Beyond Baghdad

It's All Downhill from Here

I'm now over halfway done with my assignment here.  I have to say it's flown by.  I've been extra busy the past few weeks as I'm now supporting the 3-star General who is in charge of advising and training Iraqi Army and Police.  Having him as an additional customer makes my days much busier, but busy means time flies by more quickly, and it's not like there's a lot of stuff to do here in your down time anyway. I've enjoyed the work and the people here, it's been a pretty nice adventure so far.
I couldn't be happier with the job I have here and that I'm working down in the International Zone instead of up at the other complex.  Things really couldn't have worked out better.

Speaking of things working out, I'm hoping to find out by the end of January  or early February where I'll be moving to when I get back to the US.  I was extremely fortunate to have three assignments available in California.  I'm 99% sure I'll get one of them.  The order of my picks are: Monterey, Edwards AFB and LA.  I'm really hoping for the Monterey job.  Not only is it a beautiful location, but I'll be working at the Defense Language Institute providing academic support to the AF students there.  Since I started out studying Russian, I think it would be fun to go back and work with kids who are just starting out.  The other two jobs would be interesting as well, working either with advanced aircraft (Edwards) or missiles and satellites (LA).  I've always wanted to live in CA and enjoy the motorcycling roads and weather, and it will be nice to be just a 10-12 hour drive from kids and family in SLC.     

 

Current Events Update

I think it's been since Oct that I wrote about what's going on over here.  I guess if you really care at all you can always read or watch the news (I have to read it, I can't stand listening to the anchorpeople shouting any more...where is Uncle Walter?).  The elections are scheduled for March 7th, a couple months later than originally planned.  It took the Iraqis a while to agree on an election law, but in the end, the extra few weeks debating and making changes actually made for a better product.  We are deep into the political season here, and expect that tension will remain high between certain parties and groups, but mostly things are going quite well.

Overall violence levels are down even from six months ago when I first arrived.  Al Qaeda can still pull off a big attack now and then, but the Iraqis are pretty much running their own security operations and doing a good job of it.  There is a lot of public interest in the elections and I'm sure they'll be free, fair, and successful.  These elections are for the national parliament.  It will take a few months after the elections for the parliament to pick a Prime Minister and the government to actually start functioning.  Some people (Americans) are wringing their hands here over that, but I think we wring our hands over a lot of things.  We want to be typical Americans:  take action, fix things, but honestly it's all up to the Iraqis now.  We're giving guidance (not sure how much they want it) and support, but they are mostly running the show, and that's a good thing.

More Sword Play

These next few pictures are at the base of the hands holding up the swords.  As you get closer you can see helmets protruding from the base and partially buried in the ground.  These are helmets taken from dead Iranian soldiers.  You might be able to see some of the bullet holes in the helmets.  Saddam built this monument after the Iran-Iraq war was over.  The war took place from 1980 to 1988.  The helmets symbolize the defeat of the Iranians.  When Saddam's army would parade through this area, they were symbolically constantly trampling their enemies. The final picture is of me and an Iraqi soldier.  Definitely not enemies.

Trip to the Crossed Swords

So the other day a bunch of us went sight-seeing.  To the Crossed Swords area.  It's actually a military parade area built by Saddam back in his hey-day.  There is a gigantic set of crossed swords on either end of the parade ground, and a large set of grandstands for viewing.  In the picture of me and my truck a couple posts ago, the swords were behind the cameraman.  The odd shaped building behind me in that picture is the tomb of the unknown soldier.  Here's a better picture of that tomb.  The entrance is at the front of the clamshell.  Kind of a unique design.

The hands holding the swords were actually modeled after Saddam's hands.  You can see the second set of swords in the distance.  The grandstands are on the left between the sets of swords, and there are banks of lights on those big poles.

If you click on the pictures they'll get larger, and if you look careful you can see the people off to the right of the hand.  Now you get an idea on just how massive these things are.  I think the swords cross over 100ft in the air.