pure class
i lost the first annual cop 821 tournament of champions
your new home awaits August 14, 2008
this was made by our lieutenant who could be called our civil affairs officer. he is getting burned out.
July 29, 2008
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.
al qadea vs. the ‘83 Cubs May 29, 2008
if viewed from the pages of the paper iraq is a murderous deathtrap. an endless quagmire. events happen here and there but nothing ever changes. to some extent this is true. yes random gunshots are as normal a sound as your neighbor starting his car, but on the other hand there is a ton of good going on here too. i think there are monumental changes happening in iraq, most of which are hard to discern. just like the 83 cubs.
after another rebuilding decade in the 70s the cubs changed things up and got good management and gasp! good players in the early 80s. by 84 they won the nl east and, of course, were beaten by the padres of all teams. but in 83 there were doubters. those that could not see the mild success in store for the cubs. (probably foreshadowing the mild success in store for iraq. emphasis on mild.) but one man could. one man had the vision. his name: lee elia.
april 29, 1983. cubs record 5-14. lee elia, the manager for the cubs, loses his control and goes on an extended tirade against cubs fans that is filled with obscenities. the link is below. here is your adapted scorecard:
cubs dynasty-iraq
cubs players-us soldiers
cubs fans-apathetic americans
dodgers-al qadea
cardinals-mahdi army
phillie-itis-islamofascism
quest to rebuild the cubs-quest to rebuild iraq
this really ain’t safe for small children or those that can’t find their way around a dock.
here is a webpage from chicagosports.com with a ton of analysis on this episode. though it is sadly lacking in ludicrous analogies to the global war on terrorism.
the cloth found me May 16, 2008
i just realized that i have, for all intents and purposes, become a monk. not sure of the denomination yet, this is all happening so fast. how does that happen? in iraq? without you knowing? all good questions. well let’s look at the evidence shall we?
Things I do everyday:
-i wear very austere clothing.
-i eat a simple diet
-i have little contact with the “normal” world
-i am celibate
-i rise very early in the morning
-i spend hours meditating in a cloister (or run a tactical operation center and facilitate combat operations for a mechanized infantry company on an asymmetrical battlefield. six of one half dozen of the other. i sit in a small room doing nothing for hours, secluded from society.)
-part of this includes offering advice on any of life’s problems
-i also try to inject a sense of the larger picture to my compatriots.
-i perform menial tasks to keep the monastery running
-i participate in physical exercise like eastern monks
-outsiders think there is something mysterious in what i do, when in fact it is mostly mindless
