Hello everyone Report from IRaq part 2

[moderateamericain]

Hey everyone its been quite a while, since april i believe. Well I went to Iraq again (I'm retired military for new posters, but still actively provide training and knowledge to the new soldiers on communication gear) This time I was in Baghdad. Man I thought traffic was bad in Charlotte or Detroit, doesn't hold a candle to Baghdad. Well I can honestly say I did not see a single bit of fighting in my time there and I rode around with a fair bit of patrols in my off time. (Not to say there was not any, I just had the good fortune to not see any.) I know thats not gonna excite many of you who want to hear about the death and destruction but unfortunately it was fairly quite and the Arabs just went about there daily lives with the same needs and desires as we do. Any specific questions can be posted here or just PM me.

Thanks a bunch its good to be back!

Edited August 31, 2007 by moderateamericain

[Fortunata]

Glad you got back safe and sound. This summer I ran into a far cousin who is in the British army. He was also in Iraq; said he loved the people especially the kids but it was heartbreaking how poor some of them were. He figures he'll be sent next to Afghanistan where the people are REALLY poor. Is that just in the countryside or do you find that in Baghdad as well?

[AngusThermopyle]

said he loved the people especially the kids but it was heartbreaking how poor some of them were

I understand what he means. When you see the NPO commercials on TV they make you feel bad on a basic level. They still can't impart the reallity of the human misery

When you are actually there in that kind of place and see it with your own eyes it hits you like a blow to the solar plexus, on a sort of visceral level.

When I was in Somalia we used to save the parts of our rations that we didn't eat, we'd throw them into a big box in the back of our truck. We also had another box in the truck, it was about the same size as the "Ration" box but It was called the "Rock" box. We filled it with good sized rocks to throw at the Somali's.

You're probably wondering why any sane person would want to hit someone else with a rock in that way, using it as a weapon. We did it because when we drove by the kids we'd throw our saved rations to them. After a week of seeing the kids run for the food happy at the thought of eating something, then getting hammered down in an extreme and brutal fashion by an adult, we'd had enough.

That's why we had our "Rock" box. It was a non lethal but highly effective method of social awareness counseling. You may not agree with the method employed but the results sp4eak for themselves. It took about two days for them to realise that when our trucks went by kids ate first, adults eat whatever they can find to eat.

I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but it's just the way it is. In all honesty I don't care what kind of kid it is, a kid is a kid, a baby is a baby they must be protected from harm of any kind at all costs.

[Fortunata]

Thanks for that AngusThermopyle. Quite the world isn't it?

You're probably wondering why any sane person would want to hit someone else with a rock in that way, using it as a weapon.

I have no problem with that. Children first.