Diyala

Well I know it has been sometime since I have blogged. We moved from Baghdad to an area in the north Diyala province to conduct missions against AQ infested areas. Most the major AQI leaders here have now been killed or escaped to other areas and now we spend most our time rebuilding the communites they left behind and weeding out anyone who aided or abetted their operations while they were here. It is pitiful to see what these terrorist groups do to communities. They are truly like the Gadiantons, and they can really only work in secret now. It is tough for me to deal with all the deception and infiltration. I never wanted to be a CIA guy or a organized crime cop, but I feel like that is most of what we do. It is challenging but we are also learning much. Oddly enough, a lot of what I do feels much like my mission in Japan as I go door to door visiting families and "selling" our story of a stronger Iraq.

The family pictured above is the village "muktar" or mayor. His son on my left was seriously injured in an IED attack while he was working with US forces about a year ago. The village they live in has about 3000 people and the name of the town translates to LOST which I though Marnie would love. It is actually as idyllic a place as you get in this somewhat hellish landscape of Iraq. It sits on a rapidly moving canal with main dirt streets running on both sides as it twists through the classical middle eastern architecture. The white and sand colored terraced homes border a wealth of orange groves which extend in all directions from the village. It is quite pleasant to walk through these groves sometimes. Bright oranges dangle amidst the green of the fruit trees themselves while dense palm trees tower above filtering in the sunlight. That is until you find the bomb making materials buried beneath the scene. Then you realize how screwed up this place is as you hear the children playing back in town. If this was the location of Eden, then the fall of man is real apparent right here in the garden.

The men are doing well. They all expected something different and some really do not like the fact that there have been no firefights here. I am grateful for that myself and I think they will be too in years to come as they mature.

The facilities for living up here are beyond poor. The chow is nice and the one thing that cannot be complained about. But the living conditions...it is the one time I have seriously considered skipping the chain of command and writing a long letter to a Senator. People in America should know that there are serious implications to not passing a budget meant to finance this war. Silly partisan games are preventing Soldiers from living like decent human beings. You should know that those partisan politics are directly affecting your son/brother and the way I live day to day. No water to take showers most days, no place to sleep but our vehicles or to overoccupy a tent with cots with muddy floors. Mud everywhere, I had a Soldier contract dysentery the other day. My commander is doing everything he can, including letting us go to another base every few days to sleep in real bunks and take showers and call home. I do not want this to seem like whining, just to show that actions in Washington apply to real people. And it is stuff no care package will fix, however gracious. I would say if the constituents are going to support the war initially then you damn well better see it through until the end. And if it means pulling out early because you cannot continue to financially undewrite the decisions you have made then so be it, otherwise the people of America as represented by the folks in Washington better do the right thing and give troop support more than lip service while the Soldiers are still working hard here. The budget to support the troops is not something to be played with as the blackmail tool for partisan politics. Shame on all Parties.

I am writing from the nice base where we still have kept all our personal things. I say nice but relative to where we were in Baghdad, the place is pretty bad. Still it has most amenities here.
So I love all the Romney propaganda Dad keeps sending out. Good luck to him. Despite my rant above, I believe the country is ready for a major change and I see that in Obama. Romney will only maintain the dangerous status quo conservative leadership. I think they all are letting the country down right now, but I am interested in a major shake up and honestly in terms of education, health care, and regulatory controls of selfish corporations I side more with Democrats. I am all for raising taxes if it means better opportunites for everyone. But they should all be ashamed of themselves and yes just because I said that does not mean I do not despise Pelosi and Hillary.

It is still pretty cold here. It drops below freezing most nights. It is the rainy season so that happens every few days, increasing the mud.

The other day I had an interesting experience as I was invited to the funeral lunch for a 80 year old man that some of my men had accidentally killed. On the first day of operations we had found some large IEDs at an intersection. While we were preppping some explosives to destroy them, some of my men saw an individual several hundred meters away sneaking toward the most likely location of the trigger (the wire to detonate the bomb ran that way). So they engaged the man with their rifles and he was seriously injured and evacuated to a US hospital. He died a few days ago, the day prior to this lunch. It was simply a tragedy and my men did what they had to do to protect themselves with the information they had at the time. So there I was sitting with all the family and extended family outside (about 30 men) being fed a wonderful meal of lamb and rice, all eyes focused on me. I expressed my condolences but they told me not to worry, that Allah willed it. It was just bizarre. Also funerals are historically magneticallly attracted to suicide bombers so it was a strange combination of nervousness (not wanting to be there) and not wanting to offend the people who we had affected so tragically by not being in attendance. So obviously it all ended safely, I delivered a large sum of cash the next day as a condolence payment ( I know westerners cannot conceive of this, we would probably just beat down the poor guy delivering the payment, but here it is the way to make restitution and save face). Allah willed it? What if some foreigner had shot and killed my grandfather? Will Allah also will future revenge against US forces because of it? Is the restitution payment going to prevent Allah from willing that revenge?

I do not know what the coming months hold. I may be changing command in May. I might move my R&R leave to March. I may be taking command of the HQ company. Part of me would love to stay in command as long as possible. The other part of me would like to get back on staff and start working out and getting health again.

I love you all. I look forward to getting back home of course. I think we will be headed back to the states for an assignment no later than September 2009.

Mike