homicide-erumpent
Notebook

Summing up everything I’ve learned

February 9th, 2006 by Double Tap

I’m going to tell you up-front - some of this isn’t too enthusiastic about the situation over here. Not that U.S. soldiers aren’t doing their best to fix a lot of problems and making the lives of your typical Iraqi better - because they are - but that the overall situation in Iraq is a mess. I really don’t have a good answer as to how long this is going to last or what the final outcome will be. I do know I would hate to see us just pack up and leave. Then, it would have all been just a waste. Here we go…

We have been in country almost three months now. Finally, I believe everyone’s roles and responsibilities in this new job are finally starting to gel. We had started off two months ago, assuming the same duty positions and responsibilities as the unit we replaced. That sort of worked. Now, we are finding that some people are better suited for some jobs than others and we’ve been rearranging our work schedules and making some changes as to who does what. Of course, some people get butt-hurt when that happens, but I think we’ve gotten to the point were things are starting to run fairly smooth.

For better or worse, I am discovering that my job is basically one of a Fobbit (you know, like “Hobbit” from the book of the same title) – which is a person who almost never leaves the FOB (Forward Operating Base). Not that I want to be a Fobbit, but my job is to protect the base, not go out and kick in doors in the neighboring villages. In fact, we generally have good relations with the villages in the local area and they’ve even warned us about bad things about to happen to us. So, we almost never get attacked. In a way, it’s hard to tell we are even in a war. All the killing and dying is outside the wire. We’ve been here two months, and not a single attack. In a way, that’s bad, because people here sometimes act like no one is likely to attack us and they get complacent. Of course, I see the reports of all the other bases getting attacked and convoys getting hit with IEDs, so I do know the threat is out there. One base, which we almost went to, gets hit with rocket attacks about five times a day.

I’ve met a lot of Turks here. Basically, nearly all the companies and stores on this base are Turkish. The Iraqis aren’t crazy about that, of course. They consider the Turks real “carpet baggers”, meaning, they are coming down here to exploit and take advantage of the situation. Meanwhile, Iraqis are often given the less diserable jobs. Sometimes, I’ll hear an Iraqi point out the fact that the Turks did nothing to support the American war effort, so why give them the economic advantages?

The Middle Eastern bathroom habits take some getting used to. When they have to defecate, they do it squatting down above a hole in the ground or floor. The concept of sitting on a toilet is totally foreign to them. In fact, if they run across a western-style toilet, they will attempt to stand up on the toilet seat and then squat down over it. Also, toilet paper is a foreign object. They’ll use it like a napkin at the table, but they won’t wipe their butts with it. Instead, they take a bucket or bottle of water in with them, and when they are done with their business, they use the water to wash their rear ends with their left hands. Thus, the taboo against eating with your left hand in this culture. If Iraqis have been using the western style porta-johns, you’ll see foot prints on the seat, crap smeared on the back of the seat, and empty water bottles laying everywhere. Nice. As a result, we try to have separate restrooms whenever possible.

There’s plenty of Iraqi Army (IA) here on this base, and it’s a little disconcerting. On the one hand, we are supposed to be training them to take over responsibility for the security of their own country. On the other hand, the IA is known to have bad guys who have joined the army in an effort to get more training, acquire weapons, and support the insurgency. So, we are supposed to trust them, and act like we trust them - but down deep inside, we don’t trust a single one of them. So, there’s a lot of “trust, but verify”.

The other problem with the Iraqis is that they don’t have any national pride. When they join the army, it’s not because they are patriotic or love their country. Nope, it’s for a pay check. They are more attached to their families and tribes, than they are to Iraq. I think that is what is really keeping them back from succeeding. They have no sense of a greater good than themselves. I’m not sure how we are ever going to fix that problem.

Will we ever succeed here? Yes, I think we can. But, I think we are looking at a 20-year commitment. We’re still in Kosovo, aren’t we? Not sure the American public will buy that. At least, not while road-side bombs are still going off.

Back to the Turks. Actually, the Turks seem very industrious and hard-working. They are definitely entrepreneurs and want to make a buck. Of course, many are not above giving bribes, smuggling in contraband, etc., but we really haven’t had any criminal activities out of them. They keep their noses pretty clean, because they don’t want to lose their businesses here on the FOB. Actually, we’ve had more trouble from the U.S. and European civilians here on base than anyone else. They are the ones buying the illicit alcohol from the Turks, and then getting drunk and stupid. In the last two months, we’ve kicked four people off the FOB for possession of alcohol or getting caught drinking it.

In a lot of ways, we are performing many of the functions a military policeman would perform – except we are all artillerymen. We even have one or two of our sergeants catching speeders with a radar gun we found. Of course, we don’t have the legal authority of policemen, but we turn the tickets over to their commanders or companies they work for and they usually get in trouble that way. The civilians nearly all work for KBR, and they’ll lose their jobs if they get caught three times. Most battalion and brigade command sergeants major are really big on safety, so if one of their guys gets a speeding ticket, they’ll be sticking them with extra “duty”. I guess it’s kind of silly writing speeding tickets in a war zone, but this is only on the base, not outside the wire. In fact, soldiers are told to drive as fast as they can get away with when outside the wire.

I carry a loaded gun on me every where I go. Luckily, it’s a pistol and not a rifle. That M16 can be a pain to carry sometimes. The pistol is the standard army M9 Beretta 9mm pistol. I’ve even got a shoulder holster to carry it – like the detectives wear. I wear it so much, it’s gotten to the point where I feel naked or like something is missing when I am not wearing it. Now I understand what other veterans were saying when they told me when they got back that the first thing they did was get a concealed-carry permit so they could carry their pistols all the time. I’ll probably do the same. So far, I haven’t had to draw my weapon or fire it in anger. I have pulled it out, but those have been situations where I wasn’t sure what I was getting into, and I wanted to be safe. Turns out, it wasn’t necessary. Hopefully, won’t have to really use it while I’m here.

It’s the middle of the rainy season here, and I heard it’s supposed to last the next couple of months. With all the rain, this place turns into a mud hole. In fact, there are actual small lakes forming in some areas. It rains a couple of days, stops for a couple of days, and then starts back over again. It never really dries out. Funny thing is, in the Arizona desert, this much rain would make the place turn green overnight, with plants growing all over the desert. Here, I see a little bit of grass sprouting up, but that’s about it. You know, it’s not really desert in the area we are in. More like grass land. There are some trees here, which surprised me at first. I was expecting nothing but sand, like Kuwait.

I can’t tell you what the religious demographics are around here. The subject really doesn’t seem to come up with the Iraqis – at least not around the FOB. I know the Iraqis hate the Turks, the Iraqi Army doesn’t get along with the Iraqi Police, and we all watch them carefully whenever they are around. Other than Muslim, I don’t know if they are predominately Sunni or Shia. It’s weird, we are supposed to be building up the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police to be self-sufficient and to be our partners in this fight against the terrorists, but we don’t trust a damned one of them. Oh sure, you act like a professional and even attend social events with them, but we are always on our guard when they are around. I’ve heard it was like that with the South Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War.

One benefit of being over here is that I am making all sorts of contacts when it comes to potential civilian jobs. With the experience I am getting in this job, I could easily get a security-related job with Halliburton, EOD Technologies, or one of several other companies I’ve run across. All pay much better than you would see in the U.S., and you usually don’t get shot at! (The military is supposed to handle that stuff.) Of course, if I did it, I would be in Iraq for a year or more - but what the heck, money talks. Anyway, lots of retired military over here working for those types of companies. I even met some folks in Kuwait getting paid very well – and they definitely don’t get shot at there! I hear you can even bring your family with you to Kuwait.

The power is off in my CHU again. Seems to be a daily/nightly occurrence. It usually lasts about an hour. I don’t if it is a problem, or being done on purpose. Either way, it’s a pain.
Another pain is the showers. KBR is having a hard time pumping enough water to provide enough for the showers. It has something to do with the quality of the water. The end result is we have to use bottled water and give ourselves sponge baths for now, or use the shower stalls and just pour water all over ourselves. Needless to say, there’s been a run on bottled water around here. There’s usually cases of them stacked all around and suddenly there’s darned few cases left over. It usually takes four 1-1/2 liter bottles to do the job.

A little run down on some acronyms for the different categories of people here:
- LN or Local National – An Iraqi. A more polite term the leadership likes to use than the standard soldier terms that aren’t so politically correct.
- TCN or Third Country National – Anyone who isn’t an Iraqi, isn’t a soldier, and isn’t a U.S. citizen. Technically, it would even apply to fair-skinned Europeans, but I’ve found it mostly used in reference to Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans, etc. – anyone who isn’t Caucasian. Don’t know if that’s a racial thing, but all we mostly see are Asians and Middle Easterners. I’ve heard there’s some black Africans working in Iraq, but I haven’t seen them myself.
- CAC card holder – someone who has a Department of Defense identification. Could be a U.S. service member, a DOD employee, or even a contractor for the DOD. Hard to get, if you are the later.
- Ex-pat or ex-patriot – A U.S. citizen working in Iraq
- Coalition Forces – soldiers from any country that is helping fight insurgents in Iraq
As far as who does the typical soldier trust most, the order goes something like this, from highest trust to lowest: another U.S. service member, a U.S. ex-patriot CAC card holder, Coalition Forces, a TCN CAC card holder, European TCNs, TCNs from predominately Christian, Buddhist or Hindu countries; TCNs from Muslim countries, Kurdish LNs, and then Arabic LNs.

As I’ve said before, we have a ton of Turks here, but most Iraqis aren’t crazy about them being here. I know the Turk truck drivers are deathly afraid of being stuck outside the FOB by themselves. The sad thing is, we aren’t allowed to treat them if they get hurt or sick – they are supposed to go to local hospitals. I can tell you this, we had a Turk truck driver who became very ill, but he refused to leave the base to go to a local hospital. I hear he gutted it out in his truck, and ended up living.

Ok, all for now. A difficult situation over here, to say the least, but we carry on and try to make it better. Everyone wants the IA to become a professional force and fend for themselves so we can all come home. I seriously doubt it will happen during my stay here. Hmm, maybe by the end of my second tour…

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