OIF

Hey everyone. I regret to tell you that I was wrong in my last post about no one getting hurt. The attack was on a guard tower and a soldier was killed. I jumped to conclusions and I apologize. I did not know the soldier but I ask that you keep his family in your prayers. From now on I will try to make sure I KNOW before I post.

We were in communications blackout for two days, but for some reason they don't cut everything off, they just tell you not to use it. I didn't get word so I went ahead with my postings and e-mails as usual not knowing we were in a blackout.

Things here are still about the same. Work in the day, find something to do to keep my time occupied at night. Yesterday I laid down to take a nap and accidentally slept for 4 hours. Made for rough sleeping that night.

I had guard duty yesterday and there was an Iraqi there that spoke english very well. It was nice because I actually got to talk to him and ask him some questions that I wanted to know about. I didn't get to record the conversation, but I wanted to let you guys know what we talked about, so I'm going to paraphrase the conversation. It was kind of sad and a little bit suprising.

me - so your girlfriend is from america?
him- yea, she's a sergeant.
m-so are you going to try to make it america
h-it's so expensive, plus i can't move there because of september
m-september 11th?
h-yea, i'm sorry about that
m-you have nothing to apologize for, you had nothing to do with that. we know who's responsible for that. plus, there are a lot of muslims in america and while some parts of america are more rasist than others, we mostly live in peace
h-i'm looking for someone to help me get to america because it's so expensive
(After a pause) m-so what do you think? how has it been here in iraq since the americans came? is it better or worse...you can be honest.
h-(laugh) i don't know, i can't answer that
m-well, has your situation improved or are you in greater danger?
h-well, when i come to work here i can't tell people whre i'm going. they say where do you work, and i say, just take me there, and they say who do you work for, and i say just go this way.
m-why do you work for us then?
h-because my uncle works and i want to help him. plus i like the US and i really want to respect my uncle.

That's about all I could get out of him, I wish I could have set up a real interview, maybe before I leave I can get something going. He let me take a picture of this old Baath party coin that his father owned before he died in the first gulf war. His father was an officer in the Baath party and the old Iraqi army and now he's trying to sell these coins so he can move to america. He says they're real gold, I looked, I'm not so sure, but if anyone is interested in getting a real Baath party coin, e-mail me, I have his e-mail address. I told him I would see if anyone wanted to buy it. I know I know, it's Baath party, but I know a lot of people are interested in stuff like that, not to support them, but trophies. I mean, plenty of people have WWII German helmets and knives etc. and no one thinks it's because they supported the Nazis. So if anyone is interested let me know.

I guess that's about it. Hope everyone at home is doing well. I miss you a lot but I'm coming home soon enough. God bless and thank you so much for your support and prayers.