One Day Trip to Baghdad

(Top photo) Another going away party. It feels like the tenth this month. (Bottom) My beloved mini-keg, worth its weight in gold.

I just got back from Baghdad about a day ago. I went down there to get a new ID badge and finally pick up my weapon from the DOJ. As of January 1st, the old digs at the Embassy are closed. Instead, they have opened the New Embassy Compound which is pretty unbelievable. Office buildings, tennis courts, basketball courts, indoor swimming pool and some pretty amazing apartments. The apartments are nicer than most I have had in my life (with a few less windows). They have flat panel televisions, modern stainless steel appliances and pretty nice furniture. Perhaps most surprisingly, they have a PX shop with limited groceries and a pretty extensive liquor selection. I managed to bring back a souvenir from Baghdad, a Heineken mini-keg, which would easily make me the most popular guy on the FOB. I have kept it a well guarded secret, however.

Bad news for the soldiers, although General Odierno authorized Superbowl beer for all of the troops in Iraq, he left the final word to the individual base commanders. I guess the current commander is a teetotaller or something because he put the kibosh on the beer. That probably makes my Heineken mini-keg all the more valuable. Thankfully I now have a weapon to defend it from those who would try and tap its frothy goodness. I have yet to decide what occasion is important enough to tap this bad boy. Perhaps when I get back from my election trip.

I am heading out into the far reaches of Diyala later this week to be an "international elections observer." It should be interesting. It turns out that in Iraq they actually want to know who you are when you vote, unlike other third-world backward elections where you don't have to show any identification and the process is easily susceptible to voter fraud. Oh, wait that sounds a lot like Wisconsin. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the experience. I can't say where we are going, but it looks like military tents and sleeping bags are in my future for the next few days.

Khan Bani Saad Prison

This past Sunday I went out to Khan Bani Saad prison. This place is rather infamous in Diyala for being the $40 million dollar boondoggle which resulted in a half built prison facility when the work stopped in 2007. Insurgents continued to attack the workers and hijack the construction equipment, until it made no sense for them to continue with the construction. I thought I should take a look at the facility to see if there was any chance of salvaging something from this giant money pit.

The facility is huge. There is a large perimeter wall with 24 guard towers and razor wire. The guard towers were envisioned as sleeping quarters for two guards, each guard tower at one time contained an Iraqi toilet (which is essentially a porcelain hole in the ground) and a shower. I say "at one time" because long ago the scavengers took away anything that could be resold or used. The guard towers actually turned out to be the most salvageable of all of the structures on the prison complex.

The buildings which had just been constructed not that long ago were crumbling. There were signs of shoddy workmanship everywhere. $40 million worth of buildings and they were all going to have to be razed because of how much they were crumbling. It was pretty unbelievable. There were a few metal buildings which were in good shape and could be used in the future, but overall the prison was pretty much worthless.

I had long been told that there were Iraqi Police and/or Iraqi Army personnel living at the facility to keep squatters from the place. Upon arriving at the prison it was like a ghost town, but there were signs everywhere that people had recently been there. There are approximately 15 abandoned buildings on the site, so we were all expecting someone to pop out at any moment. There was also a herd of sheep, a donkey and a few cows meandering across the prison grounds. No one would leave their livestock alone around here, so once again we all thought for sure we would be encountering some locals very soon. Fortunately, we never crossed paths with anyone during our visit. Rest assured I was ready to medieval on some insurgent ass, but the opportunity never arose (just kidding, although I was prepared to curl into the fetal position behind a pile of rubble trying not to soil myself).

Beer for the Superbowl !!!

Raymond T. Odierno, Four Star General, Bartender, American hero

The good news in Iraq never stops. Progress is being made, violence is down and Gen. Ray Odierno has issued a waiver to General Order No. 1 which makes alcohol an offense punishable by court martial. It is only for one day, the day of the Superbowl (which will be aired at 2 a.m. here), but it is a good thing for the soldiers' morale. They are apparently limited to two beers each. I, as a civilian, face no limitation, however. Gen. Odierno has arranged for truckloads of beer to be brought to each FOB, so there should be plenty to go around. I just hope the General has the good sense to procure Miller products. I suspect I will be forced into a "catch-22" of either drinking no beer or suffering through Bud Lite, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Sure, it seems like a small thing, but at least it will provide some much needed relief to the "Groundhog Day" syndrome I have been feeling lately. I swear during the last three weeks every day has been exactly the same.

It Should be an Interesting New Year

Believe it or not, I wasn't yelling at this judge. It just looks that way.

It promises to be an interesting new year here in Iraq. In about three weeks there will be provincial elections which should tell us a lot about where this country is headed. Unlike most provinces where one group either Sunni, Shia or Kurd dominates the population, Diyala is a fractured mix of all of them. The current provincial government is unlikely to remain in power and unless there is an outright hijacking of the election (which is not that far out of the realm of possibility), the Sunnis should get more of a say in what is occurring in this province. It is tough to know how it will all play out, however. Few people are willing to engage in a "suicide mission public opinion polling" to find out what the populace is thinking, and calling them on the phone is not really an option. There is some discussion of having us monitor polling places on election day. Yikes, going to have to think about that one.

Another thing which will play into the mix here is the war going on between Israel and Hamas. Things just got a whole lot less safe for all of us (here and in the States) because of this. This is guaranteed to stir up the hornet's nest that is the Middle East, lead more young Islamic men and women to volunteer for bombing missions and generally piss off the moderate countries like Jordan and Egypt. At this point I really don't care who is wrong or who is right (probably a good mix on both sides), I just don't want more nut-jobs shooting stuff over the walls here at Warhorse, or strapping bombs to themselves (or others) at the marketplace or court house.

In any event, it is back to work around here. I've got about six months to go and lots of things I want to get done. It would be nice to see the Legal Defense Program up and running before I get out of here, but first I need the $700,000 and a lot of cooperation from my Iraqi counter-parts.