Visit to Kirkush

I spent a couple of hours last night talking to Col R., the Iraqi LNO that we have supporting us. We had him all day for our trip and had some time to kill waiting for our flight out of Kirkush. It turns out that Col R knows quite a bit of English, much more than my pathetic Arabic. We have a terp with us but I didn’t need him for this. We talked about a lot of subjects, the first one being women. Sign language is SO universal.

He wants an American or British wife next. He already has two wives and fourteen children between them and is ready for another. This was confirmed by Ben the interpreter (terp) and I guess it’s OK by the Koran to have multiple wives, so there you go. We started talking about western woman and how he may have difficulty treating them as Middle Eastern woman are treated, being a more “enlightened” sect than he’s used to. He admitted that they’re much more of a challenge but was infatuated by them. I asked him about the Koran and about woman and why it was ok for Muslims to have 4 wives (that’s the max ok? Absolutely, NO more) and why woman couldn’t have 4 husbands? He smiled; he knows there are incongruities in his religion.

He’s a veteran of the Iraq-Iran war that ran for 8 years. He eats in our DFAC and told me he laughs anytime the “incoming” warning comes over the loudspeakers here and everyone dives under the table. He said that while he was in Iran, it rained missiles and bombs and the only way to stay alive was to keep fighting. He said Saddam would give victorious fighters new cars or land for the family in order to keep them fighting or in case they died in battle. Their families were taken care of. He didn’t say what happened to those that lost battles but neither side took many prisoners. There were over a million casualties from that war. He was a young Captain then.

He was recently selected for promotion to General but turned it down because he’d have to relocate to Ramadi or Fallujah or Baghdad. He says he’s very happy to stay in the relative safety of Balad and besides, he calls the Headquarters in Baghdad corrupt and full of thieves. It is an old boy’s network and you’re either in or you’re not. He doesn’t have any relatives in high places but achieved his status thru service.

We’re taking him out more and more because he opens doors for us. We visited the support center up in Kirkush and met the IA Brig Gen that runs the base for the ISF as well as the U.S. Commander on the coalition side. The Iraqi’s jump to their feet when Col R. comes in. He tells us all the time how much good we’re doing for the country, but I just think he wants us to line him up with a wife. Maybe I’m getting jaded.

We’re seeing the results come thru of the fighting in Samarra, it was a well kept secret from even the 101st LNO’s embedded with us here. That’s amazing since the Iraqi’s involved knew about it, but we didn’t. Every time the ISF wins, we get closer to moving out. It’s a good thing.
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Different subject -

I have to be really careful, or put up the appropriate disclaimers when I make suggestions that affect people’s lives.

I made a statement to someone very dear to me back home about jobs here in Iraq (or it could be Kuwait, Saudi, Afghanistan, Djibouti, you pick) that I made in good faith and then was taken to task by another who was concerned (rightly) that I was making risky career recommendations. Fair enough. However, I think I need to elaborate on what’s happening to the U.S. Military as we “transform” and about world-wide opportunities and then let people decide if the risk outweighs the reward.

Many of the tasks traditionally done by the military are being given over to contractors. Early on in this war, there were stories about civilian truck drivers making 6 figures driving up and down the roads of Iraq. Those were true, but short lived. Just like contracting back home, the military is looking for the best value and those positions are now going to TCN’s (third country nationals) where they pay only a fraction of the cost that an ex-pat would demand. It’s still a fortune to the TCN, but a pittance to anyone from a western country that wants to come here and make some money, hence supply and demand wins out again.

The U.S. has always maintained an expeditionary mentality during the last century or two meaning we brought our own cooks with us, our own mechanics, vehicle drivers, repairmen, trucks, everything in order to be self sufficient and mobile on the battlefield. The formula I grew up with was seven “services” people to support one war fighter. It’s a huge overhead but has served us well.

We’re changing history for a number of reasons but mostly because the American public doesn’t want to see so many people in uniform mobilized, or killed/maimed/injured, so DoD is working on the formula for exactly how many people we can turn over to contracting and get out of uniform. We’ll maintain the same size of the military, but increase the percentage of people that actual pull a trigger. It’s a shell game. We still lose contractors, don't get me wrong, but they don't make the front page of the paper.

So, if you want to make the big bucks here as an ex-pat, you need to bring a skill with you that the military can use, i.e. security services, nursing, doctors, dentists, project managers, technicians, communications professionals, etc. Contracting has become big business in DoD. Then, to attract the good people, you have to provide a safe environment and not just money. It doesn't have to be a perfect environment because then you’d be talking about Richmond, Virginia but at least it has to be a relatively safe. There are jobs here and they need people that can fill them that are willing to accept a modicum of risk.

Some of the more adventurous types do quite well here and I’ve met people in their 60’s. It’s a chance for people to see parts of the world they wouldn’t normally be able to see. I don’t want to sound like a tour operator by any stretch because after you see it and realize what a hole it really is, you quickly surmise that if weren’t for the money, or the short duration, or the friends you make here, or the work, or something else you'd be so out of here so fast it’d make their head spin. But for a year or maybe a bit longer and making a lot of money? Sure, I can do that. It’s an opportunity. Risk v. reward and then it's a personal decision.

We are so different from other parts of the world; we’re such a foreign concept to non-western nations. I talk to Iraqi’s like Col R about why we’re here, or how I got here and he just shakes his head. We’re a very giving country and we’ll jump enthusiastically into a new business or help someone clean out their garage or shovel their walk or give to a charity or our time or a hundred other things. Other people around the globe won’t do this, or can’t. You should be proud of yourselves for your giving, we're unique in the world. But you can't appreciate the United States or what you have until you leave it and see how other people treat their neighbors and how they live, it is very sad. I'm convinced we're doing good things here and I don't care what CNN says.

If you want to feel proud about your soldiers, read the letter we got from Paul's commander below. It really outlines what good people have done in a very difficult situation.

Best wishes from Iraq.