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Battle Lines There is a future war coming. Its lines are being drawn ethnically and associatively; those who were loyal to the Americans, those against the Americans, and the majority who are ambivalent and will gravitate to the side with the most power at the moment. Iraq is a corrupt place, no matter who is in charge. What we in America would consider corruption is merely the price of business. We hear rumors of corruption all the time but we have never been able to prove it within the...read more
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Iraqi forces and American forces operate along cultural lines. The Americans value precision, safety, speed, surprise and information disseminated to all levels. The Iraqis value secrecy at the highest levels, their own Soldiers and Policemen may very well be in Al Qaeda or Jaysh Al Mahdi, so they keep things quiet. They value the power or “Wasta” that comes from being the only one who can supply a unit, or know a secret, or change a schedule, or develop a plan. Americans on the other hand value...read more
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Retelling from My journal: 4 April, 2009 A lot has happened since I last wrote. I promised I would never talk about operations but this is a story I need to tell. Its not the worst thing that has ever happened to me in Iraq, just another day really but it shows how everyday here is uniquely dangerous. We work on the border with Iran. The previous team had never visited all of the border forts and we needed to in order to know our battle space and affect the situation. On the map, one castle...read more
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Watching TV of late one sees a lot about the Iranian elections, Michael Jackson, and maybe the beginning of the end in Iraq. It really is the beginning of the end here. While on a recent logistical mission to the massive base at Balad Iraq my team was stuck in a sandstorm keeping us in the base until the security agreement deadline had passed. By the agreement, advisors like us are exempt from the many provisions. The main provision is that no coalition forces are permitted inside major cities...read more
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One of the blessings of this my second tour in Iraq is the cultural interaction. As a Transition Team we live with the Iraqi Army. We stay on the third floor of a 3-story building inside an Iraqi base, not an American forward operating base (FOB). The Iraqis live on the first floor. Most nights we have Chai together, the main Iraqi officer CPT Basil, who speaks a smattering of English, always calls me his brother, as he did with our predecessors. The fact is, we are his family. He has no wife...read more
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