Oerdin's Iraq thread - Continued

[East Street Trader]

If the material abouty Iraqi law is anywhere reasonably close to hand, Oerdin, I would be most interested to see it.

Don't be too down on agreeing cease fires - whatever you think of those they are agreed with. A cease fire can sometimes extend itself in quite a surprisingly satisfactory way. Whereas if you confront every bad guy you can find in Iraq then it will have to be your children's children who start thinking of coming home.

Apart from oil, dates are Iraq's biggest export so the palms you see may not be purely decorative.

[Dinner]

Ahhh, the wind has been blowing non-stop today and the sand has really started to fly. Visability is sometimes down to 10-15 feet and it's bloody hot to boot.

[oerdin's sis]

And I was just complaining that it is only about 60 here today.... and it sprinkled this morning....

[Chemical Ollie]

Good to see that things have calmed down and that Sadr has backed off. Let's hope it stays that way.

[Dinner]

Today started out as a really good day but things got ****ty fast. This morning I got the results of my TB test (which came in negative), I had a great conversation with an officer in the Army of Kazakstan (We agreed that Iraq would make bumpy progress over the next few years), and I even had a decent mission where we went finally got the two newspapers in town to agree to merge (we told them to merge or we'd stop giving them money). The sucky part started when I got back to base.

An Army Chaplain was waiting for me and he told me he'd gotten a message from the Red Cross saying my mother had died. She's had cancer for sometime now so it's not a total shock but the last I heard the cancer wasn't growing very fast. She had fallen down (the cancer had caused her to have a stroke 1.5 years ago and she's had trouble walking ever since) and broken her hip two days ago. The doctor said the cancer had spread to her bones causing them to be weak, but, my dad said she was going to have hip replacement surgery and I didn't think there was any danger of her dying from that. Apparently, she had completed the surgery and my father had stayed in her hospital room all night. At around 6am he left for work and when he came back to the hospital at lunch time the doctor told him my mother had died.

I'm going to be taking emergency leave from the Army so I can go to my mother's funeral. I'm supposed to take a helicopter from Al Kut to Baghdad sometime tonight and then I will try to hitch a ride on a plane back to the US. I just wish I was there for her when she died. I wish she hadn't died in a room full of strangers. I did speak with her three days ago and she sounded well enough then. I'm guess I should be thankful; the last words I ever said to her were "I love you".

[Last Conformist]

That sucks. My sympathies.

[germanos]

My sympaties to you, Oerdin

I wish you strength, and courage. May there be no death, nor sorrow, for long times to come.

There is no need to feel thankfull, your grief is well placed.

germanos.

[Dinner]

I've called my family and made the arrangements plus I've already packed. Now I just have to wait for the flight.

On another note I think I'm in the wrong business. The Arab fellow who opened the internet cafe on post must be racking in the cash. He has 20 computers and he charges $2 per hour to use them. Since there are 2000 GIs plus around 1500 Ukrainians, Poles, Rumanians, and Kazaks on post the 20 are [b]ALWAYS[b/] in use. That means he makes around $28,800 per month tax free. I don't even think the army charges him for the building and he's only paying his brother $500 per month to work the night shift. That means even with the start up costs he started making a profit in the first week. The average Iraqi only makes $1500 per month so this guy is now living like a king selling GIs a chance to e-mail home.

[Winston]

My condolences and heartfelt sympathy on the loss of your mother Oerdin.

At least you'll be able to re-unite with your family in memory of her, and to comfort eachother. And you'll know she doesn't suffer anymore.

[Barinthus]

Oerdin, I'm sorry to hear about your mother.

[The Mad Monk]

[Lonestar]

I'm sorry to hear about your Mother Oerdin.

[Bloody Monk]

Condolences and Blessings to you and your family, Oerdin. Here's hoping your travel goes smoothly.

Monk

[Ted Striker]

Sorry about your moms Oerdin.

[debeest]

Oerdin, I've never met you and I know really so little about you, but this makes me very sad. What a strange world the Internet creates, eh? Know that I'll be thinking of you.