Dear Friends and Family

It is about time that I write you all one of these, one size fits all form letters, to let you know what is going on with me. First of all let me say that I am doing well and am fairly happy and content for the moment. My accommodations are fine and I am being paid well…. also fine. Since I decided to stay here at the old Baghdad Hotel, I have to put up with my roommate, 58 years old Tennessee, retired Special Forces, former head of Tennessee 22nd Judicial Drug Task Force, crazy ass Amish Hillbilly, Mike Risner. This guy is a lot of fun to be with. To give you an idea, if the two of us were in the 5th grade together, they would have to seat us separate. He looks and talks like a kindly old grandfather, but in reality would eat you uncooked if you tried to do him harm.

We live on the 3rd floor (here it is called the First Floor) in a 14’ by 14’ room, that is nice enough for who it’s for. Nothing fancy, OK bathroom which has hot water until 8 AM, after that the shrinkage factor is very great. The maid service comes every morning, but their version of “cleaning” the room consists of making the bed and bringing us a new role of toilet paper. No problem. Our floor has three staff people that care for about 24 rooms. They really try hard to please. The standards are just a little different. In its former glory days, this hotel would have been something really nice, now it would compare to a 1974 Lincoln that has been owned by white trailer trash for about the last 10 years. Everything works, Sauna, Pool etc. although some of the stuff from here you could sell as antiques on e-bay.

The place is full of people. Mostly geriatric American police officers and DynCorp support people. One guy put it very well.” Sometimes the lobby of the hotel looks like God’s waiting room”. Also you have other people from India, Kosovo, Germany and of course a lot of Iraqis. Most of the hotel staff and in-house security is Iraqi, many of them are Kurdish. One thing I can say for sure, these people are not dumb and also they are very attractive. Most speak some degree of English, some other languages. Mike and I, more than most of our college’s, have made a lot of friends and acquaintances among the “indigenous” as he likes to call them.

We hear and learn a lot from these guy’s. There are Iraqi women, but few around us and then they don’t talk much. You got to love that. Like driving around town, you would not notice it at first, but there are NO women drivers on the road. The driving here in it self is something else. A four lane road has six lanes of traffic. Traffic signals exist, but either they don’t work or are totally ignored. You will see a lot of Iraqi traffic police officers directing traffic in some of the main intersections by hand.

In my opinion these are the bravest men that I ever seen anywhere. The traffic here is as heavy as the first 10 minutes after when the county fair parade is over. Despite this seeming chaos and total lack of traffic law enforcement, it works remarkably well. Any time you see a real rude obnoxious driver in traffic, the chances are 100% that it is another American, We are required to always travel in two to the car and always armed. The dangers before were high enough, now they are kidnapping foreigners on top of everything else. I figure I am worth about $15 bucks to DynCorp, more than that and they would have to just shoot my ass.

I have been all over town a couple of times. The place is big, but when you consider how many people live in the Baghdad area, it is really not that big. All in all it would easily compare to Little Rock and North Little Rock put together. Think of a combo between the two, Santa Fe, NM and a public housing project in Chicago. Add dust and sand, 130 degree temp. and a lot of bombed out buildings.

I like the city a lot. It would be fun to go out exploring in it, if you could get farther than two blocks with out some one shooting your ass. Not really that bad-well, yes it is. The greatest number of Iraqis are damn glad we are here and do not want us to leave. Just those crazies from the neighboring states, like Saudi Arabia and Syria, they are the ones that cause all this terrorism. The Iraqis are being victimized right along with us here. They are also getting killed every day, more than us matter of fact. Their police stations are getting blown up. Their religious functions attract the suicide bombers and kill hundreds of Iraqi. It is a few old guard Sadaam people on one hand and those Muslim extremes from other states that are making this place a hell to be in. Last night, for the first time in the 8 weeks, that I have been here, it came a thunder storm with lightning and rain and all.

We were downstairs in the coffee shop of our buddy Saad Mohammed, when a real loud clap of thunder hit right above the hotel. I just shook my head knowing that it was another car bomb somewhere. I have been conditioned, hearing bombs go off every night, I just knew this was another one. Everybody got a good belly laugh out of my reaction. I was glad I was wrong.

My job is working with the Iraqi Police fleet management and maintenance people. Nothing exciting or glamorous, but that is the job they assigned me and I know how to do it, so no problem. There are more than 3000 police cars in the IP fleet in Baghdad alone. During my first meeting with the patrol division commander of Baghdad, General Thamer, he indicated that they were very interested in a re-design of the IP Vehicle markings. Since then I have been working on getting new designs and decals. This project alone, if it will get off the ground, will take several months. Trying to get something done here and working with the Iraqi Police under these adverse conditions, is like planting a garden during a flash flood.

Sometime at the end of the day, you have less to show for your efforts than if you had stayed home that day. The task before us, under the best of conditions would be monumental. To re-build this infrastructure after 30+ years of absolute total corruption and incompetence is almost too much to take on. You Conway guys, think of how long it took us to rebuild CPD after 1988. Somebody put it best, “it’s like having to eat an elephant”. Of course, you begin with the first bite. I may be among the original group of advisors to come to Iraq for this job, but the people that will finish it are still in high school right now. I am very glad that I came here. I truly believe this is where God wants me to be for now.

I just hope that we will succeed and that the American people will not lose faith in the importance of what we are trying to accomplish here. So many people here are depending on America to lead them out of this wilderness to freedom. To quit now would be a moral calamity for all of us. It would be like offering to put a new roof on the house of some old lady and when you get the old shingles and tar paper tore off, just as it starts raining, then threatening to quit the job because it is harder than we thought when we made our bid.

For the time being, most of us here are still on lock-down and can not leave the hotel property. As long as it pays the same I don’t really care that much. I would rather stay busy and be productive, but they told us to measure our progress in inches rather than feet or miles. Today is Friday, which is the Sunday for the Muslim world when everything shuts down and most the people are off work. Their Saturday is like our Friday.

So tomorrow is their Monday, which for us is Saturday……………. Now, who’s on First

Maa Al Salama
Rod