A mixture of cluelessness and laziness. I have mended my ways.

If you have had different experiences in Iraq which lead you to think the country is still unsafe, it would be valuable to post this. But you give no details of when and where you were in Iraq. If it's just a difference of opinion in what constitutes 'safe' based on something other than direct experience, then of course you are entitled to that opinion, but that is not of great help to others.

For example, parts of South America where petty / violent street crime if rife and targeted towards foreigners, I would regard as not being safe. I have been the target of several (unsuccessful) robbery attempts in South America, but I don't discourage people from going there (though I tell them Asia is way more interesting!). Iraq was safe for me because I never once, for any single moment thought I was the target of anyone's bad intentions, and locals told me it was safe (in most areas). Of course, bad things can happen there, but in my opinion, the danger of being in the wrong place at the wrong time is just an inescapable part of life.

I assume a certain level of adventurousness in people here (and state that in my initial post), and your experience of, what to me sound like very minor annoyances in Saudi, (which are all very common in Iraq) seem to be more in line with what an adventure should be; not the easy, safe tourist experience which you can have in, say, certain parts of Turkey.

EO

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.