IRAQ: As they fighting for the freedom of the Iraqis, Western administrators and diplomats in Iraq are finding themselves imprisoned in their administrative headquarters.
Officials belonging to the Coalition Provisional Authority already live behind 10 ft concrete barriers and rolls of barbed wire and rarely travel outside the safety zones without an armed escort or by sneaking away at the dead of night.
Now the deaths over the weekend of civilians and diplomats from Spain, Japan, South Korea and Colombia will keep them indefinitely trapped behind palace walls.
It was not part of the job description.
Billed by the US State Department as a step up for ambitious civil servants or a swan song for ageing diplomats, the White House was initially swamped by applications to volunteer.
Many believed in the cause of rebuilding the country.
However, with the shift in the focus of attacks to "soft targets", many feel it is not worth the risk.
A rocket attack last month on the al-Rashid hotel in the heart of the US administrative headquarters had coalition officials fleeing the building in their pyjamas.
Several just quit altogether, exacerbating in the process "Baghdad burnout" whereby officials arrive in Iraq filled with optimism only to leave several months later exhausted by the violence and bureaucratic hurdles.
For those who stayed, though, life under lockdown has created a close-knit community which many miss when they leave. The "green zone" - the mile square protected zone in central Baghdad - has the feel of a campus town filled with the ideals of freedom and democracy, tinged by fear and debates about their mission.
The compound comes under almost-nightly attack, although, as one official said, "the mortars give a certain air of excitement".
After the al-Rashid attack, staff moved back into the spartan portacabins ringing the Republican Guard Palace they had occupied immediately after the war. On a recent visit, the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, bunked up with another high-level official.
"It's like being back at school," said one British administrator, "canteen food and lots of rules."
In the evenings, officials and soldiers dance to country music and rap with a local Iraqi DJ.
"Thursdays night is party night in the bar," said one official. "It's quite a scene, soldiers dancing away with their M-16 rifles in one hand and a beer in another."
"We've got to just try and leave normal lives," said one American administrator who had sneaked out of the green zone to have dinner at a journalist's house, despite the threat of being sent home if he was caught.
"We know it's dangerous. That's why we're here: to make it less dangerous for ourselves and for the Iraqis who are going to have to live in this country when we're gone."