Note From Iraq

Howdy howdy...

First off... before anything else, we have to edit out my address, in case we have some bullshit government watchdog keeping an eye on the posts... I'd rather not have to talk to those fucks. Write it down though, I'm sure Phrag has the address saved now, but it needs to get off the page.

As for an opinion on what goes on over here, I have plenty of them. We all talk about it alot, but being over here also adds a bias to our ideas I think. Of course we've all talked about having signs in Arabic saying "If you'd cooperate, we would leave." There are many problems not expressed or known about to the general public and that's mostly the media editing for propaghanda purposes and political support, hell, alot of it is language barrier and ignorance on our part. There are several political groups over, all bidding for power and control in the new government of Iraq. On one side, we have several Iraqi based political parties that are really not as apparent here in Mosul. The big issue you here is the other side, the kurds. There is PDK (Popular Democratic Kurdish party... I think... I might have to edit that later), thse guys where actual military uniforms and carry AK's as a security force for their political party buildings, which are more or less compounds. There are the ICDC, a bunch of 2 week trained civilians with AK's who are basically a back up militia for the people... ICDC is pretty much useless though, they're not nessesarily bad, but they believe in power by numbers and they run at the sign of any real trouble (friday for instance). There are the police, pretty much useless except for a few. I've heard a few of the Iraqi's say that PDK are a bunch of murderous bastards who are only staying in check because we are here. That's politics as usual though in this country. There's nothing fun to do in this country, they have no release, they don't date and dance and enjoy the company of the opposite sex. They are brought up with guns in their houses and tank bodies littering the country side. School is free and the educated are, for the most part, completely aware of their country consisting of religious extremist degenerates with guns. We compare it often to the french revolution, they fight against power... if they gained power, they would probably fight themselves. The RPG is the guillotine of modern Iraq. Really though, we have opinions and we talk, but it all comes down to "Fuck the iraqis, fuck this country, lets shoot some people and leave". I don't care about their government, because there will be no stable government. As long as there are rebel leaders, there are people who will follow in the cause. No one likes a foreign army, especially infantry. We're not here to be nice, we're not here to promote democracy... there is no democracy in infantry. We're just doing our time. I've made Iraqi friends, I'm not so ignorant to hate every Iraqi because of his/her nationality... but I'm certainly not an aproachable guy on the street. Screw it, this war is lost because there is no war. We defeated their army, but we can't defeat radical idealism. I don't know if this even makes real sense, I'm not going to bother to read over it. It's kind of silly, our views and opinions would fill a book and they aren't all that great or insightful. I'm sure you'll hear about it when I get home though... probably at great length and way too loud (with a bottle in my hand... of course). Really, I just wave at the small children, throw rocks back at the kids and teenagers and ignore the adults. Best to not get too involved.

Also, if you guys send a package. No alcohol for now... all packages get searched now because of certain uncareful people. Really, I don't need much at all. So don't worry about it right now. I'll tell you guys when I think of something, just keep posting though. That's what really does it for me.

-Adam

The part that reads, "Screw it, this war is lost because there is no war," until the end of that paragraph is fantastic. Reminds me of Hemingway for some reason.

Sounds like its a hell of a time over there...the problem with the type war we should be wagin on them is illegal...you just can't take the radical bastards out an shoot them. Supposedly thats not right. But if the saw we were going to put up with shit it might just make them more willing to help us.

Hey there's a big bahahahaha going across your blog... is that cause detroit lost the other night? No se. Detroit is evil, repent! Repent! I'm hoping for a Boston win this year, they're cool, like school

Roe, email me your home address.

mahalos for the letter from iraq - real sobering shit, esp. in contrast with the crud in the media. i thought the line "Fuck the iraqis, fuck this country, lets shoot some people and leave" sounded 100% amerikan.