Author: Carol Watson

A letter from a KBR civilian employee in Iraq:

The thrill of war is gone

Imagine explosions without warning 24-7. Mortar attacks are unpredictable. They’re in the minds of every person who lives on the forward operation bases in Iraq.

They kill, wound, bloody and break the hearts of families of loved ones who have suffered the results of mortars. In five months, the number of mortar attacks increased at a steady pace, as have injuries and lives lost.

As June 30 draws nearer, the Iraqi government decides its future. The mortars fall more frequently, with greater numbers. Fifteen is common with each round a potential killer. We hug the ground, pray the explosions will stop, grit our teeth, tense our bodies and feel the ground shake beneath. A blast threw me 10 feet. I ask the question: “Why did I survive?” A friend questioned his pain by repeating, “I think I’ve been hit.” He was hit. He fell next to me and two more mortars rumbled near.

The thrill of war is gone. Fear takes over my thoughts most days. We constantly look for places to shield our bodies from flying shrapnel that sends friends home or to their final resting place.

Soldiers say I am lucky. I can leave this place. That is a choice I have made. I return to Eugene to run the Butte to Butte and gather my thoughts of the past five months and never forget fallen friends in the Iraq war that ended before I arrived.

I dedicated my time there to my wife, Lt. Col. Sherry McConnell, U.S. Marine Corps, on active duty in Iraq.

VINCENT G. SUETOS
KBR Security Coordinator
Mosul, Iraq

President Putin really stunned the world, and especially the State Department, when he recently stated that Russian intelligence had warned Bush before the war that Saddam had oodles of terrorists in Iraq just waiting in the wings to attack America and the world. Apparently, his own government was unaware of this terrorist crisis as evidenced in this news story of 3/21/03, the day after the war started:

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said he was astonished by a U.S. request to freeze Iraqi bank assets. “Under our legislation, we can freeze accounts if they are used to finance terrorism or money laundering activities,” Kudrin said. “As far as I am aware, there are no facts linking Saddam Hussein’s accounts in Russia to such activities.”

And a year later on 2/27/04, in this news story from Pravda, Putin states that Iraq “…is a new territory to them [terrorists].” Doesn’t that seem to mean that the terrorists weren’t in Iraq before the war?

“Terrorists are ‘exploring’ Iraq, which is a new territory to them,” President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with students in Krasnoyarsk on Friday. “This is a very dangerous process, the longer it will take place, the more dangerous it will be,” said the president. Mr Putin reiterated his position to the effect that the military campaign against Iraq had not been justified. “It was a mistake. There was no need for the military operation, and subsequent events proved that,” said President Putin.

Amidst this glowing account, Better days beckon for Baghdad’s weary postmen, about the dedication of the workers and all the improvements being made to the “new” Iraqi postal system, be sure not to miss the following sentence:

”Hopefully within the next few months we should be back to pre-war service levels.”

Although “major combat” ended over a year ago, the Coalition can’t seem to get the Iraqi post office up and running any more than it can get the electricity and water flowing at their pre-war levels.

Shame!

This is a current poll being done by Army Times asking:

“Do you think violence against U.S. forces will diminish after June 30, when Iraqis are scheduled to take control of their government again?”

I am making an assumption (yes, I know, usually a bad thing to do) that most of the readers of Army Times are connected with the military, more specifically with the United States Army, and therefore are the most likely respondants to the poll up to this point. The poll started last Tuesday and should be ending today.

Here is what they think will happen: poll results

Yes, it’s been 1000 days since 9-11!!

Still haven’t captured Osama bin Laden as George W. Bush promised he would!!

Or do we already have Osama on ice waiting for a November defrosting right before the election? I don’t think there is any trick or lie that the neocons wouldn’t stoop to in order to stay in power.

Critics of the antiwar movement are constantly singing praises about the good things that are happening in Iraq and berating the media for not reporting on the wonderful progress being made in painting schools, and patching up bridges and sewer systems blown apart by American bombs. I have to admit though that the following post does bring back some fond memories of my own 1950s childhood of sleeping on the porch during hot summer nights before the advent of air-conditioning. Of course, childhood memories have usually been conveniently stripped of the misery and discomforts which accompanied them.

Listen to Riverbend, the Iraqi girl blogger, tell you firsthand of the real progress being made in Baghdad to return the city to at least the shape it was in the day before the war started.

Hot. It’s hot, hot, hot, hot.

The weather is almost stifling now. The air is heavy and dry with heat. By early noon, it’s almost too hot to go outside. For every two hours of electricity, we have four hours of no electricity in our area- and several other areas. The problem now is that the generators in many areas are starting to break down due to constant use and the bad quality of the fuel. It’s a big problem and it promises to grow as the summer progresses.

I have spent the last two days ruminating the political situation and… washing the roof. While the two activities are very different, they do share one thing in common- the roof, and political situation, are both a mess.

The roof of an Iraqi home is a sacred place. As much planning goes into it as almost anything else. The roofs are flat and often surrounded by a low wall on which one can lean and look out into the city. During this last year, a certain sort of special bond has formed between your typical Iraqi and the roof of his or her home. We run out to the roof to see where the smoke is coming from after an explosion; we gather on the roof to watch the helicopters flying over head; we reluctantly drag ourselves out to the roof to fill the water tanks when the water is low; we hang clothes to dry on the clotheslines strung out haphazardly across the roof; we sleep on the roof during the endless, powerless nights. … read more