another update!!

here's an update from brad. we love and miss him so much, but are so thankful for him and all the wonderful blessings he has brought our family. we love you daddy!!!

Some call this place the land of futility. No matter how many meetings, or agreements you have with these people they will continue to push a square peg through a circle hole. Some of you may wonder, what exactly am I doing in Iraq. I sometimes wonder this as well….What AM I doing here? As you know I have been trained as a steely eyed killer who is proficient at closing with and destroying the enemy. Leading soldiers in destroying our Nation's enemies, and their stuff, is what the Army taught me to do. However, that is definitely NOT what we are doing in Iraq….anymore…:(

As you know, last summer all of America's "combat troops" left Iraq. This is political semantics at its best. Instead of the media and the politicians just saying our mission is changing from a combat focused mission to a advising mission. They had to say "all combat troops are out of Iraq. So is that true? Yes and No…mostly No. Most troops in Iraq right now come from Heavy Brigade Combat Teams. They call us right now: "Advise and Assist Brigades". Its like declawing a Lion and calling it a kitty. It will still mangle you if you mess with it. It will just take a little longer. So the only thing really changed is our name, and our mission. Soldiers trained and proficient in combat are still in Iraq….we just have to call them "teachers".

Anyhow, currently my mission is to secure high ranking officers and escort them to various locations in our AO. Its a simple mission, and its not hard. The hardest part is dealing with….difficult personalities with-in the field grade officer club. Each time we roll out we link up with our ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) counter-parts and then proceed to our location. What our VIPs do at these locations falls under the Advise Train and Assist (or ATA) category. The bottom line is American forces right now are training the Iraqis to solve their own problems.

Just the other day an Iraqi General asked our BN Commander what he was going to do about "XYZ". Our Commander replied by asking him what he was going to do about it. Then reminded him we will only really be available for their support for another few months.

My interaction with the IA (Iraqi Army) and IP (Iraqi Police) as been mostly positive, other than being offered some questionable produce (which I had to eat so as not to offend). The soldiers and police seem to be very friendly and mostly pro America. They are grateful for the Iraq that they have now, and say they are ready to operate on their own. I don't know how ready they are when our ISF escorts frequently break down because of lack of maintenance or when they constantly run out of gas on the way to a location. I mean…seriously…."Dude…you ran out of gas?! Look bro…NO over there….yeah that's oil bubbling out of your crappy country!" The problem here isn't refineries, its the bureaucracy they've created over the distribution of their gas. For a country so ripe in oil, its hard for me to fathom how they could be so tight with their gas. This has been an issue for the last 5 years plus (I'm told)…thus the land of futility.

However, this place is a lot different than even a couple years ago (I'm told). We still have IEDs, and IDF (Indirect Fire) from rockets on occasion, but we have had no small arms fire or anything like a fire fight in a very long time. Not to say that we don't constantly stay vigilant, but its almost like driving downtown Detroit, versus a third world country. Speaking of which, perhaps Detroit could use some ATA brigades to help them with their issues...