Life is plodding along here in baghdad. All of our patrols have fallen into a steady rhythm. Since we are lucky enough to be blessed with such a quiet sector our mission has become “engaging local nationals” and “human terrain denial” missions. What this boils down to is pressing the flesh. “hey how's it going? You live here? Own this house? Lovely weather eh? Know any bad guys? Here have some water. Vote republican.” the main enemy right now is the heat. Temperatures are hovering between 110 and 120. lord knows what the heat index is. The night time lows are in the mid 80s. The other day a big dust storm blew in which knocked down the temperature a bunch. Never thought I would look forward to brown fog. What is really interesting is how normal iraq has become. The fob is turning into another garrison. If you stay on the fob and had a job that never required you to leave, your daily existence would be almost the same as back in the states. There is a 24 hours coffee shop, pizza hut, subway, and internet in your room. The brigade sergeant major, who has the powers of god on the fob, has put out regulations that make a mockery of this occupation. He sets up snap check points and pulls vehicles over for inspection. List of must haves includes: two personnel, weapons, one magazine each, eye protection, helmets, military driver's license, defensive driving card, proper dispatch paperwork, a clean windshield, and worn seatbelts. This means that there are soldiers who spend their time checking to see that people are wearing seatbelts in their humvees in baghdad. This blows my mind more than the veterinarian who had to give our dog an abortion. How ludicrous. The only thing that made iraq bearable for combat soldiers was the fact that you were free from all laws. You were transformed from some dumb kid from nowhere america into a man who walked through your landscape like a king. You went where you wanted and did as you pleased; feelings, property, and lives of the iraqis be damned. You got to run over cars and buildings and destroy anything you wanted. Those days are long gone. Now there are investigations into everything and you have to justify why you fired your weapon at anything. The war ended about two years ago. We are already planning our move back. We begin shipping containers back home in august. Our brigade starts moving back in mid december. Our battalion was the first over here so we should be the first ones back right? That's probably too much to ask for. But we are on the downward slope.
