Palm trees, blast walls, and jersey barriers

Palm trees abound in Baghdad, but concrete T-walls and jersey barriers may be more ubiquitous. Every building with any security will establish its perimeter with blast walls. Most of the walls are at least 10 feet high and a couple feet thick. Our compound has an outer perimeter of blast walls and a second layer that surrounds each building. As another precaution to prevent suicide bombers, cars entering the compound weave through a series of jersey barriers, too.

I was curious where all this concrete comes from. Today, I learned the answer. The military base near Baghdad houses a factory which manufactures the structures.