So what is it that I do?
It seems like such a simple question to answer. Summarize what I do over a period of days, tell a few stories, crack a few jokes. The only problem is, that it's really hard to tell a story without putting names and faces to the story, and therein lies the problem. It's not like anything I am doing is super top secret (for those of you who thought I might have become an international man of mystery, you're going to be greatly disappointed), but, as I've noted before, there are folks out there who may not be too pleased that the folks that meet with us are, well, meeting with us. And I don't want to put their lives, not to speak my own life, at risk. So I do things like crop a person out of the photograph above, write about things like coke cans, and talk about my work in very vague terms. But I've been here just over a month, and I think it's worth asking what it is I do and is it worth it.In the most broad terms, I help implement U.S. foreign policy in Iraq. I'm sure that helps you a lot. Just as it helps you for me to tell you that what I do is an integral part of counter insurgency (COIN) theory. So in plain language, I'm meeting with Iraqis and trying to figure out ways to help them out so that they can rebuild their nation and their society. Both are still in pretty rough shape.
I do this by meeting with Iraqis, finding out about them and their lives, asking them about their needs and identifying how we can best help them realize their desired future. When things are going well, I meet with a lot of Iraqis. If this week goes as planned, I figure that I will have had 13 meetings with Iraqis in the past 18 work days (I have a 6 day work week). I would have had more, but several meetings were canceled at the last minute (which happens here a lot for a broad range of reasons).
How do we "help" them? Sometimes it's through funding, sometimes by sharing our professional experience on how things are done in the US, sometimes by connecting one person with other people we've met with. You'd be surprised at how often people at ministries that are supposed to be working together have never actually met. So we bring people together.
We do this from the ground up. The embassy folks deal at the ministerial level. They're the ones figuring out grand policy. The "P" in PRT-Baghdad is Provincial (RT = Reconstruction Team). We deal at the provincial government level and below. Mostly below. We figure out how to get legal reference books in a particular courthouse, help folks organize to protect rights that are embodied in the Iraqi constitution, or brainstorm over what it will take to get the wheels of government rolling again. Other folks at the PRT are doing the same thing in agriculture, health care, and other fields. We're fortunate that there are a lot of Iraqis willing to do the heavy lifting, because all we can do is give a little nudge here, a bit of advice there. 
At best I am a facilitator, trying to figure out how to make things happen. I've already managed to do that. And there are other projects that are starting to show signs of life. Like the one here. These are property records, damaged by fires following the invasion. Some date back to the Ottoman Empire. No, we're not about to bring RLID (Regional Land Information Database - the latest version of which happens to be Ann's code) to Baghdad. But bringing Iraqi record keeping to something that resembles 21st Century technology will help prevent fraud and corruption, will promote economic activity, will provide a basis for resolving the plethora of property ownership disputes left over from Saddam's regime, and will help preserve these vital records. And it happens to be stuff I know a bit about. Me, a land use dog from Oregon, in Baghdad, sitting in a room with Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys and I'm the only one who understands what the Iraqis are talking about. Go figure!
So we meet with provincial representatives from national ministries, judges, and lawyers; we visit detention facilities, NGOs, and universities; and we try to help people help themselves. Despite the bureaucracy, the power politics, the violence and the neglected infrastructure. I can see that things are moving forward. Slowly, but moving nonetheless.
So, despite the lack of details, this is what I do and yes, it's worth it.