Drama

So we got some incoming this past week. Had a little drama. Fortunately no one in my unit was hurt, so that's a good thing. I have been so busy that I really haven't had much time to take a whole lot of pictures. And we're definitely forbidden from taking pictures of anything that may get damaged from fire from the outside.

The workload here is just going up and up. We are getting just a ton of materials and supplies that were ordered by the unit we relieved, and my piece of land to store it in is starting to get pretty cluttered.

Anyway, the big news of the week, aside from our own little drama, was the drama taking place in Washington. You know, the Democrats are really disappointing me. I don't know what's going on over there, but they have had 10 months to come up with alternative plans to counter what The Decider has "decided" to do, but they've come up with nothing. They should be going on the offensive here, and the silence is just deafening. I can't believe they aren't out there picking apart the report and the testimony delivered last week. The violence here is down? Really...I just spent a week reviewing construction proposals, and every one of these proposals had a plan to house the workers in a compound within the walls of the base they were building on. It wasn't for convenience, because these companies were going to hire Iraqis. It was for security so the workforce didn't get killed. They were also discussing keeping the materials from being stolen or destroyed on the roads. If the security situation is so "good," if "the surge is working," why is this necessary? What "work" was the surge supposed to do?

i found one comment GEN Petraeus made to be particularly noteworthy. He said words to the effect that most if not all of the military goals of the surge had been met. I don't disagree with that statement. The problem is, and the so-called "Liberal News Media" never quite got the implication of that statement, the goal of the surge was a political one, not a military one. Meeting the military objectives was supposed to enable the political objectives to happen. By The Decider's own math, the government here is not meeting all 18 benchmarks. I'd love to give an 'atta-boy for making a nice effort, but people are dying over here. Americans, Iraqis, and even a few coalition forces. "Nice try's" are pretty irrelevant when the killing and the ethnic cleansing go on without pause. I tell people, what would you think if there were as many killings in Baltimore (or wherever you live) every day or every week as there are here? You'd think it was complete chaos. If not chaos, you'd probably wonder how people can live like that and not be irreparably harmed. But hey, all we hear from the right-wing G.O.P. TV on Fox, and the Lazy News Media of the mainstream, is that "the surge is working." If I see one more Republican Senator or Congressman mouth those words on TV I will just throw up.

The troops here are tired. The morale from what I can tell is pretty good, but damn they are tired. And a few people who are "outside the wire" guys with some experience under their belt wholeheartedly agree with the Jones Report (referenced in an earlier post): the Iraqi Security Forces cannot do the job. Period. They can't now, and won't be able to a year from now. But hey, with the crew making the decisions now, it's all about being able to blame the guy who follows Bush. It's gonna be a Democrat if they pull their heads out of their fourth point of contact (military for "ass"). And I can see it now: that the Democrats will be in a situation of no-win choices. And the Republicans will be lobbing bombs from the sidelines, as if 8 years of filth and lies and misguided, dogmatic policies never happened. I don't have a crystal ball, but believe it, folks. That day is coming.

Tomorrow I'll try to get some interesting pictures. I got a tripod, so now when I take longer-range shots they'll be steady. We'll see. Talk to you in a bit...