Who is the REAL enemy?

Here's a pic of us on a joint patrol with the Iraqi Army. Note we drive around in these super armored MRAP trucks designed to prevent blow-up stuff from hurting us, and they have F-350s...

Spent the past couple of days out and about. We visited a couple of companies in the Brigade on some battlefield circulation patrols, and today we observed a “clearance” of an area called the “SAC” or Sa’id Abdulla Corridor, which is an area west of Mahmudiya full of former bad guys. The Mahmudiya-Yusifiya-Lutifiya area used to be known as a “triangle of death” but due to the persistent efforts of US and Iraqi forces, things are quiet there now, although there are some bad guys who stop off there in and around Baghdad. We caught a couple of guys today, which is a good thing.

Bad things still happen, though, and there’s lots of people who have been affected by bad things. Today we visited a house pretty much in the middle of nowhere, in this very agricultural SA corridor. In it was a woman and what’s left of her family. She had lost two of her sons and her husband to the Army of Islam, an extremist Islamic group that operates around here. In her hysteria, she brought us into her house and took us to a room that was empty, except for their three pictures in cheap frames carefully hung on the center of a wall with some cheap plastic flowers around it. It was the best shrine she could provide, especially since two of the bodies were never recovered. I don’t understand extremism.

At times, though, the job is also intensely frustrating. Particularly when it involves getting COL Moshen to commit to a hard time, like what time will we leave in the morning. He keeps strange hours, and frequently stays up until 4AM. Not sure what he does, but it usually involves meeting with sources. Yesterday I confirmed an 8AM start; we waited until 8:45 until he rolled out of his quarters, his personal security detachment (PSD) scrambling about, and off we went. An 11:00 roll out time turned into 11:40 the other day. He hasn’t made a SP time yet.

I theorize that part of it is due to the requirement to maintain what a CGSC (Command and General Staff College—the past year I spent at Fort Leavenworth) friend would call “Machismo.” COL Moshen is a mix between a Godfather/Mafioso, a police chief who cleaned up a town, a warlord, and a wise middle-aged man. He smokes incessantly, frequently holds court amongst those who require favors of him, likes American history, and watches Tom and Jerry cartoons (think I’ve mentioned that before). He is seldom short for words, and there is drama in his presentation. He fought in the Iran-Iraq war (towards the end), he was in the Gulf War, and he was in the Army in 2003 when the US invaded. He may be 0-3, but this time I think he really believes in what he’s doing.

Other frustrating moments about this job include trying to get information from him to report to higher. The American Army, particularly our higher Headquarters division, is an information monster. You wouldn’t believe the type and quantity of raw data that we have to report. Not sure what decisions, if any, are being made with the numbers, but it is incessant. Consequently, most of the Iraqis of course don’t track all the crap that we ask for. I’m fairly certain the guy who’s asking for all of this crap has no idea of the man-hours that go into compiling the data and attempting to validate its accuracy.

On many days, I am frustrated more by my own higher command than I am of my Iraqi counterpart.

We have a slow day tomorrow. The fellas went on a Logistics run to Disneyworld (big American base by the airport where peole live good and never leave the installation), and I stayed back to compile more useless data for higher. Tomorrow I’m going to sleep in (maybe until 7:30) then go to the gym, then do some reading. Speaking of the fellas, here we are in our "we made it to Iraq" picture:

Again, hope you are well, and thanks for following along.
Ron