Oerdin's Iraq thread.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Pornographic or sexually explicite photos, video tapes, movies, drawings, books, magazines, or similiar representations. (Your teenage daughters harliquin romance books probably break this rule because they have declared Maxium and FHM to be sexually explicit)

how about Victoria's Secret?

or even Sears...

Jon Miller

[Bloody Monk]

Four days w/o an update, Oerdin. We have all become invested in your musings and experiences. Hope you are just busy.

Keep your head down.

Monk

[Barinthus]

I second that, Bloody Monk.

[Dinner]

It's about time for another update so here's what I've been up to the last few days. Over all things have been quiet though I've had a bad case of "Saddam's revenge" (gringos visiting Mexico may know this as Montezuma's revenge'). In Tikrit the tap water was safe to drink so I, wrongly, thought the water here in Kirkuk would be safe as well. The end result is I've had a couple of million Iraqi flagella wrecking havok on my digestive track but I guess that's life.

In any event we've been trying to complete a few of the media and town assessments for the Kirkuk area. This entails locating all the local TV & radio stations, finding out their technical specifications, who owns them, as well as, what public facilities (schools, court houses, police stations, etc...) are in town, what the state of public utilities are and things of this nature. To do this we went in to check up on the local boy's middle school in the town of Hawija just outside of Kirkuk.

The population of Hawija is entirely Sunni Arab and most of these people were relocated here by Saddam in order to carry out his "Arabization" campaign of the Kirkuk area. Kirkuk was traditionally part of Iraqi Kudistan but because of the economic importance of Kirkuk's large oil reserves Saddam tried to cleans the area of Kurds and replace them with Sunni Arabs who he considered to be more loyal to his regime. The end result is that Hawija remains pro-ba'athist and is the local hot bed of anti-Coalition activities.

I'm used to seeing the poor state of repair most of Iraq's public schools are in but the school in hawija took things to a whole new level. The school was built less then ten years ago and because it served Sunnis it was one of the best schools in the area. After the war the Coalition tried to refurbish the place by painting it and filling it with new school supplies (books, desks, blackboards, and what not) but the students have since completely demolished the place. It looks like the locals have gone on a rampage because all of the windows are broken, the desks smashed, the lighting and phone system looted, and the sinks look like they were hit with slug-hammers. Even the new sod and trees which were put in have been pulled out of the ground. The sad fact is the students and other locals are the ones who have done this to their own school simply because the Americans paid to have the place fixed.

We had gone in to talk to the head master about this when I felt another attack of diarea coming on. I asked to use the restroom and the principle pointed to a small door down the hall. I went in to the rest room and I was immediately assualted by the horrible smell of the place. All of the sinks and mirrors were broken and one of the walls was covered in human excriment. It looks like the guy had a case of projectile diarea because he literally sprayed the wall with crap like it was fired out of a high pressure hose. I went to check out the toilets and found that they were nothing more then small holes in the floor and two of them had been clogged with the new deba'athified school books which had been shoved down them. The third one was functioning but it looked like two or three people had tried to use them and had missed the hole and instead had crapped on the floor next to the hole. If it wasn't for those Iraqi bacteria messing up my inards I would have just walked out but as it was I had to make do. It wasn't pleasant but this does detail the amount of hate these people have for everything the Coalition does; they'd even destroy there own school and then live in squalar just so they can protest.

After we were done talking with the principle, who was very uncooperative (we've decided that this school will be last on our list to fix and the locals can sit and stew about the poor state of their school for a while), we decided to give some candy to the crowd of students who were gathering around our Humvees. As we were handing out the candy to the exicited kids a few boys in the background began to throw rocks at the Humvees so we told them that no one would get any more candy until those boys stopped throwing rocks. When the boys refused to stop several of the children who we had given candy to proceeded to beat the living crap out of the rock throwing boys. I mean a hoard of candy seeking children decended upon those little bastards and beat them until the boys went running off crying. It wasn't nice but I can't help but feel they deserved it. I made sure the kids who helped us got a double alotment of candy.

The other big issue we've been dealing with is the local TV broadcasters. A half dozen new TV stations have popped up over the last year and several of the stations are trying to broadcast on the same channel. VHF frequencies travel much further then UHF signals and the transmitters are cheaper to boot so everyone wants VHF channels, however, because the signals bleed over to the adjacent channels you can only use half of the available band width or else conflicts will arise. Because of these conflicts we've had to shut down four TV stations for opperating without a licence which has pissed the owners off to no end. Still, there is only so much bandwidth to go around so the broadcasting must be regulated in order to insure as many stations as possible get to opperate. The four stations don't have the $30,000 it takes to switch over to UHF transmitters so we're trying to get them a grant from the CPA but even so it will likely take months before those stations are back on the air. In the mean time the owners could go bankrupt. It's a tough situation but I think this is the only fair solution.

[Dinner]

BM: Sorry but I've been a bite busy. I'll try to be more diligent with my blogging responsibilities here at poly.

JM: I'm not sure if Victoria's secret would pass muster. No one seems to be enforcing General Order #1 to much but still it irks me that they've even issued such an order.

[self biased]

"saddam's revenge." i like it.

i fail to grasp however, why they destroy their own school and sit there and ***** about it. hell. i'd threaten putting saddam back in power should the whole country go against us...

[Bloody Monk]

So sorry to hear about your water born difficulties. Being there is usually crappy enough. The main reason I prodded you was worry. Glad to hear you are, otherwise, okay.

As for the deplorable school....If they want to live like savages, why should we (the US) pay to make their life better, or risk our lives for them. Partion the country into two big chunks in the north and south and a fenced Sunni reservation in the middle. Let them eat each other.

Monk

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by Oerdin
It's about time for another update so here's what I've been up to the last few days. Over all things have been quiet though I've had a bad case of "Saddam's revenge" (gringos visiting Mexico may know this as Montezuma's revenge'). In Tikrit the tap water was safe to drink so I, wrongly, thought the water here in Kirkuk would be safe as well. The end result is I've had a couple of million iraqi flagella wrecking havok on my digestive track but I guess that's life.

Oy, that's nasty. In Kenya I experienced those several times and during very inconvient times. I learned quickly to carry Pepto Bismal tablets with me everywhere I go.

I went to check out the toilets and found that they were nothing more then small holes in the floor and two of them had been clogged with the new deba'athified school books which had been shoved down them.

Ah! Choo, that's what we called those in Kenya. I've come to prefer those over the standard tiolet because the locals don't clean their bathrooms too often so there are smeared feces in various states of solidness everywhere. Choo tend to be cleaner although those can smell really evil sometimes. In some locations they can be awful although especially schools and public areas.

Next time you have what you affectively called Saddam's Revenge, try eating bananas if there are any to be found - those helps. Yogurt too but I don't know if you can find pasteruized ones there.

[East Street Trader]

Well, I guess I can sort of understand smashing up the work of others even when it means you and your children lose out.

But it is pretty dispiriting.

Your post certainly shows what a tough job you have to do.

Bribing kids with sweets feels like a bad thing to be doing but you have to manage somehow - how else you might deal with stone throwing children I have no idea.

I'm afraid the re-written history books finished up in what I would say is the best place for them.

As you seem to have funds available for re-construction are there any local people who are willing to co-operate about deciding what the funds should be spent upon? Or is the head teacher's attitude universal?

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by Oerdin
It's about time for another update so here's what I've been up to the last few days. Over all things have been quiet though I've had a bad case of "Saddam's revenge" (gringos visiting Mexico may know this as Montezuma's revenge'). In Tikrit the tap water was safe to drink so I, wrongly, thought the water here in Kirkuk would be safe as well. The end result is I've had a couple of million Iraqi flagella wrecking havok on my digestive track but I guess that's life.

Very common in a different land - there's always a host of different bacteria to get used to.

The first 6 weeks are the worst, after that you've adjusted or you've been medically evacuated.

Best of luck - I'd send you some tea tree oil to sort it out but you never did PM me an Army post box address... Too late now, best of luck with it.

Originally posted by Oerdin

...The sad fact is the students and other locals are the ones who have done this to their own school simply because the Americans paid to have the place fixed.

This sort of attitude, while very dispiriting, shouldn't carry on over the longer term. After the Saddam trial, a pro Baathist approach is going to be seen as old fashioned and next to useless.

Put it another way - the Sunni's have had decades of being organised into "spontaneous" rallies to support their "beloved" leadership. At least part of their reaction is tradition - without the leadership to support, they will feel increasingly silly.

Not to say the demonstrations and hatred will end overnight - but it has a limited lifespan, in my opinion.

Originally posted by Oerdin
We had gone in to talk to the head master...

Count your blessings that you are not an SF type who has to crap into a plastic bag every time.

Originally posted by Oerdin
...Still, there is only so much bandwidth to go around so the broadcasting must be regulated in order to insure as many stations as possible get to opperate. The four stations don't have the $30,000 it takes to switch over to UHF transmitters so we're trying to get them a grant from the CPA but even so it will likely take months before those stations are back on the air. In the mean time the owners could go bankrupt. It's a tough situation but I think this is the only fair solution.

Hmm... might it be a valid psyops operation to get some 2nd hand but serviceable UHF gear into the region? If there's an alternative, people will usually grasp it with both hands (as opposed to no alternative, your station is off the air, tough, we don't care).

Just a couple of suggestions. Sorry to hear about your mother - mine departed over a dozen years ago so the scars are long healed.

They never disappear completely though.

[oerdin's sis]

Hey, Oerdin. Guess who?? This has gotten much more interesting and informative since I last took a look!

[Whaleboy]

This is going to get interesting...

[Chemical Ollie]

[Arrian]

Do a little dance...

[self biased]

oints and bellows: DL!