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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Captain Jack who wrote (62286)	8/21/2004 8:11:05 AM
From: unclewest	Respond to of 793928

From this morning's e-mail... Hi there, Well I should start off with an apology for taking so long to send another email about how I am doing in Iraq. So I am sorry for waiting so long. In all honesty, I wanted to send another upbeat email about the progress that the Iraqis are making and some more positive stuff... but, they have resorted to settling old scores since the Transition of Sovernty on June 28. It has been interesting to watch them revert to some old tricks learned from 30 years of Ba'athist rule. However, it is not all bad news. Most Iraqis want us here more than ever. They are tired of the random violence that has been generated by car bombs, IEDs aka roadside bombs, and attacks against ordinary Iraqis. My guess is that in the next 6 months Iraqis will resort to vigilanty justice to settle the score with those responsible for killing so many innocent Iraqis. The little bit of access I have to US TV indicates to me that all you see is the attacks and the US death toll. THAT IS A BIG STORY (especially to my team and I and the rest of the servicemen here), but for every American that dies there are 10 Iraqis or more being killed or injured by the same attacks or other attacks that you dont here about. The insurgents, if I can call them that, are NOT making any friends here. They seem desperate. Enough of that. A buddy and I went on a 4-day pass to an Iraqi lake for some R&R in the beginning of AUG. It was very relaxing and we were able to unwind and clear our heads. The trip was beneficial for both of us. My buddy is the senior interrogator for the brigade. We have some funny stories to tell about some of the detainees... Anyway, we did not do a whole lot, except sleep, eat local food, and play in a card tournament (Spades for those of you that know the game). It was a welcomed get-away to a resort (Iraqi-style) that was nessled in the mountains overlooking a nice swimming pool and a lake. It was a good change of venue. As for our operations, well, we have been working on some new techniques to minimize the amount of detainees we process. It has been cool and has us working with some high-speed guys that are not a part of our Brigade. That is about all I will say about that for now. We are keeping very busy and trying some new things. It keeps us from getting complacent. Overall we are doing well and I can't complain. My entire section will end up with a pass or leave (back to the states) by the end of SEP. That makes us a little understregth at any given time, but we have adjusted nicely. The bottom line is we all need(ed) a break, because of the operational tempo that we have been working. We are looking forward to finishing strong, since we are now on the backside of the deployment, and returning to the US to our families and friends. In closeing I'll just say that you can not fully appreciate ALL the great things that we have in America until you give it up a little bit. But we are all glad to be fighting this fight in a foreign land, rather than the streets and building of our own country. Remember this when you here all the arguments for why we have a foreign policy. Sorry for the political ramblings. Take care and talk again later, Hutch