Happy Halloween Everyone!

Snippets from Iraq...

I love Halloween, SO sad I can’t enjoy it with you all. I hope you get lots of candy, hold some for me if you can’t ship it over. :(

I had another session with Osman the other night; he’s really a great kid (27 years old). It turns out he’s from Bangladesh and learned Arabic in Saudi Arabia. So, I’m not learning an Iraqi dialect, but a more formal Arabic which is fine with me.

Osman’s on salary, he makes about $20/day for a 12 hour day. He’s a contractor. There’s multi-levels of contracting involved, but $1.20/hr is probably a pretty good wage for him and all his friends here. But I know there’s a lot of money left on the table (Diann, take note). He sends his money home, has 5 sisters, 6 brothers or some combination like that. I asked him if he ever ate at the Burger King here and he said no, $3.50 could feed his family for quite a while. This is a good opportunity for him and all his friends and there’s lots of them here.

Our camp is filled with subcontractors from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. There are no Iraqis in key areas. There’s no unguarded Iraqi’s on post which is a conundrum for me. There was a bombing in one of our mess halls in Mosul last year, an insurgent worked his way into camp and detonated himself inside the chow tent. I can’t remember the exact number of deaths; I think it was 22 with lots of people injured. Since that time, the Commanding General of this post (and many of them around the country) issued a decree that said no Iraqi’s in our sensitive areas. Well, for people like me who are training the Iraqi’s to take over their country its presents an issue, as it’s not very good training if we hold the keys until the day we leave and then throw it to them as we run out the door. However, no base commander wants another Mosul on their conscience and it’s their prerogative to dictate security, so it’s a balancing act.

If you read Michael Yon’s blog (link on the right side) you’ll see a different perspective. He’s embedded with the Army and has been working with the Iraqi’s. The difference is he goes out into the field and works where they work. Well worth reading.

Gun Trucks –

I remember when the High Mobility Multi-Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) first came out and replaced the Jeep. It was terribly received, bigger than the beloved Jeep, clunkier, harder to maintain, more expensive and certainly not user friendly. Well, you should see them now; I think they got it right but I believe they stumbled into the solution. It’s the old necessity is the mother of invention, these HMMWV’s are awesome.

The configuration is up-armored and I mean heavy armor plates protecting the crew - top, sides, front and under carriage. On top of the vehicle sits a machine gunner right out of Rat Patrol with a .50 caliber or Mark 19 Grenade launcher that rocks the vehicle when it shoots. This vehicle will tear up a Bradley Armored Fighting vehicle. When that gun shoots you know you're firing a heavy weapon. They’re coming out with another version that increases the suspension, electrical capacity, etc because they keep adding features and components; the HMMWV’s turned into the perfect urban warfare vehicle. And, troops are starting to stencil slogans and pictures of deaths’ head on turrets which is a sure sign the vehicle has been accepted. I’ll try and post a pic in the future, or you can google for HMMWV, gun truck, Iraq and check it out.

Best wishes to all and again, happy Halloween. It coincides with the Night of Power, the last day of Ramadan here in the Middle East so watch the papers and pray that their “festival” is peaceful for us all…