What I’m looking forward to, and what I’ll miss
What I’m looking forward to in the U.S.:
• Playing with my 3-year-old. When I came home on leave, he was so excited to see me that the next two days he was telling anyone (and I do mean anyone) he saw that his daddy was home.
• Sleeping in my own bed.
• Going out on a date with my wife and, well, you know…
• Real Mexican food. Being from Arizona, I am a big fan of authentic Mexican food - and I’m not talking about the Taco Bell kind. Real Mexican food is where you can go into the Mexican restaurant and order completely in Spanish. That’s where the real stuff is made. The extremely poor attempts at Mexican food in our dining facilities have been worse than those convenience store burritos. I guess Turks, Nepalese, and Sri Lankans just don’t understand how to do it.
• Real Thai food. My wife is from Thailand and not only is she a great cook, but she always picks the best Thai restaurants in town. Again, like Mexican food, the best Thai restaurants are those you can go in and order completely in Thai.
• Taking a long, hot bath and/or shower. In Iraq, water is always an issue and I have been forced to take bottled-water showers on several occasions. Even if you do have running water, you always have to take a “combat shower” which means turn the water on, get wet, turn the water off, soap up, turn the water on, rinse, and repeat if necessary.
• Being able to legally drink an adult beverage. I’m really not that big of a drinker, but just being able to pop a cold one once in awhile would be really nice.
• Watching football in the afternoon, and not 0200 in the morning.
• Watching something other than AFN commercials on my television. If you haven’t seen them, they are the worst. They invariably revolve around safety, OPSEC, or talking up how great being in the service is. A little of that goes a long way.
• Driving a motor vehicle without having to put on my helmet, body armor, and several different devices with which to kill someone. Also, driving a motor vehicle without worrying about getting shot at or blown up.
• Getting a super-size fountain drink. You can’t get fountain drinks in Iraq - or at least where I was - because the water is all processed on the FOB. Every beverage you buy is in cans or bottles.
• No man kissing (at least as a standard way of greeting).
• No man dresses (again, as a standard form of wear).
What I’ll miss about Iraq:
• Cuban cigars. Every little hajji shop sold them - and cheap. (By the way, they really weren’t any better than the Central and South American ones I’ve had in the past. Just being able to get Cubans was the big deal - the “forbidden fruit”, you might say.
• Some of the great people I worked with, both military and civilian. Despite the liberal rhetoric, no, contractors working security are not all bloodthirsty mercenaries. The ones I met were all decent guys just trying to parlay their acquired military skills into a civilian job (that paid damn good).
• Some of the Iraqis I worked with. I say some, because many creeped me out. We had a couple of interpreters who were great guys and I enjoyed working with them. They had an interesting sense of humor and you could actually have a conversation with them about this clash of civilizations and what was best for Iraq.
Hmm, not a lot on the “what I’ll miss” list. I won’t miss the Iraqi food, because I really wasn’t overly impressed with it. You’d think it would be spicy, but it really wasn’t - at least the stuff I had. The towns reminded me of some of the more poverty-stricken areas of Mexico I’ve seen. I definitely wouldn’t want to live there, if I had a choice. But, the real thing that turned me off of Iraq and the Middle East as a whole was the oppressive nature of Islam in everyone’s lives. There are rules for literally EVERYTHING - whether you are Muslim or not. Living in this relatively free country, where the rules are really set up just to keep people from hurting one another, I can appreciate the U.S. all the more.
Category :
Uncategorized 
Tags :
Similar Posts:
- Stuck in Iraq
- London car bombs would have been, uh, kinda sorta dangerous
- Christmas in Iraq
- ‘Fake’ memo about food shortages appears to be real - well, maybe
- Rush gets it right
- Advise on what to take to war
- Video: Army deploying new sniper rifle
- It’s the little things you miss
- Poor little Dixie Chicks
- Venezuelan troops seize food stores, American liberals defend the actions
Leave a Reply