7 June 2008

Camp Ar Ramadi, Al Anbar, Iraq

So I'm in the IZ the other day, meeting with the DPMs office... oh, sorry... I was in Baghdad, inside the Green Zone the other day, at a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister's office (originally the DPM himself was going to be there, but he's got a busy schedule)... anyway, I got to have lunch at the Al Rasheed hotel.  Cloth tableclothes, good food (remarkably similar to what we have out in Al Anbar), no beer.  Let's just say that Baghdad is to Ramadi as Washington, D.C. is to Cheyenne, Wyoming.  All part of the same culture... a lot of similarities... and you'd be a fool to project too much of either onto the other one.  'Nuff said.

Today I was thinking about the fact that the anniversary of D-Day just passed.  You can go back to some of my other June 6 entries if you'd like, but I had occasion to relate some of the experiences I've had here in past deployments to somebody that is on their first... it's a whole different ballgame.  I was specifically talking about the operation the Major Ric Crocker was killed on in 2005.  Back then we KNEW that every time we went to town (Haditha in this case), there was a better than even chance of there being a fight, and when we did an operation like Operation New Market (the one where Ric was killed), it wasn't just because we were bored, but because there were plenty of bad guys that needed killing.  I still remember that night and that operation.  But the point is back then the war was being reported like it was worse than anything we'd ever experienced in the history of armed conflict... daily death tolls, quagmires, remarkably stupid things being said by politicians (okay, so that doesn't point to any particular time or circumstance... fair enough)... and back then I opined that a look at D-Day casualties figures might add some much-needed perspective.  Now days, well, where IS the news?  I know the answers, of course, but rhetorically, where are the daily updates on number of consecutive days without a violent American death in Al Anbar?  Nobody's interviewed me to see how the electricity distribution is coming along.  Sure, it's been pretty gripping watching Hillary remain behind in delegates for the last couple of months, and I'll grant you it's kind of fun watching her essentially have to say "sure I dragged this out for a while explaining what a really horrible choice Obama would be and how grotesquely underqualified he is to be a commander-in-chief... but he has my full support now that I've admitted (after a night of vigorous denial) that there aren't a miracle 100+ delegates out there and so therefore he is not the absolute best choice as your president.  Really.  I mean it.  Go BHO!", but really...

Now a while back I asked Congress to please stop giving us support like non-binding resolutions.  Looks like they heard.  Haven't heard a peep out of Harry or Nancy in a while.  So let's give a hat tip to them for managing to keep their yaps shut.  Apologies for being a bunch of whiny, opportunistic, political creatures that aren't qualified to look at Arlington might be a bit much, so I'm happy with the silence.  Of course maybe I just don't watch enough news...

Things are going well... but 'schway, schway' which is Arabic for 'slowly, slowly.'  If anybody thinks it should be going faster, I invite them to sign up for the State Department reconstruction teams and to bring that enthusiasm and expertise on over and show us how it's done.