A Grumpy Rut

Been in a bit of a rut for a week or so, caused by multiple events:

--I got sick. Not I have the sniffles sick, not I have the aches and a touch of fever, but really full blown evil I Ate Some Bad Iraqi Chow And Got The Mother Of All Food Poisionings food poison. It was so bad I went to the doctor. Twice.

--Sand storms: We are on Day three of icky sand storms. If you have never experienced a sand/dust storm, get a bucket of fine dust/dirt and dump it over your head. Make sure you get a lot in your eyes, nose, and mouth, but only after you have worked up a really good sweat. Ears too. Strap on 30 or so pounds of body armor, then keep a couple of hot air hair dryers on you all the time. When you get back from patrol, then clean your entire house three times a day to try to keep the dust out of ruining the electronics. It's sort of like that.

--The realization we still have five and a half more months to go. Five and a half months is a long time. And it's getting ready to get really really hot.

--A bit of frustration with the IA: We are kind of at a dead end, and we are not sure where to go from here. What we are telling them isn't sticking lately. They seem in a rut too. Is this just the relationship running its course? Has the novelty worn off? Are the Americans not that great anymore?

But then two things happened today: One was a fairly invasive Ministry of Defense Inspection. It lasted three days, and the outbrief was tonight. The Brigade did ok. Immediately following the outbrief, the Brigade Commander (the guy I advise) gathered his staff in a room and issued detailed guidance to fix all of the deficiencies. It was refreshing, particularly in that most of the stuff he found out was wrong was organizational changes and stuff we have been recommending to him and his staff to change for a couple of months now. Vindication sometimes tastes good.

The second one was this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30594331/ It was a bombing at a vegetable market just north of us. We drive through there all the time (don't worry, none of us or any of our units were hurt). They are capable; they just got banged in the nose, and now the effort of influencing the IA out of complacency and into action goes on. (NOTE: This singular bombing does not indicate a change in security of our area; it represents a singular attack on a complacent unit to our north, and the Iraqis already know who is responsible.)

With these two events, suddenly we are back in the game. I guess we'll get up tomorrow and get after it.

Hope you are well-- take care and thanks for reading.
Ron