More Books

Over at the official blog of my first sci-fi novel, The Seventh Day, I listed some sci-fi authors and books that have influenced my thought and writing.

More Pics

I recently updated my Flickr page here.


You can't tell, but I'm actually smiling.


Here I am in my "hootch," my home away from home. This is where the majority of my posts were composed when I was in Iraq. I know it looks small and cramped. But don't let the camera fool you. It's actually VERY small and cramped.

Reading is Fun!

As I've mentioned before, I really like to read. So I decided to make a few recommendations, so that next time you're at the library, bookstore, or Amazon, you'll have a few new ideas on what to check out (or what to avoid, depending on what you think of me. Whatever)
I don't know if you've noticed, but the political views I've expressed, as well as some of the other sites I link to, tend to lean a tiny bit to the right. Therefore, in the interest of fair and balanced blogging, I'm giving my first plug to liberal author Al Franken. I respect Franken because he appears to genuinely care about the troops, instead of just using their hardship to justify his political prejudices. He's done several USO shows in Iraq, and claims to be the first comedian to perform at Abu Ghraib Prison. In fact, I saw him at the Baghdad airport as he was coming and I was leaving. After I saw him there, I knew I had to go out and buy his book. Though I don't agree with everything he says, his talent is undeniable, and his arguments are well written and funny.
I'm not really a fan of history books. When I found this book in a pile of used books at an MWR in Baghdad, I knew it would be a good oppourtunity to supplement my knowledge of The Vietnam War, which I am embarrassed to say is somewhat lacking. What I found is a quite extraordinary book. (It's funny how some of the best books I've ever read have been books I just found in a pile or on a shelf somewhere, chosen just because the cover looked interesting.) Al Santoli tells the history of Vietnam by breaking it down into stories told by the different kinds of people who actually experienced it; generals, diplomats, Cambodian refugees, American soldiers, and Vietnamese soldiers from both the South and the North. Mr Santoli doesn't claim to tell the "whole story." But I find myself much more informed now than before.
I write science fiction, so of course I'm interested in what futurists have to say about things to come. One really fascinating idea is that of the "Singularity." If you've never heard that term before, Google it. It's totally trippy. Lemme give you a very, very short definition. The Singularity is a period of computer AI aided human technological advance, unprecedented in history, world-changing, and even unimaginable; which futurists believe will happen in the near future, like, thirty years. I know what you're thinking. No one can predict the future. This could all be bullshit. But it's interesting bullshit, dammit! And the observations that Kurzweil makes about modern technological trends are spot on. Lot's of authors are writing about the Singularity, and Kurzweil is the best.

V for Vendetta

I just saw the most awesome movie, a futuristic thriller called V for Vendetta.

WARNING, plot spoilers!!!




In it, the main character, V states that artists lie in order to show the truth. No one shows us the truth better than the artists of the Hollywood movie industry. And in today's political environment, no movie can be more relevant that V for Vendetta, with it's plot threads that are so similar to what's happening in America today, it will shock everyone who sees it. For example, in the movie, the British government secretly orchestrates a biological terrorist attack in order to manipulate and control the population, just like how the American government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. In future England, there is only one news television station, the BTN, just as Fox News is the only news station allowed in America. Americans have the Internet. The future Brits have the "Interlink." In the movie, the Brits eat something called "eggy in a basket," and Americans eat eggs in a basket! The most disquieting similarity is the way Natalie Portman's innocent character, Evee is tortured by government officials for her associations with the terrorist, V. The allusions to Gitmo and Nazi concentration camps are clear. I got up and went to the bathroom at this point, so I missed exactly how V was able to rescue Evee from the government prison. And I don't understand why she seemed so upset with V for saving her. But, ah well. The movie ends happily with everyone wearing the exact same outfit, thus allowing the true spirit of Anarchy to triumph.

I give it ten stars!!!!

Shooting People

There's been a lot of talk in the news lately about what happened with our Veep, the Honorable Richard Cheney. Maybe people are shocked, or maybe surprised that such a thing could happen. Face the facts of life, stuff like this happens. It even happens with the highly trained men and women of the Armed Forces. I had the extreme displeasure of being close by when an accidental discharge claimed the life of a young soldier.

Can you imagine doing something so stupid, that immediately after you do it, you know that your life is ruined?

I was in the internet room when it happened. I was getting some precious time connected to the World Wide Web, time in which I can forget that I'm on the other side of the globe from my friends and family. So when I heard a sharp crack, followed by some guys across the hall yelling, "go get a medic!" my first thought was to ignore it. It sounded like someone broke a chair, or some othe piece of furniture. These guys were prolly horsing around, and somebody broke their arm, or their nose, or something.

The desperate tone in the voices out in the hall forced me to give this a second thought. One of the guys in the internet room asked if any of us were medics. Then another guy said that that sounded like a gunshot.

On second thought, it did sound like a gunshot. I left my iBook and my personal weapon behind and walked into the hallway to find shocked soldiers running past me in both directions. Then I heard something that couldn't be true. I overheard somebody say that the lieutenant shot him.

A lieutenant ran past me. I heard him say, "I shot a soldier in the head." He appeared to be laughing. Well then it must be a joke, I thought.

But it wasn't a joke. I asked a PFC who was walking out of the room where it had apparently happened. He said that the lieutenant accidently shot somebody. I assume he appeared to me to be laughing because he had become hysterical at that point. The lieutenant had run back into the hallway at this time and yelled, "I swear I cleared my weapon!" Then he fell on his knees and started screaming, Oh God, I'm so sorry!

The lieutenant got up and started running back and forth. I saw that he had blood on his hands. Two sergeants managed to grab him and goad him to a relatively empty part of the hall, next to the computer room. I managed to get in and grab my laptop and weapon before they sealed off the computer room. They black out all personal communications whenever someone dies.

When I got out, I saw that the lieutenant was on the ground. A captain was talking to him. Two majors were already in the hall on their cell phones, looking cool, as if they'd seen this type of thing a dozen times before. The captain was telling the LT that he needed to calm down and tell him what happened. He needed to know whether it was an accidental discharge, or if there was an armed Iraqi loose in the building. The lieutenant was crying, I shot a soldier. Oh God, I killed a soldier.

I swear, I have never seen such desperation. The LT's wailing was a memory that will haunt me all my days.

The two sergeants were attempting, unsuccessfully, to calm the LT down. When I passed by, I asked if they needed any help. Yeah, one of the sergeants said, we need some moist wipes.

I had trouble sleeping that night. I kept telling myself, this can't be happening. I know that a good percentage of wartime casualties are caused by accidents. But to die because somebody was too stupid to know that you never treat a rifle like it's a fucking toy?

I was reminded of a memory from Basic Training. I was at the firing range. Those of you who've been through Basic know that at the firing range, Drill Sergeant doesn't mess around. You have to be on you best behavior and do everything you're told perfectly. It was like, my fifth trip to the firing range. So I knew what to do. After you've expended your ammo, and the guy in the tower says, "cease fire," you put your weapon on safe, clear it, and place the plastic bolt block into the chamber. But I don't know why I did this. After firing, I cleared the weapon, put in the bolt block, and then put the weapon on safe. One of the Drills noticed that I did it in the wrong order and started running toward me. It was one of the meanest Drill Sergeants at Fort Sill. A man so ugly, we called him "Skeletor" behind his back. He grabbed my helmet and jerked my head back. He yelled, "What the fuck are you doing, Private? You want to kill one of your battle buddies with an accidental discharge?" He pointed at the guy in the next lane. "Can you live with his death on your conscience?" I yelled the only thing I could say, "No, Drill Sergeant!" He added one last thing before spinning on his boot heel and walking away in disgust. "You will never stop seeing his face!"

The Army lost two soldiers that day. I truthfully think that I would rather trade places with the soldier in the grave than with the lieutenant who's most likely in a cell right now. Not only is his military career over, he will prolly go to prison, for a while. I can't imagine the Army taking it easy on him for this. When he gets out, he'll have a record. No one will remember his four months of good service in a war zone. They'll just remember his four seconds of absolute idiocy. I heard that even McDonald's won't hire a guy with a military felony. But worst of all, I think that Drill Sergeant is right. He will never stop seeing his face.

Everybody has moments when they're retarded. Everybody has a time when they look back at something they did and say, what the Hell was I thinking? Why did God, in his infinite wisdom, allow this young officer's stupidity to intersect with the end of this young soldier's life, on this point of tragedy?

My whole point is, everyone should cut Cheney some slack. I'm sure he feels bad enough for what he did. I know that some people out there equate Dick Cheney with Adolf Hitler, so my plea will fall on deaf ears. But if you're one of those people, you shouldn't really be reading my blog. Instead you should click on DailyKos or some other such bullshit.

Anyway, it's the Thursday before a four day weekend. So I'm gonna go drink! (Well, drink some more, anyway :-[ ...)

PEACE!

Response to Dominik and "Anonymous"

My apologies to the Milblog community for this late response. I went on two weeks R&R at the beginning of October. Went back to my hometown, Orlando, and had a great time. Was never sober enough to take writing this post seriously. Got back to Iraq after a long wait in Kuwait. (Internet access costs 5 dollars an hour on Kuwaiti bases.) Got back to Baghdad. Had a lot of work to do. Went through a post-R&R depression for a few weeks. (Guys who've been on these deployments, you know what I'm talking about.) Anywho, enough with the excuses. This post is actually a reply to two responses made in the comments section of my last post from Dominik and an anonymous poster.

Dominik wrote:

Dear Graham,

I stumbled upon your blog, since there was some news in a german paper referring to mil-blogs in general and your blong in particular.

I served my time in the german air-force in 1993-94.

Two things come to my mind when I read your blog:

Since there is no draft in the US right now, all US soldiers have decided to serve their country voluntarily. You get paid for what you do, be it out with the troops in the front line or in some army office somewhere in the US.

You referred to a bombing of one of your convoys by terrorists causing not only deaths in civilian lifes (children getting sweets from the US troops) but one of your comrades was killed as well.

From the view of an outsider, it strikes me to note, that since the war on Iraque unfolded, probably more Iraquis have died and definitely more US soldiers have died than would have, if the war had not happend.

I try to see things from your perspective (I am 32 now) and come to the following conclusion:

I think I could never get over the things you saw and will see in Iraque. I would be afraid that these things would haunt me for the rest of my life. My grandpa was haunted by the things he witnessed in WWII until his very end.

Would I do what you do for the money? I think not, and I strongly doubt you do it for the money. I assume you do it to serve your country and to defend your country.

But yet, I would always choose to serve my people in a different way than to fight in another country, given, that the country in question has NOT declared war on my country and has NOT harmed and attacked my country.

US troops will stay in Iraque for a long time. Blood will be spilled I am afraid and I feel for the loss of any life on the civilian side and the US side.

I do not feel for the terrorists, but as matter of fact and sadly enough, the war has made things easier for them.

I hope you will get out of this mess soon and be with your family. And I hope you will not loose too many comrades and hope you will be able to cope with what you have witnessed during your time in Iraque when you get home.

I know there always will be wars (that is human nature I am afraid), but I am ever so happy, I am not involved in a war like that.

Since you were not drafted, I hope you knew what price you might have to pay.

It is good, that Saddam Hussein and his regime have been removed. It might have been better, if his own people would have overthrown him. The "thread" posed by Iraque has been removed (WMD!?!) but other countries are lurking to be the thread of tomorrow.

I just simply cannot see how this war is an answer to this thread.

God bless you and your comrades.

Get home safely!

Cheers,

Dominik

First, let me say thank you for your service. Germany has been a great ally for us in the past. I wish that they had agreed to help us with this war. But, whatever.

You have mentioned the thing that troubles me most about this war. I don't think anyone could argue that having Hussein removed is not a good thing. But the fact that the insurgency has taken such a toll on our soldiers really upsets me. And that we cannot provide adequate protection to the people whose country we occupy is insanely frustrating. The Iraqi people have suffered so much under Saddam. Now they are having Jihad fought in their backyard. All of us who have served here are maybe asking ourselves if ultimately, we did the right thing, or if the "cure" ends up being worse than the "disease." I personally think that leaving Saddam in charge would have been unacceptable. Even for as long as we did leave him in charge. But for me, the question was never whether America should have invaded, but rather how well we conducted the war and following occupation.

I think that I'll be able to live with the things I've experienced here. Some of the guys who came here are going to have some mental issues to work out when they get back. But I'll be alright because I was already a little bit messed up in the head before I enlisted. 8-)

Thanks for good thoughts. God bless you and yours also.

I received this response from an anonymous poster:

I oppose the Iraq War and believe that the U.S. will soon have no choice but to leave that country. I'm thinking of writing a series of postings on a blog I have created to further explain my views. If I do, I will post the links here at a later time.

In the past I have found myself in some intense Internet verbal battles that I think wound up as exercises in talking past each other, so I think the way to go is to write those postings in a hope that I say what I really mean and manage to stay away from flights of hyperbole. But I'm only going to do it if I think there's a possibility of rational conversation as opposed to a mere exchange of epithets.

For now, I'll make the following points.

1. I think the U.S. will fail in Iraq because of a series of strategic and tactical blunders. I don't hope for this, but I think it's almost inevitable as the result of the mismanagement of the war by this country's civilian and military leadership.

2. As for Cindy Sheehan, I briefly had a somewhat positive view of her activities but I think she has made a series of very unwise statements. In particular, if she really sympathizes with the Iraq insurgents who do the things you've described then she's lost me.

I would like to think that she made those comments in the heat of the moment;or that they were lifted out of context to make it appear as if she holds views that she does not hold; or that she has been manipulated by people around her. But it's impossible for me to really know.

3. I think Sheehan's detractors are treating her, and those opposed to the war, as caricatures. I think they're following a political strategy of portraying opposition to the Iraq War a remnants of the anti-Vietnam War radical movement. I think this is wrong at a variety of levels, but unfortunately Sheehan has been manuevered (or maneuvered herself -- again, it's impossible for me to say from this distance) into a position where she's vulnerable to being cast in that light.

4. Wars do a variety of things, and one of them is to test the societies that fight them. The Iraq War is testing this country's social and political integrity and bringing to light some deep problems. One of them is a serious erosion of our ability to sustain a rational conversation between political opponents.

5. One critical test of a person's intelligence and maturity is to see whether they can integrate their experiences into a longer view of the issues at hand. Nowhere is that task harder than when the experiences are of the kind that are seen in war. The ability to cut through the fog and blood of battle and see the large picture is rare.

Graham, when you make political comments that's the challenge you face. The comments you've posted will instantly get fulsome praise from a certain contigent, but what I've seen so far is primarily emotion. I say that as someone who has been through some intense emotions on the other side.

6. I genuinely appreciate your military service and that of everyone there. No one asked your opinion before sending you to fight. There are 300 million Americans and there are bound to be crazies among us. But I have yet to personally encounter anyone who disdains our troops. I wish for success and a safe return, but at the moment I am doubting the possibility of either.

Finally, I'll check back here to see the reaction to what I've posted. In particular, I'll be looking for [i]yours[/i] as opposed to that of others, and then I'll decide how to proceed. Ball's in your court.

To "anonymous" I say, first of all, I really hope you're wrong about America ultimately failing in Iraq. We won't be forced to leave Iraq. We will only leave when we want to leave. And of course, we want to leave. But the question of "failure" depends on what state we leave Iraq and the Iraqi security forces when we do leave. If we leave too soon, the Iraqi people are screwed.

It is impossible for me also to tell what Cindy Sheehan's deal is, whether she is being manipulated by people around her, or if she is purposely allowing herself to be made into the type of anti-war icon she has become. However, this question is not really interesting to me. If one were to examine her words at face value, free of all emotional bias, then one would see that she is an enemy propagandist spreading absolutely insane rhetoric. It's easy to associate Sheehan with the Anti-Vietnam War movement when she teams up with Jane Fonda and makes the same type of "anti-imperialist" comments that were made in the sixties.

Go HERE to read some of Cindy Sheehan's quotes.

You are correct when you say that this war is testing Americans' ability to be rational when conducting this national conversation, and that one must make their political comments with maturity and perspective. Surely you must realize that the whole Cindy Sheehan phenomenon is based on emotion. No one would be listening to her if she had never lost her son. Anyone who criticizes her is hit with that "moral authority" BS.

Truthfully, there is nothing wrong with using the emotionalism tied to experience when making a point, as long as that emotion is backed up with rational arguments. I think I do this when I make my points. And I challenge anyone to show me differently.

I haven't heard much about Cindy Sheehan in the news lately. Maybe that's because moderate people in the middle of this issue are ignoring her, realizing how shallow her message really is. Time will tell.

Good luck with your blog.

Let's Focus on the Bad News in Iraq

This is my obligatory political rant. For the most part, this blog has been about my unique experiences in Iraq. I've purposely avoided political opinion. I mean, why should the world care what a 29 year old college drop-out thinks? But now I think that I should give it a shot. It's kinda like drugs. Everybody's gotta try it once. So here goes.

I am sick and tired of the media reporting about the good news coming out of Iraq.

That's right, you heard me. I am sick of hearing about all the schools being built, and all the Iraqi children vaccinated by Army medics. I sick of hearing about how the economy of Iraq is getting better, and how all Iraqis have cell phones and satellite dishes now. I really don't give a damn.

It seems like the mainstream media has become so polarized and stupidified that it portrays America as being evenly split between two factions. Either you are zealot who blindly agrees with everything the Bush administration says. Or you follow the inanity of the anti-war movement and take the diatribes of morons like Michael Moore or Cindy Sheehan seriously.

Whatever you call them, the Cons, or Righties, or Reds complain about how the media never reports on the good news in Iraq. These people speak for half the country. And they've decided what the major issue should be. They've decided that this half of the country shouldn't focus on the bad news. Neither should they focus on the good news. Instead, they should focus on what the media is focusing on.

Meanwhile, the Libs, or Lefties, or Blues have focused on what is truly important to the people of Iraq today. The fact that no WMD's were found two years ago. They sound just like a broken record. WMD's. WMD's. WMD's.

Now hold on. I know what you're thinking. Back up there a minute, guy. How dare you call that poor grieving mother, Cindy Sheehan a moron?

I said it, and I don't regret it. I'm sorry that her son died. She's experiencing a sorrow I can't imagine. But the moment she decided to channel her grief into that specific political cause, she forfeited her right to sympathy from me. Not only is she demoralizing troops that are risking their lives right now. She's dishonoring other soldiers who have died and increasing the sorrow of other mothers and fathers who have lost their sons.

It doesn't get much more moronic than an interview with Mark Knoller of CBS in which Cindy Sheehan, when speaking about the terrorists coming in from other countries into Iraq, referred to them as "freedom fighters."

"Freedom fighters."

Well...on August 17, the "freedom fighters" carried out a coordinated attack in Baghdad against the evil imperialistic American Empire. Did they attack an American base?No, they attacked a bus station used by Iraqi civillians. Two car bombs went off within minutes of each other. Three buses packed with passengers burned up. But wait, there's more. In a brilliant move of strategy, 15 minutes later, with a third car bomb, the freedom fighters attacked nearby Al-Kindi hospital, where emergency personnel were moving their casualties. 43 people were killed. But as an Interior Ministry official said, "The casualty figure could rise as there are charred bodies all over the place,"

LINK

Now, if you're not stunned by these heroic freedom fighters yet, let me tell you about another battle in their glorious revolution. On July 14, also in Baghdad, a suicide freedom-bomber drove his vehicle up to an American Humvee and detonated. He killed one US soldier and 27 Iraqi civilians. 13 of those civilians were children who had gathered around the humvee, because the American soldiers were passing out sweets. Obviously, that freedom fighter had to have been very brave, not allowing his sympathies to stop him from carrying out that attack. Those children were apostates who were accepting candy from the evil imperialist Americans, so clearly they deserved to die.

LINK

The freedom fighters carried out another attack August 9 in Baghdad, of which I'm having a little trouble finding any media coverage more in depth than a couple sentences. I guess MSM was too busy reporting on all the good news to have given that story very much attention. Let me supplement that with what little I know about this incident.

An American convoy was passing through a traffic circle in Baghdad which is surrounded by a busy marketplace. This marketplace is used by, I assume, the area's mostly Shi'ite and Christian population. A suicide car bomber attacked the convoy and detonated near the first vehicle. Soldiers who responded to the scene reported seeing body parts laying all over the road, including body parts small enough to be considered child-sized. I haven't heard of any accurate body counts for this attack, but I've heard figures around thirty and forty from foreign nationals. (iraqibodycount.net reports that between 3 and 6 died. I know that's way off.)

In that blast, one American soldier died. His name is Miguel Carrasquillo. He was a brother in arms, a member of my battery, and for a while was also my roommate back at Fort Stewart. He died while engaging the suicide bomber as he drove towards the convoy. I will remember him as one of the bravest men I've ever known.

Cindy Sheehan, he is the true freedom fighter.

In a recent op-ed, retired Army general Wesley Clark said that Bush is in danger of repeating the mistake of Vietnam. "Failing to craft a realistic policy and effective policy and instead demanding that the American people show resolve." The fact that people like Cindy Sheehan are calling for withdrawal in Iraq is, in itself, not remarkable. But the fact that MSM pays so much attention to her is really bad news.

I realize that America has it's own share of bad news with the hurricane Katrina disaster. But I have no doubt that that's going to be taken care of. Iraq's future is much less certain. Just a few days ago Iraq suffered one of it's bloodiest days since the invasion. A suicide bomber attacked a group of men in the district of Kadhimiya. The men weren't soldiers. They were day laborers looking for work. They were poor men with no steady employment just looking for a way to support their family. The suicide bomber pulled up in a bus packed with explosives and posed as a possible employer. He detonated when the men gathered around and took out one hundred twelve men. LINK

That's one hundred twelve families ripped apart. One hundred twelve lost sons and brothers. One hundred twelve separate tragedies that only receive a single day's thought from the MSM because they aren't American. Because they don't have an opinion on whether Mayor Nagin, Governor Blanco, or President Bush deserves the most blame for the destruction of New Orleans. Because the moral cowards want to parade around a grieving mother who is, quite literally, insane.

Sure, there's plenty of good news in Iraq. But let's focus on the bad news. Let's impress on everyone what a tragic mistake it would be to prematurely pull our forces out of Iraq. Let's make sure everybody remembers what kind of inhuman monsters we're fighting. Let's finish what we started.

Did I mention that I'm also an aspiring science fiction writer?

Due to the problems that the Military has been having with mil-blogs lately, my chain of command is forced to take a keen interest in Graham's Journal. My commander is going to check my blog to make sure that I haven't violated OPSEC. I'm pretty sure that I haven't posted anything I wasn't supposed to. But just to be sure, I'm not going to talk about Iraq today.

In case you haven't noticed the big-ass image link in the right column, I have another blogspot website that contains the entirety of my first science fiction book, The Seventh Day, an end-times novel. If you click over there, you can read my novel for free. The copyright is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

I've always wanted to be a writer, even when I was in elementary school. In late 2002, I decided that I was going to go for it and write an entire novel, no procrastination, no quitting. I finished it late 2004 and made a few half-assed attempts to get the interest of a publisher before I was shipped out to Kuwait in January 2005.

I was going to wait until I returned to the States to try to sell my book for professional publication. But I soon realized that waiting wasn't going to work for me because one, I'm impatient, and two, let's be honest, there's a small chance I won't make it back. So I decided to self publish. I published over the internet, and also through Cafe Press, which allows authors to sell copies of their book on the cafepress.com website. The books they make through POD (print on demand) technology are pretty high quality.

The Seventh Day is an exciting techno-thriller that takes place in the year 2030, in a future world that's quickly being changed by biotech, nanotech, and artificial intelligence technology. I've called my book, "an end-times novel" because it is also about The Apocalypse.

If this sounds interesting to you, then I hope you check it out. You can download the book as a .pdf or .rtf file.

Milblog fans may be disappointed. I conceived this book before I even joined the Army. So it has nothing to do with war. But I already have a lot of ideas rolling around my head for my next book. When I get home, I plan to start writing my second novel, which will be military science fiction!

Welcome Swiss and Germans

This is kind of old news, but a couple weeks ago, a reader e-mailed me to let me know that my Journal had appeared in a popular German Newspaper! It was an article on Greyhawk of the Mudville Gazette and his Milblogs ring. My milblog was one of the ones mentioned in the article found here.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,tt4m2/computer/artikel/630/58572/

I ran the article through Altavista Babel Fish. (It's in German.) Here's a quote.

So one must look for one while for really interesting entries and photos. But it gives. For example in "Graham's journal" of Graham wolf, which describes among other things, as it and the members of its unit with the death of three comrades become finished: "I do not believe yet that I am prepared for death."

So I know it's late, but if there are any more German readers still passing through, let me say Welcome!

Also, a reader wrote me and said that he found my blog in a newspaper in Zurich this past weekend. I haven't been able to find that article. But if there are any Swiss readers, I welcome you too. :-)

Hell

Baghdad is Hell. That's the only way I can think of describing a place where mini 9-11's happen every day. We have demons imported from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, following the commands of a Jordanian Devil. Today, Stars and Stripes posted a letter from a retired Master Gunnery Seargent suggesting that we utilize bullets dipped in pigs' blood. I'm begining to think it's not such a bad idea.

A few days ago, my platoon, third platoon was conducting a mission in Baghdad on the East side of the river. We got word that sixth platoon was receiving small arms fire at a traffic circle also on the East side, not too far from us. We went to help them.

We were locked, cocked, and ready to rock. We tore through the afternoon traffic across downtown Baghdad in record speed. It was kinda fun. I knew it was pointless, though. By the time we got there, it would all be over.

When we got to the traffic circle, it was silent. No small arms attack. Must have been a miscommunication. As I had suspected, sixth platoon was hit by by a VBIED, a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, a truck bomb.

It was black. Debris was everywhere. The area was littered with the burned out husks of cars and minivans. We towed the damged vehicles in sixth platoon's convoy to a fall back point. After fixing an SUV and putting a severely damaged humvee onto a wrecker, we headed back to the Green Zone. On the way, we passed through the same traffic circle. I got a second look at the holocaust aftermath. I knew that many people had to have died here. I saw islands of color in the blackness, piles of pulverized fruit lying on the ground.

See, this traffic circle is used as a popular market area. Every time we pass through this circle, which is quite often, there are dozens and dozens of merchants selling poduce, clothes, trinkets, all kinds of stuff from storefronts, carts, or sometimes just a blanket laid on the ground. This place is always packed with people. Yes, many of them children. When I talked to my comrades later, they said that they had seen body parts strewn across the ground. I hadn't seen any. I talked to First Seargent. He showed me a picture of a destroyed minivan in which an entire family had perished inside. He said that he had seen child-sized hands and fingers on the ground. I don't know how I missed such a thing. Perhaps my brain subconsciously edited out such horribleness.

We got back to the FOB. It was only then that I learned that the sixth platoon's lead gunner didn't make it. We've lost another one of our brothers.

More on this later.