Wow, I hadn't realized it had been 12 days since my last blog posting. My absence has been due to a combination of many sleepless nights, preparation for the June 30th deadline, and a general lack of motivation that is affecting us all right now during this stage in our deployment.
But today things are looking better. June is almost over with. My deployment counter on my laptop reads 69 days until I'll be going home (WhooHoo!!). And it's Sunday, which means it is steak and lobster night at the dining facility. So things are beginning to look a little bit better.
The June 30th deadline is really an ominous thing around here because no one really knows what to expect. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about. On Tuesday the U.S. Army will be pulling almost all our troops out of Mosul and will no longer be patrolling the city and keeping the peace. That will now be the responsibility of the Iraqi Army and Iraqi police. We are hoping things will remain peaceful but something tells me we will be seeing an increase in attacks after Tuesday. Here's a link to a short video clip on the situation from the CNN website: http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/06/22/black.iraq.mosul.al.qaeda.cnn?iref=videosearch
Hope everybody is doing well. Take care and Happy Sunday!
This smoke plume is from a very large IED (Improvised Explosive Device) that blew up just outside the walls of our compound.
6 comments:
Great to hear from you bud and glad to hear that things are improving for you there.
Only 69 days to go...be safe!!!
Great video too...very informative. You don't know any of those soldiers do you? Col. Volesky or others?
Also - so we've already handed control over to Iraqi Police/Army in other territories...did violence escalate there?
Jimmy - I know COL Volesky pretty well. He was in the ER today because we were treating some of his troops after their vehicle got blown up by a grenade. He is tha man around here, and probably one of the most respected military leaders in Iraq right now.
Other cities have done okay under Iraqi control but there is a much higher percentage of bad guys in Mosul compared to other places in Iraq.
Hi Peter, everyone has missed your posts, good to hear from you! dad and i are also concerned about the June 30th pullback. We watched a news report on PBS the other night that profiled Mosul, calling it the most dangerous city in Iraq. We also feel it may be a mistake to turn this city over to a government who cannot control their own peoples constant violence against each other. It sounds like it will be easy for insurgents to gain a stronger foothold there. Please be careful, we pray for your safety daily, but, we have faith in our military to make good decisions about how to protect American soldiers while we are there. Please try to let us know how things are going..we all really appreciate your updates, they're so much better than what the media gives us...love mom
69 days huh? glad to hear from you and know you're doing well. i've been meaning to ask you - how good are the lobsters and steak?
take care of yourself, we're always thinking of you in MA.
Bri
Bri - The steak and lobster is terrible. I am convinced the "steaks" are camel meat. And the lobsters are nothing more than big crawfish. But hey ... it's Iraq so I can't complain.
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