No more packages, please!

I've been traveling so much and am getting ready to start shipping things back home, so please hold off on sending any more packages.  I really appreciate everything you all have sent already to send a little taste of home!

Day 136: Last day of freedom

Ah, tomorrow morning will be a sad day. We fly out tomorrow to go back to the real world. We were delayed by one day. That's actually pretty good. There were groups here that had been "stranded" for a week. That means their 4 day pass turned into close to two weeks off.

But, work doesn't stop and I had told one of the units I was supporting that I would be there 2 days ago, so I'm actually glad to be going. Plus, with Ramadan going on, and no trips going out other than the mall, I end up going a little stir crazy. The equivalent is if you went on vacation, but were under house arrest. At a big house with a bowling alley, club area, and movie theater, but a big house still...

I did have the good fortune of being sponsored to go off post. A chaplain's assistant saw me walking to the chow hall and offered me a lift and then asked if I wanted to go into town. The deputy garrison commander and I went -- just in the right place at the right time. We went to the Gold Souks (markets) and the tourist quarter -- beautiful at night and even though it was after sundown, there still were not many locals there. I found that Qataris get something like $8000/month for nothing other than being citizens. Men get more than women, so women go to university more than the men.

The old city markets didn't have much to offer that was really unique. The exception was a falconry training center that had a few falcons just chillin with little gimp-style hoods on. Their hearing was so sharp that they would cock their heads wherever we were moving in the store. I felt bad for the shop owners. They have to know that everytime an American enters the store that they'll ask the same stupid questions and won't buy anything.

Even the pearls here were from Dubai or Tahiti, though a long time ago, apparently there were actual pearl divers here.

We had dinner at a nice Qatari restaurant. The place was nearly empty, but good atmosphere and attentive service. I had the mixed grill and some banana yogurt -honey drink.

I heart poodles

There are no words to describe this.

Maybe, "why?"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208913/The-poodles-transformed-pandas-horses-snails-creative-grooming-dog-shows.html

Day 134: Qatari Beach Day

So, this morning, I was able to secure a spot on the inland sea picnic. For $27, it was an excellent deal. The 20 of us split amongst 5 SUVs and drove out to the coast. Although we had to wear long sleeves, long pants, and closed toe shoes, the drivers did not. Go figure. It took us about 45 min to get out to the sand dunes. On the way, we got to see a little bit of some of the apartment complexes from a distance. Lot of construction going on, pretty clean and nice Arabian architecture that reminded me of the Alhambra in Spain.





The sand dune driving was a trip. Our driver, Shyam, from Sri Lanka (the other drivers were from Ethiopia, Egypt, and Pakistan) was really good and took us ripping across the dunes at angles that I was sure were going to make us rollover. We finally ended up on a bluff overlooking the coast -- impressive.

Then we drove down to a semi-permanent camp with A/C tents, volleyball court (that no one used), showers, and an eating area. For the next 3 hours, we did whatever we wanted there, but mostly, people just swam, laid out (but the sun was extremely hot and anyone who was follish enough to suntan will pay the price tomorrow), ate, or read.

The water was beautiful. Light shade of blue, then turned into a dark turquoise when it got deeper. What was most unique about it was the salinity, which was so high that some of the women were able to lay back and just float. I tried and failed, getting a nose full of super salty water. I highly recommend you not try this.

I felt sorry for the two bored looking camels that had been there all day, so paid $5 to ride one and get some pictures.

When we came back, the entire carfull of people was really subdued because people were just worn out and sunburn-fatigued. Good day.

I had hoped to make the evening trip to the mall, but no luck - already full. Apparently, it's a place where you can ice skate.

Hell is bad karaoke

Now I understand why karaoke has such a bad reputation in the US. People are allowed (or feel they are allowed) to sing when they should not be singing.

Maybe just military folks sing worse than the average person?
Maybe military have less inhibitions?

Whatever it is, they need to take a page from the asians who practice and when they don't have anything nice to sing, stay away from the mike...

Day 133: In Qatar on 4 day R&R pass

The military has an old tradition of giving R&R (rest and recuperation) for soldiers in combat theaters. This has changed significantly over time. Back in the Civil War, soldiers would just take off and go visit their families, etc. Then in Vietnam, it was a little more formal -- there were bases in more secure zones with some of the amenities of home, made nice for soldiers to take some time off, but you could still go out on the town and get in trouble. The version today, is a little sanitized for my taste (nightly curfews, lots of paperwork, little contact with the locals, and lots of rules), but it's still a welcome break.

Soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait go to Qatar, an oil-rich emirate that has been tolerant of US bases in it since the first Gulf War. It's a Sunni Muslim state, but expats actually make up the majority of the residents and enjoys the 2nd highest per capita income in the world. It borders the Arabian Gulf and has a reputation for very clean, nice cities.

Unfortunately, my group won't ever know. Our pass just happened to coincide on the 1st day of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn until sunset. What this meant for us was the cancellation of most activities. The city tours, shopping market tours, boat cruises, golf, and water sports, were all nixed. Only thing left were the inland sea picnic and stupid mall tours. I don't know why they didn't find some other events that started after dusk, but I'm not in charge.

So, after a day-long journey of flying from Basrah to Tallil to Kuwait and then finally on to Qatar, we got here at 3am. Went through customs (were told repeatedly not to swear at the Qataris -- apparently, enough people have been kicked out of the country for doing so), then got picked up 2 hrs later to go to the R&R camp.

This airbase really has a lot of creature comforts. Big gym, USO with many computers, Orange Julius, pizza place, burger joint, pool, bowling alley, even a putt-putt course and small driving range. Some babysitting rules in effect -- maximum of 3 drinks per day (though I understand this one), women can only wear one-piece swimsuits and no Speedos for men (I have those European style boy-shorts good for diving, didn't know if those were kosher), and no flipflops.

We stay in big bays with bunks and wall lockers. 20 bunks to a room for officers (01-05), private rooms for SGMs and O6 and above. No schedule during those 4 days -- eat, sleep, when you want, and show up for the trips. I was a little amazed that some of the soldiers I spoke with since I've been here who are finishing up their pass chose to spend their time just playing Xbox and lounging by the pool instead of going out to see the city, when they had the chance.

She's so romantic, that wife of mine

I woke up today, day like any other except that I had a text message saying, "Happy Anniversary!" That Sarah....she really knows how to melt a guy's heart...

So, this is probably the 3rd anniversary we've spent apart. Kind of a miserable day actually -- was supposed to have hopped on a flight to get to Qatar for a 4 day pass, but apparently the plane was last night and no one mentioned the news to any of the 18 people scheduled to be on it. Welcome to the Army, please sit down and shut up.

So, we'll try again tomorrow. At least I didn't waste any time sitting in some hot passenger terminal waiting for a bird that might or might not show. Unfortunately, I figured I'd be doing a lot of waiting, so I was up late last night and didn't get a lot of sleep.

So dear, if you die, I will not flush you down the toilet. That's how much you mean to me.

Happy A

Day 125: Case closed, sad chapter

So the night I informed the Iraqi chain of command, I decided to file a report with our own MPs.  They came over around 9pm, and we dropped by the dining hall and the Deputy Commander and the security chief were both there.  I had asked the two MPs to be low-key because this was not our backyard.  They were two specialists (junior soldiers), so weren't going to throw around a lot of weight anyhow.  COL Nazzir said that the MAJ Jabbar had tossed a few rooms on that row, but found nothing.  I asked whether they had taken my suggestion to look for the distinctive squeegee that had been taken along with the phone.   My logic was that the guy would have hidden the phone, but wouldn't have thought to hide the squeegee.  Find the "smoking squeegee," finger the culprit. 

 

They hadn't, but COL Nazzir directed MAJ Jabbar to do so and the MPs went to join him.  15 min later, they came back with the squeegee.  They found it just a few rooms away in the room of one of the young soldiers that was in the group that liked to hang out with my roommate -- this was the group I suspected, but didn't want to believe to be guilty.  When they asked where it came from, nobody would own up to it, but one of the guys had just left that morning to go on his 10 days' leave that every soldier gets each month.  At that point, there was a bit of headscratching as the soldiers' commander and MAJ Jabbar tried to figure out what to do next.  I wanted to tell them that they needed to segregate the buddies immediately before they had a chance to cook up a story, lean on them and see who they fingered and how the stories varied.  He told me he would bring the soldier back and then compare his story to mine.  That didn't make sense to me because of course our stories would be different and then it would be my word vs. his.  But, this wasn't our show, and I couldn't force him to run his investigation.  Very frustrating -- in a way, this is exactly what we are going through in the entire country.  We want to do things a certain way, but have to go through the Iraqi forces now and they're going to do it their own style.

 

They decided to recall him.  Last night I got a knock on my door.  There were the two MPs there and the US Air Force Master Sgt who is the liaison officer training the Iraqis.  He said that they had found the guy and had the phone and were waiting at the dining hall to meet me.  We walked on over.  General (retired) Falah was there, the senior man, and someone I knew.  He expressed that they were very embarassed by this and wanted to set an example and that the culprit already had his papers stripped, would be drummed out of the Iraqi Army, and was now in jail, where he would be locked away "for years."

 

We went over to the security chief's office and he told us what had happened.  They brought the soldier, Sabouri, back from leave and MAJ Jabbar questioned him closely for an hour.  He denied everything, but after awhile, MAJ Jabbar told him to tell the truth and that nothing would happen.  He then fessed up and said the phone was in Baghdad.  They sent him all the way back (about a 5 hr drive) to fetch it.  Sure enough, it was him.  Then, MAJ Jabbar sent him to jail. 

 

So, on the one hand, I'm happy to get my phone back.  I'm glad they found who it was and that an example was made.  There have been thefts before, but they'd never caught someone.  But, that night, I couldn't sleep.  I was really bothered by the fact that the thief was someone I had invited into my room and shared drinks and I thought, friendship.  We talked about families.  Even more, I was bothered that his life was probably ruined.  In jail, how would his wife and two kids (unless he lied about that) get by?  Would he become bitter and vengeful and turn into a criminal, when he could have been turned right?  Did the punishment fit the crime?

 

I don't know... I understand the reason for administering a harsh sentence and making a statement, but I don't want all this on my conscience.  I think after this simmers down, I will go and ask for leniency.  It will, after all, shortly be Ramadan, and that is a time for charity. 

Day 121: The other shoe drops

Someone broke into my room last night between 11pm and 1am when I was at the gym.  They didn't take too much -- my mobile phone, and oddly, a bathroom squeegee and some toothbrushes.  The impact though was the big hit.  I feel angry, disappointed, and most of all, betrayed.  The timing tells me that clearly it was not an outsider, but someone who knew I was out.  Chances are good that it was one of the young bunch that my former roommate hung out with.  They had been in the room and were able to explain why they'd be inside the outside door.
 
When I realized it, there wasn't much I could do last night.  This morning, I woke up early and hoped to find Gen Falah, who I am familiar with.  He wasn' t around, so I found the deputy instead, a COL Nazzi.  His response was as I hoped -- he was mad and got the security officer and ordered an investigation. 
 
I haven't gotten the official outbrief yet, but I dropped in at noon to supervise the lock replacement (they busted the lock).  Someone wandered by and mentioned that the "investigation" hadn't revealed anything.  I'm not counting on getting my phone back (though getting all the numbers and notes that I've stored on there over the years would be worth it).  But, I do want a precedent set so that there will be some sort of deterrent from this happening again.
 
Guess I am the bounteous breasts for this Iraqi military to suckle at....

Proof that Facebook is taking over the world

Of the 8 public computers that I can see around me in this morale, welfare, and recreation center, 5 are open to a facebook screen. Wow.

Day 120: The bounteous breasts of America

I don't know how much of a buzz this has created back home in the mainstream media, but a high ranking officer here whose role was to advise the entire command leadership on Iraq policy recently released (some say it was leaked) a memo stating that US forces need to go home.

It has a lot of detail and supporting examples of why we have overstayed our welcome and that by staying longer, we run the risk of becoming targets, both kinetically (in the military sense) and politically. Many folks with Iraq experience agree with the points he makes, but the word is that up in Baghdad, the big cheeses are either too committed to the path they have chosen (and admittedly, nothing turns on a dime and things are thought out for a reason), or fundamentally disagree. Buzz is that the emphasis is on finding out and controlling the leak of non-official, yet attributable opinion pieces instead of whether the logic has merit. This is the second such "leak" in the past couple of months.

Take a look if you want to understand what some of the frustrations are. This is a very different Iraq deployment than even one or two years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/world/middleeast/31advtext.html

Can anyone tell me how to post entire articles as originally formatted in as blog posts?

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So I just got back to Basrah two nights ago after 3 weeks on the road. Never thought I'd think it, but it's nice to be "home" in Basrah. Fortunately, all my stuff was intact at my desk, but in my room, all the stuff was gone from the bathroom....again. Lesson learned is to not put anything there when I'm gone for extended trips. I now have to cover down on my colleague at another brigade, so I will probably split my time between there and here.

Thinking about that memo again and my earlier comments I shared about creating a dependent culture, I am a little sad. A bunch of young Iraqi soldiers came out to greet me the first night I got back. These were the bunch that my roommate, a captain, hung out with. I tend to stick with a few of the older, quieter guys. Within 2 minutes of chatting with them, one of them goes, "Give me DVD." I figure that this is his learned, broken English and he doesn't understand the nuance between "may I" and "give me." I kind of beg off, giving a white lie that all of my movies can only be played on the computer. But, it's pretty clear that it's not just choice of words -- we go through the same game with, "Give me drink," "Give me bandage," and the next morning, "Give me black t-shirt." It really did bum me out. We created this.

BBQ corn nuts

oh how i love you, my bbq corn nuts