Hello Friends and Family Monday 6-14-04 Baghdad, Iraq

This morning started out with a bang……a loud one. About ten blocks north of us and two blocks east of the river a massive car bomb exploded. There were 12 dead and a whole bunch more injured. Who were they, does not matter. Americans, Europeans or Iraqis, they were people, now they are dead. We were in Tom’s room 4013, drinking coffee. I am staying next door. It rattled the windows and we knew it was closer than the others. “Where was this one? … toward the (Hotel) Baghdad? Across the river….no, it’s to the North!….There is thick smoke coming up.…see if it is on the news…..nothing.”

We went to work just the same. Five hours later it was on TV; just by then it was no big deal any more. What is noteworthy is that the victims were employees of General Electric Corp., who are trying to bring new power plants on line to serve the city’s electrical needs. The terrorist understand that if they can deny the populous the basic services, they will undermine the people’s confidence in any government, the CPA or the new Iraqi one. If the unrest continues, there is always the prospect of them wearing us down. Do not believe them to be incapable of prevailing in this fight. The possibility is always there. This soup is getting real thick to stir by now. And like homemade ice cream, it gets hardest to turn just before it’s done.

On top of that comes the news that Coalition efforts to stand up a 200 000 men strong, independent police and civilian defense force have gone the “wrong” course. According to an article in the June 11 issue of Stars and Stripes by Associated Press correspondent Jim Krane, US Army Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton admitted to one year of “almost no progress” in regards to creating a viable Iraqi national security body. One year wasted, the money, the resource…the shame of it. “Misguided U.S.-led training of Iraqi police is partly to blame for the instability that continues to plague Iraq……” said Krane. This has to be the blind leading the blind here for sure. Maybe that new U.N. seeing eye dog that may come our way will make a difference.

Until now, the DynCorp. Mission program has had precious little to do with the actual training of the Iraqi police forces. The military has taken the lead from the beginning. There has been less than a cooperative spirit between the military and the civilian aspect of rebuilding the police force. As one IPA put it: “It’s like we are spinning our wheels here. Every effort is throwing us back to our starting place.” The reason things are not getting better here, is simply because things are not getting done here.

Tom and I work as advisors to the command staff at the main police fleet maintenance headquarters. Today’s issue was the scheduling of our security detail. The in-house officers that are assigned to providing perimeter security from any assaults on the MAINTENANCE facility. That is like having to sandbag your neighborhood Quick-e-Lube. Big Problem. It seems that at the present, the officers assigned to providing security for the facility work a 24 hour on and 72 hour off schedule. Sweet, right? Of course during the 24 “on the job”, the officers break it down to three separate shifts, allowing time for rest and sleep. So you might say that it amounts to 8 hours on duty and 88 hours off duty. This is worthy of the Gulf Mountain gang.

No way Jose, not with me. This will have to be re-done. Think of the frame of mind that would conceive a schedule like that? Think of the command structure that would allow it. It is the norm, it is the way it is done, no questions ask. These are not bad people, not someone that deliberately tries to defraud the employer just that this is the way it is done in a lot of places. I have seen Iraqis work very hard; I know them to be capable of it.

Among the many other cultural aspects that do not fit into the western jig, the Iraqi work ethic will also have to be rebuilt. Never mind the country being insecure and ravaged by terrorism, what will make or break this nation in the future is that it will have to be competitive in an global economy. If you want to be free, you got to work and you should work better than the guy next to you. A under appreciated benefit of living in a oppressive dictatorship, is that you don’t have to perform or work any harder than the guy ahead of you, who is also doing nothing. Welcome to freedom, welcome to the real world. If the East-Germans can make the transition, so can the Iraqi’s.

On several occasions the topic of pay disparities has come into conversation with my Iraqi friends. The concept of taxation is, for the most part, a foreign concept. One certainly that will be very unwelcome in the future. It seemed to me that the principals of making a profit from the labors of others are considered in no small way, as unfair. If the company gets paid X, than that is what the employee should receive in turn. Anything less is viewed as a form of exploitation. “Now, how do you spell this……free market…what?” They have NO clue here.

In other areas of interest, the summer temperatures are getting started. It is hot here. Not wet-hot like at home, no it is dry-hot, like easy-bake-oven hot. So far we made it up to 125 degrees. When you say that that is very hot to an Iraqi, they just look at you with a knowing soft smile that conveys that we don’t know what hot is yet.

Already I have figured out why folks here wear a towel on their head. No, no I should not call it that, it is called a “Jeschmarr”. Emphasis on the double r sound at the end. This is a very versatile garment. Not only does it give the wearer a great way of concealing their identity during terrorist attacks, it also makes a wonderful, lightweight hat that can easily be transformed into a tablecloth, bandage or diaper. I have one to and have worn it. Driving around town it helps conceal my American look. I just have to remember to take it off in a hurry when driving up to a US guarded check point before some 18 year old GI from Des Moines, Iowa thinks it makes me look too much like an Arab.

I figure the probabilities of getting “lit-up” by friendly fire are about 50-50 to getting ambushed by the terrorists. L Also the color of the Jeschmarr conveys where you are from. Red with white ones are from the North, black and white ones are mainly from the South. I have a red one, sorry, I like it better. However you want to wear it, the idea is to keep the sun off of you. Long sleeves are a must, so are long pants and tanning booth are a non-item here. What are really cool, in the true sense of the word, are the Iraqi dresses for men. No shit, Scotland doesn’t have an exclusive on skirts for guys. Here men wear a nightgown long shirt with long sleeves and button up to the collar. Cool, no pants. ?

Now you would not think that a grown man wearing sandals and a long dress with a diaper on his head could command a lot of respect, yet when you complete the ensemble with a fully loaded AK-47, it is surprising how masculine it looks.

Ma Al Salama
Rod