I’ve been sitting in a tent on metal chairs since 4am. I woke up at 2:40am to come here. Since then I slept an hour on the aforementioned metal chairs while being periodically awoken by a fly landing on my face. Iraqi flies are inherently more gross than other flies. And they probably want generators too.
I recently said “I’m not racist, but if ‘contractor’ was a race, I would be.” I just don’t see what the hell they are doing here that the Army couldn’t do itself. It makes me so angry. For example, there was a mouse in my old room at one point a few months ago. So, we went to the vector control subject matter expert co-located on FOB Hunter with us for guidance. We wanted to tap into his expertise. Mind you he is employed by KBR and therefore essentially paid directly by the US Government. We told him about our mouse problem. He handed us mouse traps. Thank God he was there. There were probably 20 or 25 contractors on Hunter at any given time and I couldn’t tell you what they did. They certainly didn’t do anything for me. And you should see Tallil, where Eva is. Sometimes you can look around and there are more contractors than Soldiers. To make matters worse, 90% of the time they seem to have foul attitudes. They’re here to presumably do something better and/or more efficiently than we as the US Army are capable. I disagree. You should see some of these people. They don’t seem capable of doing much more than bitching and eating. And they’re getting paid $80K plus a year. By you. I just don’t get it. Why are more people not more angry about this? Then of course there’s the whole cost-plus issue. If you read this and don’t get upset then you’re a communist. Or on welfare. I hate contractors.
Speaking of nationalized health care, why is everyone so averse to letting poor people die? Is that cold? Perhaps. But what are they doing for us and for you? Very little. And now they are actually going to cost you more. People that don’t pay taxes to begin with will now have health care paid for by your tax dollars. I’m glad people are angry about this. It doesn’t matter though. Once American Idol is down to the final three nobody will remember the health care outrage.
The photo today is of Eva and I in Ghent, Belgium. This picture, unlike the thought of contractors and nationalized health care, makes me smile.
Ghent, Belgium
In the film “The Patriot,” Mel Gibson is the star and hero. He puts together a group of citizen fighters fixated on defeating the oppressive and occupying British forces. Translation: he puts together an insurgency. He bucks the norms of fighting at the time, relying instead upon a more mobile, more unpredictable, more effective means of defeating an otherwise undefeatable force. Rather interesting. On that note, I’ve always thought that an IED is really nothing more than a Claymore mine. (Granted, in American doctrine the detonation of a Claymore is generally followed up with small arms fire when used in the context of an ambush as I’m using it here, but the point is the same. That being said, this same doctrine I speak of is conventional and we’re fighting an unconventional war.) If you are a true patriot in Iraq or Afghanistan, I suppose you’re on the side to remove the American “occupying” force. If a foreign Army were in Chicago, I’d like to think I’d be setting up impromptu Claymores as well. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s all about perception. That being said, once you meet the Iraqi people, you learn pretty quickly that patriots are pretty few and far between. It’s not really a patriotic culture. Plus there aren’t a whole lot of Wal-Marts around here. Everyone knows Wal-Mart has the highest concentration of patriots in the world. They wear American flag screen print shirts and NASCAR hats.
On a similar note, this article, by a guy named Colonel Paul Yingling, was a hot topic in 2007. I think it’s just as interesting now. He has another article out now as well which was quoted in some other open source news outlets and seems equally as interesting. He graduated from my parents’ alma mater, Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, in 1989. A guy named Yingling that went to Duquesne. Weird.
The photo today is of some reflecting sunlight under a bridge in Ghent.
Ghent, Belgium
…you can walk around outside in shorts and a t-shirt, as long as the shorts are Army PT shorts and the shirt is an Army PT shirt.
…there is a live nativity scene staffed by dining facility employees from Malaysia dressed as the Three Wise Men.
…you go to work on Christmas Day.
…you wake up at 7 to do laundry because you’re pretty sure the laundry room will be empty Christmas morning, but you’re wrong.
…you eat Christmas “dinner” at 1:30 in the afternoon and all the servers look strikingly similar to the Three Wise Men in the nativity scene.
…Christmas celebratory events include early morning wake-ups and long distance runs.
…you don’t mind Christmas day coming to an end because it means you’re one day closer to leaving.
…and last but by no means least…
…there’s a Santa, in full Santa garb, walking around the living area with an M4 carbine rifle.
The photo today is of some boats in the water in Ghent. Oh… and don’t think I’m being too negative about Christmas. I was lucky enough to be with Eva so there’s really not too much to complain about. Merry Christmas!
Ghent, Belgium, Iraq
Witness ye the first officially approved and posted photos from the much anticipated R&R trip to Europe. The first photo is of the Parisian skyline taken from the top of the Sacre Coeur Cathedral in Montmartre, Paris. “What does Sacre Coeur look like?” you may ask. Well, click the handily provided link above or wait for future postings with photos of the place. Montmartre is essentially a borough of Paris and is the highest point of the city. It’s where the Moulin Rouge is located as well. The Moulin Rouge was basically a petri dish for artists including Toulouse-Lautrec, a world renowned sickly midget who hung out at what essentially amounts to a strip club not for cheap thrills but rather for “inspiration.” You may remember him as portrayed by John Leguizamo in the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film.
The second photo is of Ghent, a small town in Belgium just outside of Brussels. We mistakenly went to Brussels first, not adhering to a major tenet of our travel policy: “In most, though not all circumstances, major cities are just like all other major cities and should therefore be avoided whilst traveling, in lieu of other nearby, more quaint towns/villages.” Our policy is strict. And wordy. Another rule for example: ”If George is not on the trip, and there is no flight to make, you shall not under any circumstances awaken before 9ish.” We were not surprised then to find that Brussels, while being decidedly difficult to navigate in a car, was more or less like a lot of other big cities but with cobblestones. We stayed one night, went to see the peeing baby, and took off for Ghent. It was a solid play. Ghent was incredible, as I think is evident from the provided photo.
All in all the trip was absolutely spectacular. My Mom and Dad as well as Mimi and Denny (for those not in the know: my Grandparents) met us in France and we did Paris for a few days then went to Normandy to see the beaches. We took the Battlebus tour, headed by the magnificent Dale Booth. If you go to Normandy, which I highly recommend, you will be doing yourself a disservice by not taking the Battlebus tour. It was easily one of the highlights of our two week European vacation. After Normandy our family took off for the colonies and Eva and I headed to Belgium. R&R simply could not have been better. More to follow in the coming days and weeks.
I took 640 pictures so there are plenty to choose from.
Ghent, Belgium, Paris, France