mmm good...

'Of course, I want to hear about FOOD. What do you eat? Where do you eat it? Do you ever eat “in town” or at a café? Or are you restricted in certain places. Do they eat lamb or goat? ... Tell me about your favorites.'

Welp... As a whole, unfortunaetly the US military forces do not eat a lot of Iraqi food. Just about everything you eat, aside from any goodies sent from home, comes from the chow hall. The chow hall serves three hot meals a day, working in weekly rotations of what's served. All things considered, the selection of parmesan hamburger, ham mac n' cheese, baked chicken etc. etc. is actually not bad. Unfortunaetly, out here it's hard to have any perspective at all, and the same things every week tires me. Occasionally, we will make it to one of the larger FOB's and be able to enjoy their fine dining experiences, but on the daily basis frozen cordon bleu works. Not to mention, it is common place to be on mission through lunch time, making those goodies sent from home (poguey bait) even more key.

Now, being part of such a culturally focused team, as well as part of special operations, us and the PSYOP guys are of course inclined to pickup some local food whenever we get the chance. When planning our dismounted patrols, we take into account where the good food is in relation to our route. But, of course, the tankers would freak out if they knew they were standing around in an unsecured area so that Tiff and I could get some lunch, so we are forced to play it off. 'We're evaluating local businesses'. 'We're developing relations with shop owners'. Such phrases become common place when hunger sets in.

Usually, our local dining experiences consist of chicken or falafel. The chicken is roasted rotisserie style on the street, and in many places is quite delicious. It usually comes with a bag of samuun, a delicious bread that is similar to rice in that it accompanies most everything. The falafel is similar to a falafel you will have at home, and is every bit as delicious. Occasionally we will grab a kabob or two, which is lamb combined with cucumbers and tomatoes wrapped in samuun.

Hate to cut this short but duty calls. Will write again soon.

A Short Breather Before The Big Day

The humm of the engine grows louder as I accelerate down the canal road in Al Abarra. The HMMWV in front of mine is only visible for short glimpses as it wheels around the turns 40 meters ahead. The small road is surrounded by lush vegetation caused by the numerous canals in the area, groves of palm trees and ferns. The children emerge from their houses to wave and give thumbs up to the passing troops, possibly out of support for the cause, but most likely hoping that the patrol will stop and pass out candy, or maybe even a coveted soccer ball. Five or Six vehicles ahead of me is an Iraqi Bongo Truck carrying what's left of the thousands of ballots that we've delivered throughout day. The sun is on it's way down; it's right around 1500 and my team has been outside the wire since around 0530. We've spent most of the day trolling around Al Abarra, stopping occasionally to talk to the locals, but our main purpose being to provide additional security to the ballot truck. There was discussion this morning of what this patrol might hold, and most seemed unconcerned. The idea of an insurgent attack on the trucks carrying the ballots before they've been filled out didn't make sense to me or any of the other soldiers, too easy to recover from. Most are guessing the dangerous patrols will take place over the next few days as the ballots are returned for counting.
We cross route Blue Babe into an ugly, dirty village, and setup our security. The children walk quickly down the dirt streets with no shoes, heading to the school to see what all the commotion is about. We're tired and in no mood to exit the vehicle and put on a show, so we sit here in the AC, thanking our lucky stars that today it decided to blow cold. Ah! Excellent. I know what it is before it comes. The CO comes over the radio telling us to jump in with blue platoon and head back to Gabe. Mission almost complete.
As we pull back onto Blue Babe and start our journey home, I think about what we'd done today. Then I think a little bit about what I'd done for the last two weeks. Some of the days have been good, some not so good, but I hope it's been enough to get this constitution passed. But then again, I have to remind myself, we're just setting the conditions for the referendum. We have no part in the outcome. I have my fingers crossed though.

The Referendum

Thank you to everyone who has sent me care packages, I appreciate it more than you know. Again, the referendum approaches closer. One of our jobs over the past month has been to gauge how well word has spread about the upcoming vote as well as how much the people know about the constitution. It often surprises me how word can spread in a country so seemingly torn apart by war. It is not uncommon to see a village of mudhuts, each with their own satellite dish perched on top. The general consensus among those that are not against the constitution by principle, seems to be that they understand that it is a good thing, but are really unsure as to what it will do for them.
Growing up in the US, the word constitution becomes part of our vocabulary almost immediately upon entering the public school system, and the ideas behind it ingrained soon after. But to an Iraqi, the idea of a written document that will form the foundation of their federal government may not be such an elementary idea. It seems to me that a great blunder was made in the process of Iraqi Constitution production, no one ever told the Iraqi populace what a constitution is.
So again, they seem to understand that the constitution is positive, but the complexities of how it is put together, the ideas of federalism and securing liberty, these concepts are beyond their grasp. But, this may not be so different from the United States in the days leading up to the ratification of the constitution in 1787. The average US citizen at that time had very little conceptual understanding of what formed the basis of their legislation and rights. At this time, as it is today in modern Iraq, citizens were much more concerned with immediate, pressing issues. For the Iraqis, these issues may consist of their children making it safely to school, or possibly the 2-3 hours of power they receive a day.
In 1787, it was not a nationwide vote. The representatives, elected by the people, voted in what they felt was the best interest of their constituents. These representatives were generally well educated, because of this being in a better position to fully understand the concept of a constitution and what it should consist of. Iraq, in it’s effort to be as democratic a state as possible, has left the issue up to the general population.
In the days before the final vote is to be held, I do not hope that the constitution passes, even though it may bring my job closer to completion. I do not wish for the Sunni population to vote for something they feel is not in their best interest. What I do wish is that for one day, the Iraqis will put aside their differences, stop mercilessly killing each other, and will simply go to the polls and put a check next to what they feel best supports the needs of their new government. Will that happen? No. But it's a thought.

Some Random Facts

• 2-34 Armor Battalion is out of Fort Reilly, Kansas, home of the Big Red One, 1st Infantry Division.
• 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division is based out of Fort Benning, Georgia. Fort Benning is also where I attended basic training June - September of 2002, under 3ID.
• Despite popular belief, not all of Iraq is a desert. The Diyala Province, though disgustingly hot during the summer, has a good amount of vegetation. This is largely due to the countless number of rivers and canals that run through the area.
• The Diyala Province is mostly agricultural, growing lots of dates, melons, and other good stuff.
• Canals can prove to be quite an obstacle when driving down unlit dirt roads at night, with the headlights off and your Night Vision clouded by the dust of the truck in front of you.
• The Iraqi Army, despite being somewhat rag-tag, does exist and does execute a substantial number of combat ops each night throughout Iraq.
• The pending Iraqi consitution states that it will be illegal to enter someone's home without their permission. I wonder what we will be doing if it passes?
• We do have TV's with the news playing in our chow hall. The TV's play the Armed Forces Network (AFN) news, which is a collection of different station's news clips pulled together. Yes, the information I recieve is filtered.
• In Iraq there is such a thing as a sand flea, and it likes to infest your sheets and give you small bites all over your body. I thought it was baby mosquitoes that were too small to see. It took me weeks to realize I was wrong.
• The Iraqi city councils have weekly meetings and they drive me NUTS!

Gonna go hit the gym.

Ryan