This is my last mission in Iraq.

Much of my unit is currently repositioned to Kuwait for down time before redeployment home.

As I look up at the night sky from my position in the turret I have mixed feelings and emotions. The familiar rocking of our ever-reliable hmmwv comforts me as we blast down the supply route dodging potholes and debris. The headsets cackle every now and then with the familiar voices of my squad mates.

The big dipper hangs low in the sky, and I try to remember its position in the night sky back home.

I try not to think about what back home might be like when I get there. But it haunts me anyway. Not that I don’t want to be home. It has dominated much of my thoughts this past year.

But I wonder where I will fit in and how.

It’s only been a year that I’ve been gone. Funny that so much can change in a year.

Song For The Day

Twilight Zone (When the bullet hits the bone) - Golden Earring

Meditation For The Day

Atmosphere of Grace

Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or sunshine. And for the same reason. When we refuse air, light, or food, the body suffers. And when we turn away from meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our intuitions of vitality needed support.

As the body can fail its purpose for lack of nourishment, so can the soul. We all need the light of Gods reality, the nourishment of His grace. To an amazing extent the facts of AA life confirm this ageless truth.

As Bill Sees It

P 93

Song For The Day

Dont Speak - No Doubt

Special thanks to TF Widowmaker especially Widowmaker Mike.

We have crossed paths with you more than once, and even assisted you in a battle.

You guys do a great job.

Best of luck to all of you and good hunting.

Todays high was 132 F.

Surface temperatures were around 156 F.

Temps in the tents are hovering around 95 degrees F.

This makes taking a shower a challenge at times.

There is no cold water in Iraq. All water for showers and latrines sits in tanks just outside its respective facility. That means being in the hot sun all day long so the water is very hot.

The best time to shower is in the morning hours just before sunrise, if your shedule can accomidate that. Then the water is a bit cooler than in the evening as it retains much of its heat from the day.

This also means all laundry is washed in scalding hot water.

So much for the new ACU uniforms being only washed on cold water as authorized.

Matter of National Security

Normaly I am a believer in the free market system but I believe this to be the most important matter in terms of national security and the environment. Screw mars and another moon mission. Why are we looking toward space when we cant even keep our own house clean?

We have got to get away from oil as our major source of energy (as I have stated many times before).

I also dont believe that biofuels are the answer. I think we should get away from the combustion engine completely (as much as I love my high performance car).

I do not buy the mantra that fuelcells will not work for us in the future. Honda is already on its third generation fuel cell car and while it is bulky and somewhat primitive it is proof that the technology works and is viable. In another twenty years it could be commonplace.

Nuclear energy should also be increased exponentialy. With new technologies in this area it will be much cheaper to work with. As far as disposal we will have to come up with creative ideas in this area. Is it possile to build large Gerald Boel type super cannons and launch it todward the sun (sounds crazy I know)?

Our rail system is a joke and I dont mean light rail for mass transit. I am talking about industrial rail. This could be much much more efficient and the answer to having so many trucks on our interstates. Trucking can never be replaced but it can be reduced quite a bit. New generation locomotives are being designed and produced that greatly increase efficiency and reduce emmisions.

I dont think its necessary for Americans to give up their cars as convinient as that would be for some who would like to restrct freedoms of movement.

What is necessary is to come up with a major alternative fuel source, not many so that we have to rely on having several vehicles or providers of transportation.

It is also necessary for the poor and to have cheap forms of transportation. CARB in California, car crushing programs, and strict emissions laws creating expensive cars have basically amounted to discrimination against the poor.

Mass transit is not the answer, just look to most light rail and busing systems around the country for lack of use, cost, corruption, and lack of efficiency as evidence. Yes it will help in some places but it is not the solution for our country.

Global economy? Sure, fine. But global dependence and exploitation of an entire region? I think not. Its not the answer, and its not necesarry.

So why arent you writing your senator and congressman? Why arent you writing the Whitehouse?

We should demand this as a people.

RX for Radical Islam

America has to take the high road when it comes to politics here in the region. That will mean finding another source of energy besides oil not just for us but the rest of the world (keep in mind most of our oil comes from our own hemisphere).

Help Arab countries diversify their economies as oil will run out from an estimated 50-200 years.

Help with education. If Saudi Arabia and Iran are allowed to be the only means of education funding in the region then all that will be taught is radical anti -west fundamentalism.

Continue the manhunt for terrorists.

Respect traditions and culture here.

Continue joint training relationships. It worked with El Salvador as difficult and unpopular as that period was in our history.

Song For The Day

Faint - Linkin Park

My Prediction For Iraq

As the people of Iraq apparently love themsleves, their tribes and religious sects more than they do their children and country I now believe it will divide.

After all Iraq is an artificail country much as most of the countries of this region are, created by the UN or League of Nations.

I believe that the south will remain largely Shiite (duh) and will enjoy support from both Iran and America, becoming its own country if not autonomous region.

I believe the Sunnis will most likely be slaughtered by the numerically superior Shiites in an all out civil war. A price to be paid for domination since the times of the Ottoman Turks to Saddam.

I also belive the Kurds in the north will be forced to declare independence, something they deserve anyway, and will be immediately invaded and crushed by Turky.

I also believe we will stand by and allow it to happen much to our own shame. That will truly be one of Americas darkest hours and one of the contributing factors to our slide from prestige and power in the world.

When in Rome...

I think instead of having a large entrenched and fortified presence here in Iraq, we would have done better to have a leaner and less visable one.

It might not be too late.

Instead of having the huge bases we now have, we should have built combined bases housing both US Army troops and upcoming Iraqi Army troops side by side.

We would live together and train and fight together rather than have the seperatism that now exists (and can percieved as elitism). We could also have estabilshed the bonds necessary for trust.

We should dress like them and let them live at least a similar quality of life as us showing them we truly care about them.

And after a period of combined operations hopefully we could fall back to a support role allowing them to conduct most security missions, something that only someone who lives where he fights can truly do best

Simultaneously, we could conduct the civil affairs and reconstruction efforts that we can be so good at.

I also believe that we should open more leadership schools for the Iraqi Army in country such as a mini Ranger type course.

Other military schools should be conducted to regarding support and supply.

We might be in Iraq for years, but it should be in a support effort, not a direct combat role. The Iraqis only resent that.

Remarkably we were well percieved even after some of the unavoidable mistakes made during the first phases of the war. Now, with our heavy handed approach to combat that so well suites large manuever units in the large combat operations we so excell at, we are only alientating ourselves from the very people we are trying to help.

The Gucci Army

Gucci is a term for the fancy equipment we have and uniforms we now wear.

Much of the tme it can apply to personal equipment that one buys for personal reasons.

But it also applies to our standard issue and it make us stand out from those we are defending and training.

We should go back to wearing some type of olive drab green uniform that looks similar to the uniforms of most countries that we will ever fight in.

The ACU (advanced combat uniform) we wear now sets us apart from our counterparts and makes us look too "rich".

We should also issue the same types of goggles and balistic eye wear to our counterparts that we all have as issue.

KBR is the solution

I do not think we need more American soldiers in Iraq.

What we need to do is have Kellog-Brown-Root support the Iraqi Army.

The average diet for an Iraqi soldier is rice and red sauce. Could you imagine eatihng that three times a day month in and month out?

As it is, about three quarter of the food budget for the Iraqi Army is embezzled.

Desertion rates are high in the Iraqi Army and it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out why.

If the Iraqi army had well maintianed airconditioned tents to live in the might stay.

If the Iraqi army had nice dining facilites to eat in with quality, varied diet they might stay.

If the Iraqi army had recreation facilities similar to the ones the US Army has in all camps and FOBs, they might stay.

For that matter if the Iraqi army was paid consistantly they might stay to fight, setting aside their religious differences in order to secure thier country.

Many pundits back home like to take pot shots at contractors like KBR. But if they were the ones supplying the Iraqi Army, there might be an Iraqi Army that could defend their sovereignty.

The biggest problem facing the Iraqi Army is not finding brave men to defend their country, its finding capable support mechanisms that can supply and maintain a modern army.

Iraqis can fight.

What happened to this man?

What happened to the guy who was going to pursue terrorists wherever they are and kill them?

What happened to the guy who was going to prosecute states that sponsored terrorists?

And what happened to the guy who called Iran and Syria part of the Axis of Evil?

He was right about those two states all along, so why didn�t we do something about them while we had the chance? Why did we continue to let them sponsor terrorism and influence this region?

Why has he allowed this to happen when he has the most capable military in the world?

Where is the man who thumped his fist on the podium and proclaimed to the world?

Song For The Day

Tokyo Drift - Teriyaki Boys

Well you’ve got to hand it to Iran; they have definitely got us over a barrel. And we let it happen of course.

They have not only masterfully forced us to negotiate with them in front of the entire world, now they have launched their proxy war with Israel through their sponsee Hezbollah.

I don’t believe for a minute that we weren’t aware that Hezbollah had been so well armed and trained by Iran. I don’t believe for a minute that we weren’t aware of their restructure of leadership allowing regional commanders much more autonomy over their units.

I would call it a masterful stoke by Iran if it wasn’t obvious that we allowed it to happen.

Now Syria has mobilized probably unifying a country that seemed on the verge of collapse just months ago.

The Cedar revolution has all but faded in Lebanon, its peoples united against Israel and the United States.

Iran, with fifty percent of its population under the age of twenty-five and wanting normalized relations with the west has now consolidated against us.

Shiites in Iraq are now angry with us, the newly elected government forced to display anti-Israel rhetoric to appease its constituents, the country on the precipice of civil war.

All of these peoples blame America of course, and I am inclined to agree with them.

We let this happen by sitting around and ringing our hands, afraid to take on the large sponsor states of terror.

I guess its no problem to invade a country whose regular army fades away at the sight of the mightiest country that ever existed.

We have always treated the symptom. Panama, Grenada, former Yugoslavia.

The real problems are China, Russia (still), Iran, Syria, and North Korea.

Why aren’t we kicking their Asses?

Why aren’t we pounding the shit out of them?

I love the nights here in Iraq particularly during the hot season.

After the darkness comes the high winds die. Walking out into it the blackness envelopes you and the warmth wraps itself around you and comforts you.

The big dipper dominates the sky here and it is easy to see why it was used to navigate the vast deserts much as it is on the sea. It seems so huge that it might fall out of the night time sky and crush you with its massive weight.

Above it, the north star can always be found and depended on even when the pink hue of daylight peeks over the horizon. It is our guiding light and protector and my my team mates and I look to it often.

I even use it to calibrate my small portable GPS unit.

Someday soon it will take me home...

Song For The Day

Angel of the Morning - Merrilee Rush and the Turn Abouts

The winds have come and with it the sand that is omnipresent.

It coats all the surfaces of the porta potties which have to be strapped to the ground with heavyduty straps that crush their tops. Its everywhere in the shower trailers.

Sand is notorious here for getting into weapons. But it gets into everything else.

It gets deep into your ears, pockets, and clothing. There is no defense including ziplock bags. Its in your bed when you have one.

It gets into your food also, and stays in your mouth grinding your teeth.

It has no mercy for electronic equipment.

The hot winds are difficult to describe.

It could be compared to standning in front of a preheated oven, with about twenty hot hairdryers blowing on you and along with a powerful large fan. There is none of the relief from the heat when standing in it like back home. Instead it makes it worse.

The sand stings your skin and you learn to walk with your eyes closed, opening them for a second every ten steps or so. The hot dry wind burns eyes.

It blights out the sun letting it only glow weakly.

With any luck youre on night missions, and escape the heat of the day.

Rest in peace to yet another one of my fallen brothers in arms-

Blue Skies

Sorry friends, family and readers for not posting for so long.

My unit is being repositioned and we are also training another unit, so not only have we been very busy, but out of internet access as well much of the time. When we do have it its not very good.

Now that I should have a little down time I hope to be putting up more material.

Thanks to all who have written and or contributed-