Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail

From an Army Captain we know in Iraq, who will remain nameless:

Hello to all from Mosul, Iraq:

The Army has decided to wipe out our ability to access our Yahoo accounts so from here on out please e-mail this address. Also, as a result my distro list is not complete, so if someone you know wants this please send me their address. I did not intentionally leave someone off this.

The unemployment business shapes up every day to look more and more like an episode of the Sopranos. Last Thursday there was a riot downtown. I did not know it ’cause I was in a meeting in my office with a bunch of Iraqi COLs right across the river from the riots. The General who is my Iraqi counterpart was speaking at an engagement that morning. Then I hear a crash at the front gates and a pickup–loaded with 15 Hajis dressed in green all with AK-47s and yelling at the top of their lungs–comes to a screeching halt.

I run to the window, chamber a round, move my safety off and am one second from wasting these lunatics when one of the Iraqi COLs grabs my arm and says that it is OK, they are with us. Well, out of the back comes none other than my General–he is yelling “Captain! Captain!” Then he starts yelling at me in Arabic.

So I grab him and shake him and yell “English, speak freaking English.” Well, whatever he said has everyone in an uproar and my translator is yelling in Arabic, finally he snaps out of it and starts yelling in English that people are coming to attack us at the building. So I go outside to grab my SGT, when I see the guys in the truck dump a guy out the back. He has a nice entry and exit wound in his chest, by his shoulder. He doesn’t move or make a sound. It sucked to be him.

I find my SGT who thought that since they were yelling CPT CPT, that I was shot. I explain to him what’s going on, and we request air support and MP support ASAP. That’s when my boss calls me and says–good luck, shit hit the fan downtown, do what you can because all U.S. forces are engaged. Nice! It’s only 10:00 o’clock and there is a dead guy in my driveway, just me with a 9mm and a SGT with a rifle, and an angry mob across the river wants to attack us.

Well, the mob stayed across the river, thankfully. Come to find out the riot started where the General was (Coincidence? I think not!) but they stayed over the river to riot in front of the government building.

Great day!

Then I have to kick the Kurdish Islamic Unionist Party out of my building. We are setting up a U.S.-style government where political parties are not sponsored by the government and they cannot occupy government buildings. So it takes me an hour to kick them out. I got them a building to move to, and when I move them there, there is a security guard watching the building. So I ask him who he is. He informs me he was ordered by Jaboori not to move. OK, trying to avoid an incident–let’s go see Jaboori. Now I have heard the name several times, but have no clue who he is.

I drive to his palace on the river, enter the gates, and drive down a quarter-mile driveway. In the back there are 30 cats in fatigues doing Kung-Fu, being filmed by an Australian TV station as an American (or at least he appeared to be) kicked their butts.

I go to the front door and this guy answers the door with enough metal on him to take down a small fort.

“What do you want?” he asks.

I wanna see Jaboori.

“Come and sit down.” So he seats me in a room easily the size of an average American home. It has a huge fireplace, bamboo roof, and gold (yes, I said gold) furniture. So now I think, hmmmmm… Then he comes in and offers us lunch. No thanks, I want to talk about the house. Blah Blah Blah Blah. He finally gave me another building.

So I dump the kurds into the other building, but then they don’t wanna go…man, what a pain. But then I tell everyone I went to Jaboori’s house and they all freak out ’cause he is off-limits. Oh, well, he was cool with me.

So then the other night a sheik shows up at our front doorstep and asks for me by name. He wants a job. So the COL meets him and we invite him to dinner. Needless to say, Army chow did not fare well.

So he invited me and the COL to his house.

Sorry this e-mail is not humorous, but I am tired as all sin. Just wanted to let you know what’s up.

Later.



The following missive is from a U.S. Army Lieutenant in Baghdad with an armored division, who elaborates on the perspective of a female soldier in Iraq:

Hi everyone–

Once again I apologize for the mass e-mail. However, with the wacky computer connectivity we have here it is the only way I can assure that my messages get out.

Anyway, a few more details on life here. First of all, it is damn hot. I thought Texas was hot but this is horrible. It’s about 115 degrees every day, and if you are outside in body armor it is even hotter.

For all of you who have been to Turkey and seen how poor it is there, this is far, far, far worse. These people live in utter filth and devastation. Even the “nice” parts of the city aren’t so nice. The only parts that are nice are the palaces. Anyone who has ever complained about the gap between the rich and the poor in the States needs to come here. It is no wonder they hated Saddam–he had golden chandeliers and most of these people are lucky if they even have a roof.

Anyway, most people are pretty glad we are here. However, they are impatient. The educated people here, like the doctors and lawyers, understand change doesn’t happen overnight. The normal person though is just pissed because they don’t have consistent power or they haven’t been paid in a while (evidenced by the super overhyped riot coverage from a couple of days ago). And yes, there is violence. We have had two soldiers in our unit killed already. The thing is the whole culture here revolves around guns. EVERYONE has one. We have had plenty of people lead us to caches or turn in weapons but for every one they turn in there are a gazillion more–and it is cheap to buy guns and grenades. Still, while it seems bad, you also have to remember there are 150,000 Americans over here right now. Per capita, it isn’t a very high death/injury rate.

The best way to think of Baghdad is like LA (which by the way had 653 murders last year). There is a lot of crime and illegal activity, but not a lot of evidence of former regimists plotting in basement places.

Being a woman over here is weird, though. The Iraqi men either stare at you like they can’t believe what they are seeing or refuse to look at you at all. Iraqi women who work for U.S. forces are ostracized, threatened and attacked–one of our infantry battalions had a 15-year-old cleaning lady shot in the head and killed a couple of days ago. That is the crazy thing about here–it is a potentially super-wealthy country and it has some modern technology, but the people’s way of thinking is stuck in a couple of centuries ago. They honestly think our NVGs and sunglasses are X-ray and we use them to look through Iraqi women’s clothing. They think our flak vests are air-conditioned. They believe every rumor on the street. And they constantly rat on each other–we get a zillion sources a day saying they know where Saddam is or whatever.

As for me, I am currently living in the Martyr’s monument (I spent the first couple of weeks in the Ministry of the Interior). There isn’t as much damage to the city as I thought it would be. There were some buildings that were completely destroyed (I visited the former IIS headquarters and you could tell they used a couple of bunker-busters on it) but most of the city is fine. The ministry buildings were totally trashed by U.S. forces, though–the Marines went to the bathroom in every available corner and just generally created havoc for no reason whatsoever.

Anyway, I am not sleeping out of doors and I have a cot and a mosquito net. We have hot dinner every other night (though it isn’t the best quality food) and I take a camp shower every other morning. I try not to go out in sector unless it is absolutely necessary because I don’t want to take unneccessary risks, but sometimes it can’t be helped.

I have to run for now but I will try to keep you all updated when I can. Love to you all.