Two Defining Scenes of This War

Yesterday I saw two familiar scenes of this war. Only one will you see on your nightly news, specifically CNN. Two days ago our day began at 0330 and didn't end until 2200. It was a day worth telling and hopefully I will get the time to tell it. We were all obviously worn out from the previous days two missions, but that didn't stop us from having an even longer day yesterday.

Yesterday we got to sleep in until 0700, late considering the times we normally get up around here. At 0930 we headed out on a route clearance mission, patrolling routes along our sector and visiting with the people of various towns along the way. What you won't see in the news, but what is a recurring scene around here, is the kindess that the vast majority of the Iraqi people have for us and the reciprocating kindness that young U.S. soldiers have for them. By far the coolest thing about being over here is the children. They make all the b.s. and all the long days worth the effort. If the children of this nation are the future of Iraq, then the U.S. can expect good relations with this country in the future. There isn't a city, town, or small community that I've been through where the children don't wave and smile enthusiastically at our presence. I never miss an opportunity to wave and smile back.

We first stopped by an Iraqi Army compound to pick up a squad of men to accompany us on our mission. While waiting on them to join our convoy kids and grown ups of all ages greeted us with smiles. Two 14 year old boys in particular started my morning off on a positive note. From my seat atop the Humvee I carried on a 20 minute conversation with these two boys about life and the weather. Their command of the English language was impressive and their uncanny ablility to predict the days weather was more accurate that any meteorologist back home. It was more fun to see my younger driver, Thomas, talk to them from the drivers side window. He talked to them like they had known each other for years. It's these soldiers, some of them not long out of high school, that are spreading American goodwill throughout this nation.

After about 30 minutes the Iraqi Army guys were ready to go and we started the days long drive. The first town we came to was a small community surrounded by farmland. Everyone except the drivers and gunners got out on the ground to walk and talk with the locals and pass out leaflets of information. Kids and grown ups of all ages were crowding around the humvees and the guys on the ground. Even the Iraqi Army guys were busy laughing with the locals. The kids, most of them on their way home from school, could hardly contain themselves in their desire to talk to us. The little girls, with beautiful smiles that reminded me of my niece, would wave and try desperately to talk to us in English. The more outgoing boys, with arms full of textbooks, weren't as shy. They would walk right up to the humvee and stick their heads in the window to talk to the cool American soldiers. Besides asking questions, and wanting us to give them pens, I could here them on more than one occasion telling my driver and me that America was good, Saddam bad. I don't know what it is with pens, but they love them. Unfortunately I only had one, which was soon in the possesion of a young boy. I also had a little video camera and they all wanted to be filmed. Even the little girls loved waving and talking in to the camera. Once again my driver, an all-American guy from the Midwest, displayed the kindness and humor that is ever present in young soldiers. I was also pleased to see some of the older teen boys and some men approach the vehicle with smiles and questions. Even more remarkably, the usually reserved women of this land, waved and smiled with enthusiasm. In this place and others we visited, the scene was the same. It was hardly the type of footage you would see on your nightly news. Watching CNN back home, you would think that this whole nation is on fire, chaos and death all around.

Once we got back in the late afternoon, we thought we were going to be able to rest the remainder of the evening to get ready for our late-night mission. Ten minutes after returning we were once again told to get the humvees ready, we were heading back out the gate. An IED had gone off in a town in our sector. Some MP's on the scene had reportedly received small arms fire. Since the MP's didn't want to search the homes in the area where they had received the fire they waited on the infantry to show up to take care of business. What exactly the MP's do over here I couldn't tell you. When we show up a couple of trucks could be seen smashed up and burning. The IED had ripped through one and the other had plowed into it in the resulting crash. Unfortunately two Iraqis, a man and a woman, had been killed. We turned our attention to the houses adjacent to the road, the ones the MP's were now surrounding from a more than safe distance. We gathered a plan and took off, driving right up to the houses. The Iragi Army, impressing me with their discipline, went in to the homes first with our guys following in behind them. Those of us in the humvees surrounded the homes to provide support by fire. When we had first pulled up the MP's got out of the way, looking like they didn't want any of the action. The search was done in no time with no enemy to be found. Once this was apparent the MP's once again pulled up closer, braver now that they knew there was no threat. This really pissed me off, especially since one idiot pulled his humvee right in front of mine, blocking my line of fire. I'm yelling at this idiot to get out of my way but with no success. I finally tell Thomas to back up and go around when another MP humvee pulled right up to our rear right. Are these guys kidding! What the hell were they doing. They didn't want anything to do with this ten minutes earlier and now all they are doing is getting in our way. I was yelling and cussing(something I'm trying not to do) at them to get out of my way. Finally my platoon sgt. comes back to our humvee and sees what is happening. He turns red and starts cussing at them as well and within earshot of their CO. Our Lt. tells him and me to calm down, that there CO is standing right there. Well, my platoon sgt. and I couldn't care less if their CO is right there. As far as I'm concerned their actions dangered the lives of themselves and us. How am I supposed to react to enemy gunfire if some damn MP is blocking my line of fire. And this genius wasn't even looking towards the targeted homes. I made sure the CO of the MP's could here my bitching, and I wish he would have said something. What's he going to do, send me to Iraq? I'm already here and having fun. Maybe he could reprimand me and give me an Article 15. Like I would lose a second of sleep over it. Screw the MP's and their CO, get the hell out of our way if you can't handle it. Not only did they do this but they refused to stay around and help us direct all the traffic that had backed up on both sides of the destroyed trucks. They said that isn't their job. Then what the hell is their job, especially since they can't write tickets to G.I.'s for speeding on post.

Overall it was an exciting and productive day. It was also a reminder of the constant threat we have of being hit with an IED. I'm sorry for the loss of those two lives, and even more sorry that we couldn't find the assholes that did it. We stayed around until 2300, finally heading back to our FOB. Our original mission planned for that night and early morning was nixed. We were all looking forward to it, since it might have proved deadly for the bad guys. It's ok though, there will be more days and nights to deal with them. We finally got back after midnight, hungry and tired. After getting back to my box I ate some Ramen noodles, my second night in a row I've had noodles for dinner. I went to bed thinking that If a reporter had been with us, the only thing he would have reported would have been the burning trucks hit by an IED.