generals, diplomats, contractors, and UN workers are usually safe with the exception of the occasional suicide bomber who slips through and the mortar that flies over the wall.

There is not much to do in Iraq since the war. The cafes in the “Red Zone” are too dangerous for Iraqis to say nothing of often hostage-taken Westerns, and the Green Zone does not offer much to pass the time. It is not surprising that many just spend the nights drinking away at bars and parties. Alcohol is for many the only fun thing today.

But those days are coming to an end. The Iraqi government has banned the sale of transport of alcohol inside the Green Zone. All liquor shops will be shut down once inventory runs out and restaurants/bars will have to suspend all alcoholic beverages. Iraqi guards manning checkpoints will be on alert to spot alcohol and at some checkpoints bottles will be smashed. The ban applies not only for Westerns but for Iraqi top officials as well. Stocks of fine wines belonging to MPs have been confiscated. The only exception to this is alcohol served on embassy and ambassador residencies due to the fact that they constitute sovereign land. But outside of diplomatic compounds, no diplomat will be allowed to transport alcohol even to a local party and somehow they have to transport it in while not violating the ban. Presumably, the alcohol must enter via some diplomatic cargo.

The oddest thing about the sudden ban is that it only applies inside the Zone, outside of it any one may drink and sell alcohol. Which raises the question of why the Iraqi government is instituting such a selective ban? Why just the Green Zone while the rest of Iraq remains free to drink? The government has provided no explanation, but it is probably due to an effort to shrink a Western presence - especially America’s mammoth diplomatic (some would say colonial) embassy grounds which are 10x the UN size. By taking away alcohol that made service in Iraq tolerable, many Western diplomats and contractors may soon leave the country since they are denied a drink and are too afraid to wonder to the rest of the city.

Using alcohol-depravity to drive out overbearing Westerns and thus resorting Iraqi sovereignty: Ingenious.

Source: The Economist. Stop that naughty Western habit.