Ramadan, the 19 August bombings, and other stuff

Sorry for the lack of update all week. No excuse.

The Islamic holiday of Ramadan started on the 22d. Ramadan is a period of fasting and abstainment from sinful things during the day, and festive dinners "breaking of the fast" at night. During the day, nothing can touch the lips: no water, no gum, no food, no cigarettes, nothing, all in sacrifice and honor to God. The time of Ramadan is based off the lunar calendar, so it fluctuates every year when it occurs. It just so happens that this time Ramadan happens during the hottest part of the year, so the Iraqis really don't do much of anything during the day. Nighttime is a different story; they kind of go reverse cycle, and it lasts around a month. They end Ramadan with the Eid al Fitr, which is sort of like Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one. It is an interesting holiday. The only thing comparable to Ramadan in our Christian culture might be lent, but muslims don't have a big blowout "Fat Tuesday" or anything like a Mardi Gras beforehand. To us, it is just another thing we have to work around to get some advising done.

19 August was not a good day in Iraq. It was the day a couple of big bombs went off in Baghdad outside the Ministry of Finance and another building: 75 killed and 500 or so wounded. There were some other blasts in Babil and up north. I got to go to a big meeting in Baghdad at the Baghdad Operations Center (BOC) where the BOC Commander (the equivalent of a US Corps Commander) gave guidance to his Division Commanders. The bombings sort of punched them in the nose, and brought them back down to earth a little bit, as after 30 June the Iraqi Security forces (ISF) sort of got a little big for their britches. What was interesting about the bombings and their reaction is that they did not ask for assistance, and they handled events on their own.

With regards to the effects of the bombings, the country didn't (or hasn't yet) death-spiraled into chaos and sectarian violence again. Politically they are handling things moderately well; there is much jockeying for power, they aren't doing much about fixing a lot of the problems, but the government is holding together, even with the recent death of prominent Shiite Abdul Aziz Al Hakim (which of course involves another pilgrimage south to Karbala and Najaf, down the road right outside our compound...). The January elections for Prime Minister will be the next decisive point for the Government of Iraq (GOI).

I'm reading an interesting book called the American Patriot's Handbook. It is a collection of essays and important documents in US history: Stuff like Patrick Henry's 'give me liberty or give me death' speech, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other documents spanning our 230 years of independence. Every time I get frustrated with the GOI, their inefficiency, the infighting, and general madness, I try to remember Iraq is a country that is simultaneously establishing its sovereignty, enduring an insurgency, a civil war, a civil rights movement, establishing a government, and repelling foreign invaders, all in about six years. We experienced all of these things too, but we did it over the course of 230+ years. It gives hope to think that if they can make it past this, maybe they will make it.

I have some other stuff about how the US does Targeting and how we are trying to teach this convoluted square peg process to the round hole Iraqi Army, but I'll save it for later.

Hope you are well-- take care.
Ron

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