Ziggurat and the House of Abraham

This is the Ziggurat, just outside of the ISF location we visited in the south, in the City of Ur. The House of Abraham is also here.

It's been a busy week, two trips out and back...safe on all accounts. On the trip up north, the pilot swerved and shot out a set of flares, but sometimes they do that because they’re bored...so, who knows. We took Blackhawks north and C-12’s down south, fun rides.

The Tuesday trip was north almost to the Turkish border (about 40 miles short) where we visited an Iraqi base with the CG (Gen H.). There is definitely a bonus when the mission you’re assigned to has this much visibility. Instead of proposing visits or avenues or how-to’s, we sometimes play catch-up with her. We try to schedule visits but we’ll get the late call to accompany her or someone else on little or no notice and so far, we’re keeping up.

If we have enough notice, we try to include other organizations outside our area that can either cut thru the BS or can help answer questions to support us. Our largest partner here is MNSTC-I, the Multi National Security Transition Corps – Iraq. They’re a coalition group (bureaucracy is rampant here) in the Green Zone and they’re the group I visit most when I get into Baghdad. They’re charged with ISF force generation and they buy all the vehicles, equipment, cots, clothes, ammunition, parts, etc for the ISF. We help get the ISF organized to receive it and work closely with all of them across the country.

I’ve had a lot of fun in particular working with one British Officer (LTC Rob T.) from that group. We all trade good natured barbs back and forth and he keeps a running list of things that he hates about Americans. Rob commented on how cold it gets in the UK, down to 10-15 degrees. We commented that it gets -40 to -60 degrees where we're from and OFF he went, it's always colder or hotter or wetter or dryer, better, faster, higher, blah, blah in America. I think he has empire envy.

We really enjoy working with the coalition partners, though. The Brits and Australians especially send the cream of the crop to work over here, lots of experiences shared, top talent. Talking to Rob, he's been awarded the Order of St. George which is given only by the Queen. It’s the lowest award in their highest Honour system and a great achievement in the U.K. I told him if he came to a bigger country, he’d probably have stiffer competition for the awards. Now we’re all looking for the definition of tosser...

Wednesday was a blur spent writing up the trip report from Tuesday and catching up on emails. Then we got a late notice to go with the CG down south to see another ISF cell around Tallil. We had another great visit but had the Chaplain along and I couldn’t figure out why she was there until they announced a stop at the city of Ur, hence the photo's.

Abraham is the patriarch of Judaism, Islam & Christianity all rolled up into one. He’s the founder, the springhead. His two sons (half brothers, Isaac and Ishmail) are the fathers of Judaism and Islam respectively, and the story goes that they fought back then and of course the descendents continue to fight today. You’d think they’d eventually get along.

This is the House of Abraham where all this love was generated. The foundations can be traced back 4000 years and is the birthing chair of western religion. The walls were rebuilt by Saddam in anticipation of a visit by John Paul in 1999. Unfortunately, we were bombing the hell out of Iraq at the time and couldn’t guarantee his safety, so he went to visit Cuba instead. That’s General H in the picture with me, the only time I asked her to pose with me. She’s extremely spiritual.

I think my tourism is about over, the only place of significance left to visit is Babylon, can’t quite remember what happened there...

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a couple of weeks, woo hoo!

Best Wishes from Iraq.