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.