Number Four

Back at war.

Wow, things have really changed since I left about a month ago. Then again, the more things change... Most of my team here is suffering from a severe case of short-times disease, which is what happens when your 15 months are almost up. The only question for them is are they going to be back before Christmas or New Years. Other than that, they are not really concerned with much of anything. As for me, when this mission ends in a few weeks I will go back to my unit at Rustamiyah and get to know the guys that I will be working with for the next few months or longer if they don't get out of the Army when I get back to Riley.

In the mean time, 3/7 CAV, out parent unit here, has made some improvements to the COP, but they are still adjusting to the growing pains of trying to shove a square into a round hole. For example, our shower trailer is gone, replaced with two new shower trailers, bigger and nicer, but they didn't adjust the size of the water tanks, so we run out of water twice as fast now. Some people running around here today haven't had a shower in two days. I just use it as an excuse not to shave. Bad SGT T, yeah, I know. Oh well. You try shaving everyday for more than a year and you'll understand how nice it is not to have to every once in a while.

And while I am thinking about it, let me just mention something I noticed while on leave. Everyone that knew I was in the Army asked me "how are things over there?" and this is a question that despite my sincere efforts to answer in a coherent manner, no matter how hard I tried, my answers came out sounding dumb. I asked my team NCOIC (highest ranking enlisted guy on the team, the MSG) how he answered such questions. He said that it all depended on the person asking. Apparently, if the person asking had not been in the military then he did not discuss the war at all. Period. I found that interesting and did a little research and it turns out that line of thinking is rather popular among senior NCO's. Seems kinda rude to me, but hey, what do I know. Oh well. The "enemy" here has changed tactics, and now it seems like the bad guys are just waiting us out. Probably the best move on their part. They still pull off the occasional EFP attack, the secret squirrels next door lost a man a couple days ago on a route that I travel regularly, so yeah, they still operate here in sector, and Adhamiyah is still not a safe place, no matter how much the leadership wishes it was.

At this point, I honestly feel like we are spinning our wheels and not getting anything accomplished. Driving around getting blown up is no way to win, and thats really all we're doing here. Yeah yeah, I know, stabilizing the Iraqi Gov't and re-building their security forces... I know its how we're going to win this thing, but the Iraqi's would have to want to win. They'd have to want to do the right thing, and deal with the sacrifices that go with that. And some do, but the population as a whole is corrupt... I believe we're just throwing our money away. I have yet to see one nice thing be given to them that they don't corrupt or destroy in some way. Take democracy for example. We've given them the chance for freedom, we'll see what happens when we leave. Although I am pretty sure I already know. The bottom line is that the US Military came here and did what we're trained to do, and now its in politicians hands. And if I've learned anything in 13 years in the Army, its that politics and the military just don't mix. This is not a recipe for success. I don't know what the right answer for this problem is, but I'm sure this isn't it.

I could go on and on, but instead I will leave you with this, thanks for reading, and posting comments, its good to know the people read what I write.