Media Frenzy
I haven’t had much of a chance to voice my opinions as of late, but I have really REALLY been trying hard to accept the fact that this country is going to hell and we are driving the bus. Every day around here is another day surrounded by death and destruction, lives damaged and taken away. It was with that painful realization in the forefront of my thoughts, when I was pleasantly surprised to find out the National Public Radio has come out to do a little story on my bunch of Iraqi’s. At least, that’s what I was told by them. I thought, well, here is a chance to say what we have been doing, show what we are up against, and prove that the Iraqi National Police are trying their best to navigate their way through this swamp of a nation, to establish a little bit of order.
The story itself isn’t quite the same as the one that I had hoped. I mean, it’s not bad, but it’s not really good either. I spent almost 6 hours with these two guys, answering questions, feeding them information, and they didn’t use anything. As a matter of fact, they didn’t report any of the good things that were going on. Not one thing. Not one clip, not one fact, not one story. The story itself was part of a week work of clips, interviews and commentary about the situation with the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and the police forces in general. It was pretty much a copy of what was going on in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, and Time. Basically this was a crucifixion of MOI, and the American forces inability to control the situation. Its unfortunate that they missed a lot of the good things, but, of course, the good stuff doesn’t generate the rating like the bad stuff does. Well, I will let you be the judge.
The clip is at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5398078
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Sunday, May 07, 2006
King Rat
The bodies are stacking up around here like trash. I think we are averaging almost 6-8 a day. It’s disturbing now, because the Police are afraid to collect them, for fear of being shot at. There doesn’t seem to be any particular pattern to the murders. Shia or Sunni, man or woman, they all just seem to be targets of violence now.
I went on patrol the other evening, and was thinking just how far we have or have not come. The streets are filthy, even worse now than before. Trash is everywhere, and when the wind picks up the trash blows in the air like confetti during a parade. Some days, it becomes hard to see through it all. The smoke from fires is constant, either from burning trash or burning cars. During our night movements, the streets are empty. Even the dogs and cats that roam the city and outlying areas during the day seem to sense the danger of being out at night, and stay away from everything. As we walk through the empty marketplace, the only movement comes from the rats that seem to take over the area. You can see them as we move, with their glistening eyes and gnashing teeth while they dig through trash and rotting animal remains. At night, they own the streets
I was thinking as we moved through, how ironic it is that, as parents, we grow up and suffer things so that our children do not have to do the same. Yet, especially now, we find ourselves sharing the same stories with our parents and grandparents. During my vacation, I got to talk to my grandfather, and he spoke a little about his experience during WWII. He talked about the smells, the bodies, and mostly, the chaos and what people do to survive. When I first joined the service, I know he shared these stories and I thought, well, it’s a different world now; we don’t have to do those kinds of things. Now, as I recall his stories, I know exactly what he was talking about. I know the smells, the chaos. I think sometimes, as far as we have come, we have not come far at all.
I know that I hope to never have to share these stories with my children, and have them understand exactly what I was feeling.
As I was thinking this, we turned a corner and the sick/sweet smell of rotting flesh. At first, I think, it smells like an animal carcass. We move slowly, the Iraqi soldiers moving quietly in the darkness. They creep up to a man, sitting against a wall. In the heat of the evening, the smell gets stronger as we get closer. The look over him closely, and return. Shot in the chest 3 times, they say. Maybe yesterday, or early today. The rats have visited here...
I went on patrol the other evening, and was thinking just how far we have or have not come. The streets are filthy, even worse now than before. Trash is everywhere, and when the wind picks up the trash blows in the air like confetti during a parade. Some days, it becomes hard to see through it all. The smoke from fires is constant, either from burning trash or burning cars. During our night movements, the streets are empty. Even the dogs and cats that roam the city and outlying areas during the day seem to sense the danger of being out at night, and stay away from everything. As we walk through the empty marketplace, the only movement comes from the rats that seem to take over the area. You can see them as we move, with their glistening eyes and gnashing teeth while they dig through trash and rotting animal remains. At night, they own the streets
I was thinking as we moved through, how ironic it is that, as parents, we grow up and suffer things so that our children do not have to do the same. Yet, especially now, we find ourselves sharing the same stories with our parents and grandparents. During my vacation, I got to talk to my grandfather, and he spoke a little about his experience during WWII. He talked about the smells, the bodies, and mostly, the chaos and what people do to survive. When I first joined the service, I know he shared these stories and I thought, well, it’s a different world now; we don’t have to do those kinds of things. Now, as I recall his stories, I know exactly what he was talking about. I know the smells, the chaos. I think sometimes, as far as we have come, we have not come far at all.
I know that I hope to never have to share these stories with my children, and have them understand exactly what I was feeling.
As I was thinking this, we turned a corner and the sick/sweet smell of rotting flesh. At first, I think, it smells like an animal carcass. We move slowly, the Iraqi soldiers moving quietly in the darkness. They creep up to a man, sitting against a wall. In the heat of the evening, the smell gets stronger as we get closer. The look over him closely, and return. Shot in the chest 3 times, they say. Maybe yesterday, or early today. The rats have visited here...
Saturday, May 06, 2006
A shout out to....
OK, so I have just arrived in Kuwait, and immediately can sense the change in the atmosphere. It’s nice to be around people who are energized by the work that they do. Being surrounded by military people, listening to their conversations, it’s almost impossible not to be motivated about the future. Everybody around me is talking about the latest news from the front, the goings on around the theatre. The capture of the Al Qaeda leader in Pakistan is good news, but they are not sure if it means a lot. Japanese troops are scheduled to withdraw from Iraq, which is good but not good. I mention this because it’s so different from being in the terminal in Atlanta. Here, in a dusty tent in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert, there are 13 TV’s and 12 of them are set to news channels.
Is it so different over here? Life goes on, I understand that, but why is the singing of the national anthem in Spanish such a major issue? Yes, it’s a very strange thing, but then, it’s the American Anthem, and any way you sing it, its still ours right? Yes it should be sung in English, but this is just another form of protest, and they have the right to do so, illegal alien or not.
The Clippers won the first round of the playoffs. That should start a mandatory investigation right away.
Another army soldier has been convicted for making gay porn. No comment.
And here is a gem. 6 out of 10 young Americans were unable to locate Iraq on the map. 1 out of 3 could not locate Louisiana.
Well, with all that is no wonder most Americans are distracted. I don’t know what most Americans are thinking, and apparently, neither do they…
Is it so different over here? Life goes on, I understand that, but why is the singing of the national anthem in Spanish such a major issue? Yes, it’s a very strange thing, but then, it’s the American Anthem, and any way you sing it, its still ours right? Yes it should be sung in English, but this is just another form of protest, and they have the right to do so, illegal alien or not.
The Clippers won the first round of the playoffs. That should start a mandatory investigation right away.
Another army soldier has been convicted for making gay porn. No comment.
And here is a gem. 6 out of 10 young Americans were unable to locate Iraq on the map. 1 out of 3 could not locate Louisiana.
Well, with all that is no wonder most Americans are distracted. I don’t know what most Americans are thinking, and apparently, neither do they…
Recent Updates
So I have been on leave for the last week or so, slowly traveling across the country with what little personal belongings I have. I got to spend three days with my kids in New Hampshire before setting out across the US. It has been a terrific journey, and I think will remember it as my passing from one life to another. For those of you who don’t already know, I finalized the last stages of my divorce, and it should be completed by the time I return to Iraq. I guess I could call this journey a type of cleansing experience. I know I did everything I could, and more importantly everything that I was supposed to do, and it didn’t work out.
I have seen a lot this time across the country, and it has been lots of fun. I am accompanied by Deanna, my new girlfriend, whose wisdom, complexity, and common sense seem to inspire me. We have seen New York City and stayed with friends in Long Island. We walked around Boston, Nashville, Albuquerque, a number of other small towns and cities. We have shopped for Kachinka dolls on the Continental Divide, visited the Presley’s, and viewed the largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere. (A strange sight, but inspiring.)
One of the places we visited, sort of on a whim, was the Oklahoma National Memorial. We had intended to go and spend an hour there, then get lunch. We ended up staying for the better part of a day, and by the time it was over, we were too drained for much more. The Memorial, at the site of the Alfred Murrah Center, was built to honor those who gave their lives and to those who fought to keep others alive, when the Government building was destroyed. It was a very moving and emotional tour. The pictures, displays, interaction, as well as the recordings, footage, and artifacts, really made you feel a part of the horrendous tragedy. There is a timeline on the building and dedication of the memorial, and its interesting to see how this memorial developed, and make some correlations to the current effort to develop the World Trade Center Memorial. I highly recommend this tour to anybody.
We spend a fun half day at Graceland. (I know, I didn’t really believe it either.) It really is a wonderful little place, full of musical history. I like Elvis and his music, and I actually had a wonderful time touring the house, the museums, and listening to his musical history. It was a delightful trip, but not one I could see people making some yearly pilgrimage to. We saw some guy from the Backstreet boys, who was also there touring, and Deanna was all excited but I couldn’t get her to go up and get a picture. She secretly snapped one or two while I wasn’t looking, though
I am getting ready to go back to Iraq, and really not looking forward to it. I guess, having been around real people for the past two weeks, I can see how people don’t understand what is going on in Iraq. Americans tend to live for the moment, and only seem to think that what is important is what is right in front of them. I was sitting at the airport in Atlanta, and watching the people walking by, listening to their conversations. It’s almost as if there really isn’t a war going on at all, just from the topics. Only one station in the airport is tuned into the news. The rest are set to ESPN. As I sit here in my cammies, I note that only one or two people seem to notice me, and so far, only one person has even bothered to acknowledge my presence. Not that it’s a bad thing, but a person in cammies tends to stand out, and you would think that I would be noticeable. One person did stop and say thank you for what you do, I thought that was nice. It just appears that not too many people say that any more.
I have seen a lot this time across the country, and it has been lots of fun. I am accompanied by Deanna, my new girlfriend, whose wisdom, complexity, and common sense seem to inspire me. We have seen New York City and stayed with friends in Long Island. We walked around Boston, Nashville, Albuquerque, a number of other small towns and cities. We have shopped for Kachinka dolls on the Continental Divide, visited the Presley’s, and viewed the largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere. (A strange sight, but inspiring.)
One of the places we visited, sort of on a whim, was the Oklahoma National Memorial. We had intended to go and spend an hour there, then get lunch. We ended up staying for the better part of a day, and by the time it was over, we were too drained for much more. The Memorial, at the site of the Alfred Murrah Center, was built to honor those who gave their lives and to those who fought to keep others alive, when the Government building was destroyed. It was a very moving and emotional tour. The pictures, displays, interaction, as well as the recordings, footage, and artifacts, really made you feel a part of the horrendous tragedy. There is a timeline on the building and dedication of the memorial, and its interesting to see how this memorial developed, and make some correlations to the current effort to develop the World Trade Center Memorial. I highly recommend this tour to anybody.
We spend a fun half day at Graceland. (I know, I didn’t really believe it either.) It really is a wonderful little place, full of musical history. I like Elvis and his music, and I actually had a wonderful time touring the house, the museums, and listening to his musical history. It was a delightful trip, but not one I could see people making some yearly pilgrimage to. We saw some guy from the Backstreet boys, who was also there touring, and Deanna was all excited but I couldn’t get her to go up and get a picture. She secretly snapped one or two while I wasn’t looking, though
I am getting ready to go back to Iraq, and really not looking forward to it. I guess, having been around real people for the past two weeks, I can see how people don’t understand what is going on in Iraq. Americans tend to live for the moment, and only seem to think that what is important is what is right in front of them. I was sitting at the airport in Atlanta, and watching the people walking by, listening to their conversations. It’s almost as if there really isn’t a war going on at all, just from the topics. Only one station in the airport is tuned into the news. The rest are set to ESPN. As I sit here in my cammies, I note that only one or two people seem to notice me, and so far, only one person has even bothered to acknowledge my presence. Not that it’s a bad thing, but a person in cammies tends to stand out, and you would think that I would be noticeable. One person did stop and say thank you for what you do, I thought that was nice. It just appears that not too many people say that any more.
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