Scarecrow: "...some people without brains do an awful lot of talking... don't they?"

There is still room for great strides toward success, but there will never be easy answers to securing freedom and security for Iraqis. The price to be paid for years to come will be money, mayhem and human lives. In many ways we are still working to fix the problems left by one of the leading mindsets of the early days after the U.S. invasion...optimism.

My favorite example, which can play as a metaphor for bigger and more important parts of the U.S. operation here, is so simple it's almost endearing.

Sandbags

When work began to build housing areas for the American military and government employees who would bring democracy to Iraq, sandbags were a key building block. Every hooch is surrounded by sandbags for protection from incoming rounds. But with optimism built into the blueprints, someone came up with what I'm sure they thought was a superior concept. Biodegradable sandbags. Think about it...pretend it's 2003. It won't be long before we'll take the training wheels off Iraq's new government, hand over the keys and tell the Iraqis to drive carefully. The sandbags will be dissolving. All we'll have to do is push around some mounds of sand, sweep up and go home.

Four years later, the thousands of piles of hundreds of thousands of biodegradable sandbags are literally collapsing around us. The sandbags are disintegrating, pushed at an even more rapid pace by the extremely harsh weather conditions here.

It's not uncommon to have to step around or over the remains of a sandbag avalanche as you head in or out of your hooch. Iraqi work crews are slowly replacing the mini-mountains of crumbling sandbags with real ones. It's an enormous project that I am sure will cost more money than most of us will see in our lifetime.

But what choice do we have? We're going to need sandbags in the IZ a lot longer than we expected.

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Still to come...How 45 seconds in the IZ can mean the difference between life and death

Tinman

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The Tinman Returns

Many apologies for my delay in new posts. I was on my first leave from Baghdad for about 3 weeks and didn't have the time nor energy to keep this updated. My vacation was absolutely fantastic! The pressure of being in the Baghdad bubble has a tendency to sneak up on you. You don't realize how claustrophobic you feel until you are actually close to getting out. When it finally hits, you can't help but feel both ecstatic and panicked as you run for the exit.

I started my time off with 2 days at the Dead Sea in Jordan. I wanted to decompress before meeting up with my family in England. This was definitely the place to do it. There is nothing better then lots of sun, excessive alcohol and the extremely salient water of the Dead Sea to wash away the mental grime of a war zone. Most people have read about it, but swimming here is truly something that has to be experienced to be understood. It is simply an amazing feeling to be so bouyant on the water. You can stand straight up and bob like a cork with the water only coming up to mid-torso.

Next I was off to London for a day and a half.

This was just a quick transit but I managed to squeeze in a trip to the British Museum and The London Zoo. The Museum is massive and packed with an incredible array of history.

I spent a couple of hours here and probably only saw 25% of the entire collection. If you're ever in London this is a Do Not Miss location and it's free!

The London Zoo was very nice. It's a zoo. There are animals...'nuff said.

Before I knew it, it was time for the train to Worcester to meet my wife and daughter. They were waiting at the station when we pulled in. When my daughter saw me through the window I could actually hear her squealing above the sound of the train. The reunion was very special and that first hug was simply priceless. We spent a day with some old friends of my wife and then it was off to tour the English countryside.

We stayed on an old farm that had 8 or 10 cottages on site. They were all stables and barns from the 1800's that had been converted. They did an incredible job and spared no expense to make these comfortable and accomodating living quarters. The farm and surrounding scenery was peaceful, calming and breathtaking all at the same time.

Note: The picture is of the main farmhouse, not the cottage we stayed in. But the house is for rent...sleeps TEN! The people that own the property really put a lot of thought, money and effort into making the place a perfect vacation spot.

They even had a mini-cottage built on the playground for the children.

We spent HOURS in there and had quite a hard time convincing our daughter to come out.

The 8 days we had here flew by. We explored historic sites, gorgeous landscapes and LOTS of English pubs.

Saying goodbye again at the train station was very hard. I held my wife and daughter close, breathed them in and promised that I would see them again soon.

After an exhausting 24 hours of travel I landed in Dubai for 3 days of training. Dubai is a spectacular city and it seems like the whole place is under construction.

The atmosphere is very hip and there are a lot of beautiful and rich people walking around. I made some very good contacts during my time here and plan to fly a few resumes their way to see if anything interesting comes up. There is a LOT of money to be made in Dubai. But it's also a very expensive place to live and the traffic is absolutely horrendous. The typical 20 minute cab ride back to the airport took an hour and a half! Still, if you'll say "yes" to Baghdad why in the world would you say "no" to Dubai?!?

Then it was off to Kuwait for my military air flight back into Baghdad. You have to camp out at Ali Al Salem Airbase for a day. It's dirt and trailers and tents and hot and dusty.

You bunk out in the "transient tent" where at any time you can have 0 to 16 roommates.

I had about a 24-hour wait and I was feeling a bit depressed thinking about getting back. But once I made it, it didn't take long to find my track in the rhythm of life here. It may sound odd, but it was good to be "home." The IZ has a way of growing on you.

Still to come...Why you don't say "goodbye" in Baghdad.

Tinman


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