Another Orange Day

So what is this? We've had orange days for five days in a row! I woke up this morning and didn't even have to open the blinds - I could see the orange light coming in around the edges. This is getting old. Every day, I take a shower, get all cleaned up, head out the door to work, and before I get there, I need a shower again. And my commute is all of 1 minute 33 seconds, hooch to desk, by actual measurement.

So here are a few pictures from wandering around the IZ today.

Visibility earlier today was maybe an eighth of a mile. Nasty dust!

This arch is on one of our FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) here in the IZ.

Let's go shopping!

Postcards? You want postcards? Maybe some pirated DVDs? Posters of Britney Spears? Lots of quality stuff here!

"We'll Surprise you With our Prices." I dunno, makes me nervous ...

Last night I was channel surfing, hoping to find the Daytona race, but it didn't come on until 3 am our time (rats). Discovered that you can get "Ugly Betty" dubbed into Arabic on the Al Arabiya network. Somehow that just seems wrong. Not as wrong, though, as when Janis and I found "Hogan's Heroes" dubbed into German on the tube in Chiemsee.

Yesterday was July 4th. Fortunately, the insurgents didn't celebrate it with any fireworks. Actually, it was a work day for us. Our holiday is today, July 5th. Don't ask me why. We have the full day off, which is why we were out gallivanting around the IZ and taking pictures of all the dust. We ate lunch at the DFAC at FOB Union III and, wonder of wonders, their salad bar had fresh spinach! So I had myself a big plate of it. Our DFAC specializes in soggy soyburgers, so fresh spinach was a big treat. Tonight, my command is having an all-American cookout, with burgers and dogs. Somehow, eating a soyburger seasoned with orange dust just doesn't appeal to me. Think I'll eat at our Dirtbag DFAC instead.

Burger Night

On Thursdays, our little gang goes out for burgers. There's a DFAC here in the IZ (I won't say which one - it's a secret!) that makes the best burgers this side of New York. Truly. Now, all the DFACs here make mass-produced burgers as part of their regular fare. Some do a pretty good job. But there's one that goes the extra step. If you ask, they'll go to the cooler and pull out the good stuff: 100% beef, perfectly seasoned, shaped by hand, and they'll grill it to your specifications. Want some American cheese on that? Sure. A double burger? No problem. The cook is a friendly guy with an unpronounceable name who knows how to cook 'em right. Getting fresh burgers cooked to order takes an extra bit of time, so we stand there by the window, sniffing the grill like kids sniff glue. Finally they're done and we scurry off to the table. Can't let 'em get cold - you have to eat 'em while they're still hot. Ohmigawd, it's epicurean bliss!

Not only do they do fabulous burgers, but their chili is pretty fabulous, too. It's nothing fancy, just good ol' spicy chili done right. One of our gang tried their steak-on-a-stick tonight and reported that it was as good as the burgers and chili. I didn't bother, my burger and my small bowl of chili was all I needed. Well, I needed a beer, too, but that ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

I mentioned "our little gang". We have a group of about eight that go to meals and sneak off to other FOBs together. It's a tight group, mostly officers, from a young Air Force captain to a crusty Navy Commander, with a few of us civilians mixed in, of which half are retired military. In the Navy, we called a group of officers like this the wardroom. It's pretty cool to be part of a real wardroom again. There's a comaraderie of shared experiences, teamwork, helping each other with the load, and watching each other's backs. When a good wardroom comes along, it's because everybody is part of the same team, like it or not, and going through a challenging experience together.

We have a good batch of people. They're smart. Actually, they're scary smart. One is an Air Force astronaut engineer, another has a PhD in aeronautical engineering, and a third has a PhD in geology. One has negotiated billion-dollar shipbuilding contracts. One civilian, who looked like an innocent in over his head, actually has one of the sharpest minds in the Corps and a will of steel when he chooses to exercise it. Any one of these people could easily have an out-of-control ego, but none do. Not that the rest of us would let them get away with it, even if they did.

Groups like this are not uncommon over here. I think that's one reason why so many civilians keep coming back, or never leaving - the experience of being a part of a tight group that's working on something vital and important. There's nothing like it.

But before you get the wrong idea: when my tour is up next April, I am not extending! I've got a wife and two little dogs waiting for me at home. So while I like the situation I've got here, the one at home is more important.

Hunkered Down

It's been a quiet day in Lake Woebegone, my home town ... ooops, sorry, Garrison, didn't mean to steal your line. But it's been a quiet day in Baghdad, at least. Today was one of our Big Milestones, the day when all American soldiers are supposed to be withdrawn from the cities. And they are, pretty much, except for a big bunch here in the IZ and a few at scattered small bases around the city. We've been hunkered down for the past couple of days. All movements outside the wire (meaning outside of bases or the IZ) have been prohibited. My command has restricted our movements even around the IZ. This is a day that's very important to Iraqis, the day that they regain control over us foreign invaders, and we didn't want to upset any schwarma karts.

So we stayed inside our bases and waited to see what would happen. Would there be riots in the streets? Rockets and mortars raining down on our heads? Swarms of Al Qaeda goons crawling over our T-walls? And the answer was: No. None of that. I heard some sirens earlier today, but it turned out to be Prime Minister Maliki's security detail (seemingly half the Humvees in the Iraqi armed forces) racing at high speed to or from some event. That was pretty much it. It was so quiet, in fact, that around mid-afternoon, our restriction to the base was lifted. We celebrated by walking down to FOB Phoenix for dinner. Hey, it's gyros night, and they make good gyros. Can't miss that.

Not that we didn't have a reason to be nervous. As I've noted in earlier posts, and as most of the serious news outlets have commented on, there has been an uptick in attacks over the last week. Most of the violence prior to this was against other Iraqis. This past week, they've shifted to attacking American forces out on patrol. One day last week, there were multiple IED attacks, a few mortar attacks, and some rifle and hand grenade attacks, all but one against our forces. No deaths that day, some minor injuries. Oh, and they kidnapped a 10-year-old girl. Now what does that tell you about these goons? That they're responsible, upstanding citizens with their nation's best interest at heart?

It seems that the only real trouble in Iraq today was a car bomb up in Kirkuk that killed about 25 people. None in Baghdad, at least none that I'm aware of yet. (Pay attention to Kirkuk: it's one of the potential flash points in this country, sitting on top of a huge pot of oil, and a focus of Kurd and Arab disagreement). So, in all, it looks like a successful day. A day in which nothing much happened.

Sometimes that's about all you can hope for.

Coming to a Milestone

Another milestone is coming up in a few days. June 30th is the date that US troops are no longer based in the cities. Beyond that date, our troops won't be in the lead, anywhere in Iraq, any more. Iraqi troops are to be in charge of all operations, with Americans as backup or as trainers if they're there at all.

There are already a lot of other changes ongoing. Back in October, I wrote an entry about going with our Blackwater security detail out to one of our project sites. Our convoy owned the road. Traffic was stopped for us, and if the road was blocked, we simply went around it, going the wrong way around a traffic circle or down sidewalks if needed. There was a logic to it: the more you're moving, especially in unexpected ways, the harder you are to hit. Now, however, we move with the traffic. We merge with the flow, and when the flow stops, we stop. That gets a bit uncomfortable sometimes, but so far there have been no troubles, at least none that I've experienced or even heard of second-hand.

I travel under the protection of a private security company (not Blackwater, or Xe, or whatever they're called today). But the same rules apply to US military vehicles, too. Actually, the Iraqi forces seem to hold military convoys to a stricter standard. So they've taken to moving largely at night, when there's little or no traffic, and people don't see them as easily. Trust me, it's hard to hide an MRAP, but night helps out a lot.

The Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is really talking this up. He's calling it a "victory" and that it's a "repulsion of foreign oppressors". Inflammatory words to some, but we don't worry about it. He's a politician and needs to be seen as standing up to us. We need some strong politicians in charge of Iraq if we're ever going to get out of here.

There are some things we are concerned about, though. Iraqi citizens, by and large, don't fully trust their own police and security forces yet. Some of the forces are pretty good, and some aren't. But they'll be in charge come Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the insurgents are launching more attacks. We expected this. They used motorcycles packed with explosives, nails, and ball bearings to hit two market areas today, killing at least 20. There have been a number of high-profile bombings over the last week. They've stepped up their attacks on US patrols and convoys, too. And they've been launching more rockets into the International Zone, mostly with minimal or no effect. The troublemakers are remnants of Al Qaeda, various Sunni groups targeting Shiites, and various Shiite groups hitting back at Sunnis. So although there is an uptick in violence, it is nowhere near the level of a year and a half ago.

Back in the last days of December, we were all nervous about the transition that was to come on New Year's Day, when the Security Agreement took effect. We thought things might go to hell in a handbasket. They didn't. Now we're coming up on another milestone and are nervous about what it might entail. Let's hope that the result is similar to January's.

Wednesday Wanderings

I've had a good few days since my last post. I finished up a project that's been in the works for two months. It was a decision brief on two alternatives for a construction project. Took me a while to figure out what I was talking about, then another while to really understand the two alternatives. Anyway, it's done and gone to our high mucky-mucks so they can make the decision I'm telling them to.

Today I finished up a training course. It was a computer-based program about overseeing contracts. It was about as exciting as you're thinking it was. What is it about these courses done on computer that is just so boring? I'd much rather have a hard-copy text in front of me and a bright yellow highlighter. That's the way God intended courses should be taught.

Tonight I got to spend some time painting. Normally I don't let people see a work in progress, but tonight I'll make an exception. Here's my "hooch studio" with a painting on my "easel".

My easel, in this case, is also my chest of drawers for my clothes. My palette is a white plastic plate that I stole a bunch of from the DFAC. My studio is the walkway between my desk and the bathroom. And my hooch smells like linseed oil and really stinky turpentine right now. Ah, eau de studieu!

So while I've been busy in my own little world, lotsa stuff has been happening all over the world. The Iranians are having a major uprising. Looks to me like the ayatollah's really blew it. They rigged it in the same heavy-handed, non-sophisticated manner that the Soviets rigged theirs for so many years. It was so blatantly obvious, yet they insist that everything was perfectly normal, even though there were more votes in some districts than there were registered voters. So the ayatollahs have shown their true colors to their people at last. I don't know if they'll stay in power or not ... the world is full of repressive regimes that keep their hold on power for years. Cuba, for example. But sooner or later they all fail. Strong men don't live forever, and eventually the population will throw them out. Let's just hope it's sooner.

Baghdad seems to be getting edgier as we count down the days to June 30th. That's when all US troops are supposed to have pulled their bases out of the cities. Everybody, Iraqis included, seem to think that our troops will be out of the cities, period. Not true and it never has been. The agreement is that our bases will be outside the cities. Our troops will still make patrols inside the city limits, alongside their Iraqi counterparts. As one said, "nothing will change except our commute to work will get longer". But you can expect to hear a lot of noise in early July about how we're violating the agreement because our troops will still be seen in the cities. The noisemakers will be either ignorant of the agreement or willfully misrepresenting it. You choose. We're hearing that Maliki is going to declare a national holiday on June 30th. I can't begrudge him that, really. He's a politician and has to make the most of whatever good news he can. Meanwhile, the insurgents are making the most of it, too, with bombings all over Baghdad. We'll see how long that streak continues. Actually, when you look at the figures, the violence is really not that bad. The troublemakers are just making a few high-profile hits these days, rather than lots of smaller ones that don't make the evening news. Yes, they're waging their war in the international press as much as they are in the streets.

And that's the news for now. Time to hit the rack, breathe turpentine fumes, and dream of more pleasant things.

Orange Day

A couple of days ago we had a dust storm blow in.  "Storm" isn't really the right word, since there weren't any high winds or rain.  Rather, we had this thick fog of orange dust that settled in.  It was like a light touch of snow, except it was orange, and it was dust, and it got everywhere.  It even came into my little hooch through the air conditioner and coated the whole room with a fine powder.  So after work, I had a major clean-up to do in my room.  

This is the walkway by my hooch.  No, I didn't hit the "sepia" button in Photoshop, this is really the way an "orange day" looks.

That's pavement under that dust coating.

Here's a sidewalk the morning of the dust storm ...

And here's the same sidewalk about two days later, under clear skies, after it's been washed and swept.

Who Deploys to Iraq?

One of my co-workers, Lisa, has a daughter who's into film-making.  This young lady made a short documentary film that recently played at the DeadCENTER Film Festival.  The film was about Lisa, why she came to work with the Corps of Engineers in Iraq, and the effect it had on her and her family.  This documentary was filmed just as Lisa left on her third deployment to Mosul, a city in northern Iraq that is still pretty turbulent.  

And by the way, Lisa is now on her fourth deployment.