Mood:  a-ok
I have survived my one year tour in Iraq. I am going home today.

Topic: Political Rant
The end has almost come. Assuming that everything goes according to plan, I will board a plane tomorrow and Iraq for good. This will probably be my second to last entry on this blog.

There were many things that I chose not to write about in this blog. There have been wild parties that makes most of the parties that happen back in the States seem lame. I have watched some of my friends slowly creep toward personal collapses, and I know people who suffered near complete breakdowns. I have witnessed the behavior of senior leaders in the reconstruction and felt totally appalled. I have watched people do stupid things, such as throwing rounds into a fire, and simply shrugged it off. I have listened to Iraqis tell the stories of a country tearing itself apart and stood powerless before them with nothing to help ease their pains or keep them safe. I have seen some of the best and brightest people I have even known work tirelessly to help the Iraqi people. I have also seen Iraqis doing everything they can to survive this war, protect their families, and help their country.

I have many stories to tell, yet there is one thing that bothers me more than anything else. I have watched the reconstruction fail right in front of my face. The history and the future of the multi-billion dollar investment in Iraq's future failed to deliver on many of the important promises made to the Iraq people, and the reconstruction was probably the easiest component of the American misadventure in Iraq.

In late November 2005, the Bush Administration stated in its National Strategy for Victory in Iraq that our "strategy is working," which stands in sharp contrast to my assessment. The Administration stresses that "much has been accomplished in Iraq, including the removal of Saddam's tyranny, negotiation of an interim constitution, restoration of full sovereignty, holding of free national elections, formation of an elected government, drafting of a permanent constitution, ratification of that constitution, introduction of a sound currency, gradual restoration of Iraq's neglected infrastructure, and the ongoing training and equipping of Iraq's security forces."

No matter how pessimistic I have become, the Bush Administration is correct that positive things have happened, but the details behind these positive statements make the "successes" seem far murkier and very questionable. Perhaps more importantly, the details make the prospect of helping "the Iraqi people build a new Iraq with a constitutional, representative government that respects civil rights and has security forces sufficient to maintain domestic order and keep Iraq from becoming a safe haven for terrorists" seem long and at times even unlikely.

Security. Almost every time that a dictatorship falls, a period of anarchy ensures. It happened in East Timor. It happened in the Congo. It happened in Iraq. Unfortunately, the military (or perhaps just senior Administration leaders) failed to plan for this highly enviable outcome. In fact, senior political leaders pushed people out of the way who questioned the plan or made comments that attacked the logical behind the basic plan.

To make matters worse, as the Guardian wisely noted in December 2005, "the US occupation has made at least one major political mistake every year. Big Blunder 2003 was the dissolution of the Iraqi army. Big Blunder 2004 was the failure to dismantle militias - out of fear of upsetting the Kurds and the main Shia religious party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri)." These failures added fuel to a dangerous, violent fire - the insurgency - sweeping through the country.

Military might alone cannot bring these forces back under control. These difficulties in the security arena have made the US turns its attention, and much of its hopes, toward bringing the divergent forces into the political process and giving people the belief that avoiding violence and supporting the reconstruction will bring them some tiny bit of hope.

The Reconstruction. The reconstruction has failed. It failed for many reasons. It failed because the initial plans for Iraq did not even include any significant reconstruction funds. It failed because the plans for the $18.4 Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) were not based on realistic assessments of the work that needed to be done. It failed because completed projects are not sustainable. If they aren't sustainable, everything falls apart the minute the reconstruction teams leave.

The Americans simply could not overcome these basic problems of the reconstruction in face of the massive challenge in front of them - rebuilding a country that endured three massive wars in twenty years, three decades of totalitarian rule, and the punishing effects of economic sanctions.

Politics. The typical American view is that the elections are like a magic wand that will produce peace and prosperity. This may be so, but Iraqi elections have yet to produce a viable, trustworthy government. Consider the El Salvador elections in 1982 that went off well in terms of numbers; their civil war there went on for another decade. Will that happen in Iraq? While the political process can bring an end to the violence, it won’t happen overnight even if it goes well.

Perhaps the most disappoint aspect of the political process is how little we know about the fate of this country. It could still slip into a full blown civil war. It could somehow hold itself together. It could become a Shiite religious state tightly aligned with Iraq, which definitely isn't want the Bush Administration would want. I find it disconcerting that pushing three years into this adventure – after all the lives that have been lost – we still don't know what will happen.

I could go on and on about what I think about the American adventure in Iraq, but I need to get to work and my comments are just one take on it. Thus, I think I will leave my comments as a three legged argument. The security situation remains bad. The reconstruction failed. The results of the political process are inconclusive. With the American government now determined to begin the lengthy pull out process, is it too late to fix these three problems to ensure that some good comes out of this war?

Whatever happens now, the fate of Iraq is now in the hands of the Iraqi people.

And in other news . . . I want to wish the best of luck to all my fellow Iraq bloggers out there. Keep blogging.

Mood:  rushed
To celebrate New Year's Eve, I had a friend in the military that rigged up a plastic flamingo on top of a large pole on top of my house. As the final seconds of 2005 ticked away, he slowly eased it down to the ground so it landed right at midnight. Perhaps a minute before midnight, the night sky suddenly filled with tracers. Some Iraqis had decided to ring in the New Year with celebratory fire. Thus, I had to push everyone into my house so they wouldn't get hurt, but my military friends stayed at their post and eased the flamingo down to the ground. They have seen enough crap happen in Iraq that a little celebratory fire doesn't stop them.

Mood:  accident prone
Topic: The US Military
For nearly 12 months, every time I went from my compound to the Palace, I had to pass through a Marine checkpoint. During that time, I have seen the Marines beef up the checkpoint. At first it was simply a bunch of Marines who were supported by two machinegun nests perhaps 30 yards from the checkpoint. Then, they added speed bumps. Shortly after that, they added a lot of jersey barriers. Then, they added thick metal wires that could be used block off the road in an emergency.

The Embassy closed the check point because the felt that the Green Zone was safe enough that they could no longer justify keeping the Marines there, and they are apparently relying on nearly security contractors to provide the level support that they believe is adequate. All the same, I would rather have a small group of Marines serving as a line of security around the Palace than relying on a bunch of security contractors who can't speak English.

And in other news . . . according to early election returns, Iraqi voters choose sectarian parties rather than one of the handful of nation-wide parties. Nine out of 10 Iraqis in the Shiite Muslim provinces of the south voted for religious Shiite parties, according to the early results from the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq. Nine out of 10 Iraqis in Sunni Muslim Arab areas of central and western Iraq voted for Sunni parties. Nine out of 10 Iraqis in the Kurdish provinces of the north voted for Kurdish candidates.

Topic: The US Military
Marines in Anbar province refer to Iraqis as Dirka Dirkas. The reference comes from a film called Team America. The film, which was created by the duo that brought us South Park, has cheesy puppet that are sent throughout the globe to fight terrorism. It is a strong satire about American politics and Americans in general. In the film, most Arabs say things like "Dirka Dirka" rather than actual Arabic words.

Although the Army is willing to fly helicopters during the day, the Marines have decided that the baddies have gotten too good at taking down helicopter to justify day movements. During a night movement, passengers sometimes doze off and it is nearly impossible for the passengers to know where they are at any particular time. Thus, passengers have their hands marked so the flight crew knows where to kick them off. The code for the Green Zone is "CP," which is short for Camp Prosperity - a base within the Green Zone.

And in other news . . . I found yet another example proving that the U.S. government has lots of trouble managing contracts with security companies.

Mood:  on fire
Topic: Daily Life
The fine people in the US military have created a small chapel right outside of Saddam's old presidential palace. Every day there is a catholic service, and on Sundays there are also Episcopal, Latter Day Saints, and general Christian gospel services. There is also a small Muslim prayer area just inside one of the main entrances to the Palace.

I know a Marine in Iraq who told me that he stopped going to mass shortly after he arrived in Iraq. At first he tried to keep going even though his job requires him to kill people, but he stopped going once he realized that he was attending more memorial services than church services. At that point, he decided to take a short break from religion.

And in other news . . . the Iraqis really want the Americans to start leaving their country.

Although PXs do accept credit cards, Americans posted to Iraq still need American dollars so they can purchase alcohol, souvenirs, hair cuts, food from the local economy, etc. Most people bring cash with them when the enter Iraq. (I was advised to bring $1,000 to cover my personal expenses while in Iraq.) However, it is surprising how quickly $1,000 will disappear when you are buying rugs or throwing big parties. That is why I am very thankful that there are other ways to pick up American dollars in Iraq.

I know of three cashiering offices in Iraq that will accept checks for cash from Americans posted in Iraq. One office is run by the State Department and two are run by the military. Each office has its own limitations. For example, the State Department cashier's office is limited to $500 per person per month, but I believe that the military offices allow people from my agency to withdraw $750 every two weeks.

The cashiering operations are highly efficient. The checks are digitally scanned and drawn on a domestic bank located in the States. The checks usually clear in less than two days, and the cashiers keep a detailed log of the people who accidentally bounce their checks.

And in other news . . . An Iraqi girl has made a nifty photographic blog on Iraq.

Yesterday, I was invited to a large Christmas party hosted by Aegis, a security company working in Iraq. I didn't go, which means I missed the only chance I had in Iraq to meet its infamous founder Tim Spicer.

Tim Spicer is a former military man from the United Kingdom who worked for Sandline International, a private military company that closed in 2004. While working in Sierra Leone, he supposedly imported weapons in violation of the UN arms embargo. Most people also associate Spicer with many other questionable activities at Sandline, including attempting to prop up the not-so-nice government of Prime Minister Chan in Papua New Guinea.

Things hasn't gone perfectly swimmingly for Tim Spicer since he came to Iraq, but to fair, most security contractors have run into trouble in Iraq. Very few of them have the proper structure in place to prevent fraud committed by dishonest employees. They also have trouble even keeping enough paperwork around to prove that they spent their money in the proper fashion. To make maters worse, many of the security company in Iraq started their operations within the last few years. Aegis, for example, won its contract even though it was a start-up company that had never demonstrated any experience in security operations of the kind required in Iraq.

In the center of Baghdad, Iraqis built a monument core somewhat reminiscent of the series of moments of the east side of the Mall in Washington. Saddam built most of these monuments during the 1970's and 1980's using money raised from the oil industry.

After the Crossed Swords, the most noticeable moment is Iraq's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is a large concrete hill with an odd shape at it's very top. According to the sources I could find on the Internet, the odd shape at the top of the hill is supposed to represent a traditional shield (dira’a) falling from the dying grasp of an Iraqi warrior.

Inside the moment, Saddam placed a small museum, which appears to have been looted because all the display boxes are empty. It is also pitch black because the lights don't work. In an attempt to repair the lights so Iraqi could rebuild the museum, the Iraqi government and the US military recently attempted to replace the switch boxes and other electrical wiring that were looted when Baghdad fell, but shortly after they were was installed, someone stole it.

And in other news . . . Even though entertainers and VIPs visit Iraq during the holidays, I haven't seen any.

If you manage a reconstruction project in Iraq, you spent at least a portion of your protecting them. Every few weeks, the powers that be at the top of the Embassy food chain try to find where they can wring out funds to support new initiatives.

People also fight over funds that don't exist yet. Individuals at the U.S. Agency for International Development, State Department, and the military are all fighting over who will control the Strategic City Stabilization Initiative (SCSI). The SCSI is a $1.3 billion program that will implement social and economic stabilization program impacting ten strategic cities, which yet to be identified, that need to see the "benefits" of cooperating with the US. All this political infighting seems silly because no one has any funding to implement this program. Everyone in Iraq expects the military to tack this program into the upcoming for Iraq, but no one even knows if the Office of Management and Budget will allow it to stay in the final version of the supplemental appropriations funding request that will be sent to Congress in early 2006. Even if it is there, the Bush Administration will have to defend why more funds should be spent on the reconstruction when $3.4 billion from the massive $18.4 Iraq reconstruction fund established in 2003 have not even been obligated (set aside for specific projects) yet.

In an effort to keep people working in the Green Zone entertained, KBR has created a small makeshift theater in the basement of the Place, the heart of the US embassy's operations in Baghdad. The theater holds about 30 to 40 people, who can sit in comfy seats that are slightly tiered. Most of the films are fairly modern, but occasionally they show older films if it fits into a theme. For example, right now the nice people from KBR are showing Christmas movies ranging the gamut from Bad Santa to It's a Wonderful Life.

And in other news . . . dealing private militias may be one of the largest challenges facing the military and police forces.

Mood:  hungry
Everyone says that you shouldn't go out into the Red Zone right before your tour ends. While I won't go out before I leave, I almost had to go out.

One of my coworkers agreed to jump onto a team that had to visit Hillah, Najaf, and Karlbala this week. It didn't make sense for him to make the site visits because he was swamped at work, and he wasn't adding anything special to the team other than serving as a second set of eyes. Because I don’t have a heavy workload right now, I volunteered to take his place. Everyone said I was crazy for agreeing to go out, but I said their logic didn't make sense. From a strict workload perspective, I was the only logical choice. More importantly, is my coworker's life somehow worth less because he was in the middle of his tour? Iraq is a messed up place, but we all accepted a certain level of risk when we agreed to come to Iraq. If your job dictates that you have to go out, you need to accept that and do your job.

Regardless, the whole point became moot because the person in charge of the trip couldn't reserve a PSD team to cover the movement from al Hillah to Karbala and Najaf.

And in other news . . . some work might need to be done to convince Sunni Arab and secular political groups that the election was fair.

Throughout much of the 1990's, and particularly after the problems encountered in Somalia, the US military stressed that it was not in the business of nation building. Yet, in Iraq, the US military has eventually realized that defeating the insurgency cannot be done with military might alone. Thus, the Pentagon recently issued Pentagon Directive No. 3000, which orders US military commanders to incorporate postwar stability missions into every war plan. In order to make those plans function effectively, commanders are expected to coordinate with the State Department and other agencies to create nation-building teams, such as the Provincial Reconstruction Teams used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Although the Statement Department, and thus the Administration, is very proud of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams concept, the military will have to invest significant efforts, particularly in human capital development, to ensure that its involvement in reconstruction succeeds. The military will quickly learn that reconstruction work is difficult and expensive. For example, military leaders significant underestimated the need for reconstruction in Iraq. According to Global Security, "initial estimates place the cost of reconstruction to be anywhere between $10 billion to $60 billion over the next five years. In addition when one considers the costs of maintaining a military presence in Iraq during reconstruction, the costs balloon to anywhere between $100 billion and $500 billion."

When people come to Iraq, they cannot take very much stuff. Soldiers have very strict weight limitations, and most foreign service officers and contractors cannot bring more than a few pieces of luggage. However, some people end up mailing themselves things from home, and after spending a full tour in Iraq, almost everyone pick up things – DVDs, books, souvenirs, etc.

At the end of everyone's tour, they are forced to send all of their extra stuff back home through the mail. Whenever I go to the post office, there is always someone sending something home. While some people use large boxes, most soldiers use large, black footlockers that they can purchase from the PX.

Regardless of where someone's mail is going, soldiers working at the Army Post Office search each package to make sure contraband is not sent through the mail. The military, in association with the Post Office, has created a big list of the items that cannot go through an Army Post Office, including "lewd" material, live ammunition, dead birds, and chemical warfare gear.

For reasons that still aren't very clear to me, a handful of houses in my compound have Armed Forces Network (AFN) decoders. AFN decoders receive signals from the American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS), which is a Defense Department agency that provides radio and television services to the U.S. military throughout the world. The military works with the entertainment industry to bring troop programs ranging from “The Simpsons” to Fox News, which is particularly popular on AFN.

Most of the men in my compound like AFN because they can watch football. Almost every week, I roll over to one of my friend's houses and watch football on his AFN decoder. Most Sunday games start at 9pm in Iraq due to the 8 hour time difference. The second set of games starts at 12 midnight, which means only the die hard fans stay up to watch the "late" games.

While watching the games, we drink a few beers and eat some snacks. Everyone also talks a lot of "smack." All it all, it reminds of a hanging out with a bunch of guys in college.

A few weeks ago I was going over personnel records for various employees that work for my agency, including the personnel records of many Iraqis. It slowly dawned on me that the "bad guys" would love to get their hands on this information. They would use it to hunt down the Iraqis working for the Americans. This is a fairly common occurrence in Iraq. Sometimes the bad guys only threaten the "collaborators," but they also kill people.

It scared me realizing how little emphasis was placed on protecting the personnel files for Iraqis.

The food in the cafeteria on my compound has gotten very bad. The food is always cold, the bread is as stiff as hardtack, and the meat is often undercooked. The new chef is also using leftovers way too often. For example, we had leftovers from Thanksgiving sitting out for about a week, and I have a feeling that uneaten hot dogs simply stay in the heating tray meal after meal after meal. To make matters worse, the menu has become way too repetitious. On average, I am served spaghetti two to three times per week.

Because I have very few options for eating other than visiting a military cafeteria (DFAC) or eating the food my family and friends have shipped through the mail, I have quickly gotten sick of it and desperate for something new. Thankfully, I only have two and a half weeks left.

And in other news . . . based on a recent poll, Iraqis seem surprisingly optimistic despite all the bad things that have happened.

Mood:  chatty
Topic: Scary Stuff
In contrast to the January elections, yesterday’s vote was much, much calmer. In Baghdad, I only heard sporadic fire.

The only real "scary" moment for those of us living inside the Green Zone came early in the morning. At roughly 7am in the morning, the security officer advised us that it would be a good idea to wear body armor due to the treat of indirect fire. About five minutes after the warning, the bad guys lobbed a mortar round at the Zone. Thankfully, it didn't kill anyone. It wounded a few people and destroyed a water truck. I don't want to think about what would have happened if that truck was filled with something flammable. After the attack, the security officer on my compound made us wear body armor for the rest of the day.

It is amazing how sophisticated and modern Iraqi political campaigns have become. The candidates are not only doing simple things like plastering everything (including mortar shelters) with posters but also sending text messages and creating slick advertisements. They have even used negative campaign techniques too. One of the most common negative advertisements morphs Iyad Allawi's face into Saddam Hussein. The ad has been very effective, but as an unexpected side effect, Allawai's poll numbers have gone up in the Western provinces, which are the heart of the insurgency.

In May 2004, the US appointed Dr. Allawi to serve as the Iraq's "interim prime minister" until the appointed interim government was replaced by the elected transitional government. Since falling from power, he has spent his time attempting to curry favor with the other political factions in Iraq, who he will have to form a coalition government with if he intends to become the next prime minister. Surprisingly, even though he is Shiite, he polls exceptionally well with Sunnis. Most Iraqis I talk to inside the Green Zone also generally support Allawi. However, most Iraqis I talk to are highly educated and fairly secular, which are Allawai's key demographics.

And in other news . . . due to a curfew and travel ban throughout Iraq during the election period, Iraqi newspapers will not publish anything from December 14 through December 17.