I decided to post a few pictures from my Iraq adventure. I'm not sure why, after three years. It had been ten years since I returned from my year in Rome, and I hadn't been further out of the country than Sinaloa in that decade. I was pretty low on funds (couldn't really afford that dreamed of trip to Thailand), when the army offered me an all-expenses-paid four-month fun tour of Central and Northern Iraq. Of course, I suppose amongst the people I hang out with, it probably appeared to be a shameful thing to do. I really had the best of intentions, thinking that I might be able to contribute in a small way, to the recovery of a people whom my country had bombed and murdered thousands. So, I went there. It was like a bad LSD trip. It was other-worldly. It was like a gigantic Disney Corp. theme park - "Army World." It was full of army trucks and soldiers with big weapons, but with only minimum gunfire and explosions for effect. The campers dress like army guys, get to ride in all sorts of kul military vehicles and fly in helicopters. The staff (Disney employees) carry big rifles or handguns. They look really real, but nobody ever shoots at anything. There are small explosions at night, and we are told they are from incoming mortars, and we just take them at their word, although nobody is ever hit. Sometimes we find small craters and shattered debris in sidewalks, streets or sticking in the bark of trees, to indicate where a mortar hit during the night before. I found a huge shell in the ground while walking in a decrepid orchard, and reported it to ordinance. It remained there as long as I was in Tikrit, no doubt planted by staff to contribute to the realism.

I fell from a truck and broke some ribs (boy, did that ever hurt!). I got to fly in a medivac helicopter and stay in a real field hospital. That made for a good story.

For the first couple of months, the food was packaged “meals ready to eat,” or MREs. They’re not too bad for camp food, but they get really old in a few weeks. I lost about 10-12 pounds. Then Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), one of the giant corrupt subsidiaries of Bechtel Engineering, came in a built a giant mess hall tent structure, brought in food from all over the world, and cooks from India and Pakistan, and we started eating like royalty, and the US taxpayers slipped another few million to Bechtel.

So, anyway, here’s a few pics from the early days of the worst crime this evil country has committed since Viet Nam. I was there.