Comments from the blogsophere

Blog postings from Atrios, Calpundit, et al are interesting, but the attached comments flesh things out so much more. A case in point is this comment posted on Calpundit's Washington Monthly blog:

This is on-topic and a bit off-topic but here goes:

Kevin, I don’t know if everyone will find the following either relevant or enlightening but thought I’d post it anyway. If it doesn’t fit then pull it but I thought some people would find it helpful. These are pieces of emails from three people that I know: S. is my God-daughter; she is with the Army in Baghdad as a communication specialist and was in the Balkans for almost two years. C. is a former housemate from college undergrad degree #2 for me; he is Hmoung and a businessman who travels the world. T. is also a former housemate (same time as C.) and we bonded because we were both older students. He was in school then between stints in the Army. T. has been just about everywhere the Army has been since the late seventies (Central America, Somalia, Grenada, Gulf War 1, etc.) and is ex-special forces. Now he is a self described ‘old man’ at the age of 45 and works for a contract group in Kuwait. He does not work for the firm that lost the four guys to the mob in Fallujah . His company supplies and guards pipe and other materials for oil and water plants for the rebuilding of Iraq. T. has been in Kuwait since last August, before that he spent four months in Afghanistan. I’ll post the emails from each person in the same order I used here. I have cut a lot of personal info including names, and anything that may hurt these people but I know that all three would be okay with my posting bits and pieces of email.

From S. 12/03/03

Uncle CJ. This place is so different from Europe. Most of the people that I have met seem grateful that we are here and helping rebuild. We have had our share of scary moments but don’t worry. Our support staff is wonderful and I’ve been invited to dinner with several of their families. The kids are adorable and I’d like to take about a 100 home with me. Can I send some to you? I’m picking up the language and customs pretty quick. Nothing like be thrown in the deep end of the pool to learn how to get along in a new place. We in the … are all fine and I have met quite a few people from Wisconsin and Illinois from other units. The joke is that a tough as things are here weather wise that they have no idea what Midwest winters are like. Hope to be home or on leave for next Xmas. More later. S.

From S. 2/27/04

Uncle CJ. Things are not going well here. All the work we have done to get to know the people here like we did in … (specific place in the Balkans) is going to waste. Many of our staff can’t even get to work each day. At night you hear gunfire all night long. It sucks now ‘cause I can’t go visit with all my Iraqi friends and the kids around the base are now scared of us or make rude gestures. The bombs and stuff have hurt three people in my unit since Xmas. Don’t worry about me. See you soon! S.

From C. 4/2704

CJ Just on my way back from KL (Kuala Lumpur) and in six months the attitude has changed. Glad I don’t look like I’m from the US for the first time in my life. People are pissed off. Went to the restaurant where we had the good food in ’02 and the wait staff was rude to our table because we had a couple of people who were obviously American. Unbelievable! The business and tech people were still very proper but on the streets it is not positive. Got to go my flight is being called. C.

From T. 12/18/03

CJ, Looks like another Christmas away from M. & the kids. But I have arranged that this summer we will meet in Europe for three weeks so maybe it will be okay. The pay on this job almost makes up for BS but with only one trip so far into Iraq I’m feeling okay about the danger. Tracking down parts for some of the equipment has been a pain and it is not cheap to get parts for outdated stuff. Some of the guys that are working for the security firms are cowboys but we have weeded them out of our group. The only one in my group who is at all like a cowboy is the Brit V. and that is I think from being former SAS and being young. He’ll learn or I’ll kick his ass out of here.

From T. 3/1/04

CJ, Things are not going good here. We lost three trucks last week and a shitload of needed parts. I have been along for two trips into Iraq now and it feels a lot like Mog did back before I headed home. We had some a-hole shoot at our group and for no reason that I could see other than we were just driving by this cluster of homes. Went all the way up to Baghdad on the second trip and it was hell. Roadblocks, tons of traffic, more gunshots at our group, and the little pukes from my old branch of the services were fucking rude to my people. At one roadblock I had to ask for an officer because they were not going to let a couple of my foreign drivers continue. The Sgt. in charge was not even born when I was a Sgt. and the kid gave me grief. No fucking respect for someone that he should have known to respect. Shit you should see how they treat ‘normal’ people. Makes me sick but I sure understand being afraid. When the Capt showed up he was real professional but I found out that these kids are very, very trigger happy. They think that every Iraqi is the bad guy. This whole thing has become a clusterfuck! How did this happen?

And this one I had in my inbox this morning:

From T.

CJ, As you may have heard some dumbfucks tortured prisoners up in Baghdad and it is now out in the news media. I’m back in K City but even the people here are very unhappy. I’ve been back into Iraq now twice more since last email and we keep losing parts to hijackers and accidents on the highways. The Iraqi people are really starting to dislike us; even our contract workers are surly towards us. Don’t tell M. (his wife) but the last trip north I was about shitting my shorts. Most frightened I have been since Somalia, much like patrols in El Salvador back when I was young and stupid. First time I carried a weapon since I left the …. (his unit in the Army) two years ago. [filler about his job & company plus personal stuff about wife & kids]
About this prison stuff – remember when we watched Band of Brothers around Xmas of ’02 and we talked about the guys in the service then and how Capt. Spiers pistol whipped that guy that shot someone else in the unit? I know that if anyone of that caliper of an officer like Spiers or Winters had found out about our troops torturing prisoners he would have kicked the ever living shit our of them. So what we here in Kuwait City who are ex-service guys from the US and UK were wondering is – why didn’t someone kick the shit out of these stupid pukes? What the hell happened?? Because of a few morons a lot of people will kill a lot of other people. Pisses me off that these dumbfucks will for sure get more US & UK troops killed because of their actions. That is not how you watch out for your Brothers & Sisters in uniform! Talk to you soon. T.

Posted by: CJ on May 1, 2004 at 5:17 PM