Week 14

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Back in my own bed… my Iraqi bed anyway. It is not nearly as comfortable as my bed back home, nor is there a dog sleeping with me, but is still better than a cot and a sleeping bag.

I spent some time out with the infantry. They are the hardest of the hard, relegated to being police officers in post-war Iraq . They are bred to fight, but now are nothing more than targets for insurgents. The night before I arrived one of the patrols got torn up by an IED. I went out the next day to see the aftermath.

Here is my brief summary of the war: We drive down the roads. The bad guys blow us up. We fix the roads so we can drive down them again.

It's crazy, huh? Perhaps we have taken this reconstruction thing a bit out of hand.

The Army Times has this big article on how insurgents are using Prostitutes and children to scout out the Green Zone in preparation for a big offensive. From now on I'll tell my hookers to close their eyes. They'll get no intel from me.

I am getting into Baseball mode. Despite not being able to play this year, this World Baseball Classic has me very excited. I think I will get to watch more games here then I would at home. Unfortunately, I'll have to stay up until 5 am to do it. Thank goodness they won't have many Red Sox games on TV here or I would never get any sleep.

I'm starting to catch up on some things. Hopefully I will have some time to get situated before I head out again. I came home to some nice letters and packages. Thank you all for everything. I will start taking orders on Iraqi things soon. It takes a while to build up enough to send home, but they have some nice things here. Be on the lookout. Wooden Camels may be on the way to the States. Big ones too.