The armed guards sit beside the concrete barriers, sipping coffee as they 'protect' our hotel.
No one in the hotel expects for a moment that these security measures will serve as much protection.
I ask the guards if they could stop a truck bomb. The nervous laughter that follows comes from men not wanting to consider the possibility. 'You are safe,' says one.
If that was truly the case, these men would not be here. None of the guests can seriously envisage a scenario whereby these men would lay down their lives for the hotel and its guests.
And no one blames them. They have taken the job not out of consideration for the hotel's security but because they need the money in a country where unemployment is near 50 per cent.
I did not see Wednesday's Mount Lebanon hotel blast that killed seven people, but I witnessed another one soon after.
My driver tried to get there, but traffic in Baghdad, a city where the traffic lights don't work and where policemen gamely try to direct reluctant drivers into some sort of lane discipline, is such that any plans to travel in a particular direction are purely wishful thinking.