I've spent more than 13 months reporting in Baghdad since the end of the US invasion in 2003, and every time I've come over, I've had to deal with friends, family and colleagues trying to talk me out of it.
'It's too dangerous,' they say. 'Something's going to happen to you.'
They know me well, and they know that I reject the extremely security-conscious methods of many reporters. Correspondents for The New York Times, for instance, travel with armed security in armoured cars and live in houses protected by armed guards.
My thinking is that makes a journalist a target in a place like Iraq. I have always taken the line that the best way to go about things is to drop the flak jacket and act like a normal person, take taxis and eat at local restaurants - no one's going to bomb a place that's frequented by one foreigner, but the places that are frequented by lots of foreigners.
I left Baghdad in August after a four-month stay. I was watching the Mehdi Army, the militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, bury land mines in the streets and lying in wait for the US military, and I knew then that I couldn't stomach being witness to a round of brutal fighting.
In the time I've been gone, the situation in Baghdad has certainly worsened, and in response, people are considerably more desperate.