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.

Mood:  flirty
The Iraqi government called a nation-wide holiday for the elections that will run from Tuesday through Saturday. Consequently, there were only a handful of Iraqis on my compound yesterday. As a further restriction to help improve security, the Iraqi government announced that there will be a curfew from December 13th (Tuesday) through December 17th (Saturday). The curfew will run every day from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. No travel or movement will be permitted during curfew hours.

It is eerie inside my compound right now because without the Iraq, it becomes very, very quite. It also makes its difficult to get anything done because the Iraqis are backbone of my compound. They are responsible for everything from driving me to the Palace to delivering water bottles to my house. Without them, very little gets done.

Mood:  chillin'
I love military doctors. They have no reservations about handing out medication like candy. The doctor that examined my ear infection wrote me a prescription of antibiotics for my ear infection and threw in prescription of super-antihistamines just for fun. As an added bonus, I received all these nice drugs free of charge!

However, military doctors also like telling you the worse case scenario and explaining why that would suck. For example, my doctor told me that my ear infection could get worse and eventually the pus inside my middle ear could simply burst out and come dribbling down the side of my ear. If it does that, it will hurt a lot, but the military will simply tell me to tough it out because there is little they can do in country other than wait to make sure the ear drum heals properly on its own.

Mood:  irritated
Getting sick inside the Green isn't very fun. I came down with a cold a few days ago. I took some antihistamines, but it didn't help much. To make matters worse, I developed a minor ear infection on Friday morning. I wanted to visit a doctor on Sunday because it hadn't cleared up. There is only one outpatient clinic available to westerners working inside the Green Zone, and, sadly, it was closed when I tried to visit it. After realizing I wouldn't get any professional help, I wanted to purchase some ear drops to tie me over, but the PX didn't have any. Thus, because there was no third option, I was forced to spend yet another day with a partially clogged ear.

Mood:  vegas lucky
Topic: Scary Stuff
Last night, about every hour or so I heard small gunfights erupt at the nearby checkpoints and across the river. It would start off with small arms fire and eventually the firefights would escalate. After the US military started responding with 50 caliber machine guns, the bad guys would give up.

A little after 10pm, as I was sitting around a fire with about ten friends, the sound of gun fire began to ring out through the night air. In less than a minute, I began to see tracers filling the night sky. At that moment, I saw a red tracer coming from the other side of river fly toward my compound. As I saw it fly over my head, one of my buddies shouted out an expletive. I leap up from my chair and shouted, "Everyone run for the house!" My house was a short ten second sprint from the fire.

Four people ran into my house. Two leapt behind a nearby concrete wall. Two other dashed off to another house. At least one hid behind the backside of a house. I don’t know where everyone else went. From our various hiding places, we all took occasional glances at the night sky. For twenty minutes, the sky was filled red and the occasional green tracer. It reminded me of watching a distant fireworks show or the grainy green images from the first Gulf War of the Iraqi military trying to protect itself from the American air campaign against Baghdad.

As soon as I reached the safety of my concrete house, I reached for my radio and called up my compound’s security officer to let him know that a few rounds had landed inside my compound. We had seen tracers flying toward us, and someone told me that they heard the pinging sound of rounds hop-skipping off the concrete. My security officer calmly advised everyone to stay indoors and away from windows. He told us the 20 minute barrage of bullets began due to soccer game. I know that the Iraqis like "celebratory fire," but I had never seen anything that excessive in my 11 months in Iraq.

Toward the end of the firefight, I decided to buck up the spirits of my friends tapped outside by blaring Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyries" and the Rolling Stone's "Paint it Black" on loud speaker outside my house. As soon as they heard it, they shouted, "Turn it up!"

Mood:  special
Topic: The Places
A few weeks back a bunch of my friends and I decided to visit one of the bars inside the Green Zone. The bar is named after the company that owns the compound – Parsons.

To get to the bar, we called up a motorpool driver and piled into a large van. We had already thrown back a few drinks, and I am sure that our fairly conservative and religious driver was wondering how a bunch of drunks like us could be placed in charge of the reconstruction. On the short trip through the Green Zone, we were very loud and made many crude jokes.

After passing through a Marine checkpoint, where the very sober Marines gently teased us, we finally arrived at the entrance to the compound where the bar was located. We walked through the main gate and then approached a small guard shark. The security guard manning the shack was from southern Africa. His accent was so thick that I had a hard time understanding what he saying. He wanted everyone to sign into a guest book, but since most of my friends had already taken off toward the bar, I simply signed all of them in and forged their signatures.

The bar was nothing more than a double-wide trailer filled with a television, tables, chairs, and a dart board. The bar itself was rather small and didn’t provide enough room for the bartender to keep all the beer behind the counter. A lot of the beer rested in larger coolers to the right of the bar. If you wanted a beer, you simply pulled it from a cooler and paid at the bar.

The prices were very reasonable. Beers were about $2 per bottle, and most mixed drinks were $3.

Mood:  down
Topic: Daily Life
When money is not an object, you get almost anything you want in Iraq. Last night I went to a party catered by a French chef and that included two guys running around serving people drinks. It reminded me of a lobbyist party on Capitol Hill.

Topic: Political Rant
The new, much-heralded National Strategy for Victory in Iraq reads much like a presentation outline or talking points. A lot of the document seems focused on attempting to justify why America is engaged in Iraq and explaining why we need to stay. Christopher F. Gelpi, co-author of research on American tolerance for casualties, shrewdly noted that "the Pentagon doesn't need the president to give a speech and post a document on the White House Web site to know how to fight the insurgents. The document is clearly targeted at American public opinion."

The National Strategy for Victory in Iraq includes a lot of filler and optimistic repacking of what has been said before. However, the heart of the document is two pages focused on three basic concepts that will supposedly lead us to victory:

A. The Political Track (Isolate, Engage, Build). The Political Track involves working to forge a broadly supported national compact for democratic governance by helping the Iraqi government.

B. The Security Track (Clear, Hold, Build).The Security Track involves carrying out a campaign to defeat the terrorists and neutralize the insurgency, developing Iraqi security forces, and helping the Iraqi government.

C. The Economic Track (Restore, Reform, Build). The Economic Track involves setting the foundation for a sound and self-sustaining economy by helping the Iraqi government.

Oddly enough, even though I am working in Iraq, no one has encouraged me to read this document. I get the sense that it will only negligibly affect what happens out here. It will be interesting to see how, or even if, this document continues to influence the war as it slowly creeps into it third year.

And in other news . . . while recently visiting the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Secretary Don Rumsfeld said that "to be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks."