Let’s start this up every Friday now: a range of comments and descriptions of life in Iraq from a breeze of milblogs.
From Back in the Sandbox:
We finally caught one of the million lizards that are running around this place. Everday when I walk back to my room, I see these little guys scurry into a hiding place. This one was caught in our work area. They’re hard to get a picture of and even harder to catch. On my first deployment, I saw Camel Spiders all of the time. That’s not the case this time, but that’s fine with me. I’d rather live in a place with these little lizards than those ugly spiders.
At Half a World Away, "Sack," a National Guardsman at Camp Anaconda, gave a very detailed description of watching Tiger Woods win the British Open last weekend, and wrapped up his various critiques of the coverage - "SSG Johnson and I thought it was comical that after Sergio got off to a terrible start, they didn’t show any coverage for him like 10 holes" - with this:
Well, back to the daily grind. Today is our 4th month anniversary, so we are 1/3 done with our time in country. Our section celebrates this milestone by going "out to eat" at BK or Pizza Hut. I think I’ll have a whopper tonight.
365 and Wake-Up (featured in the WSJ’s milblogging piece two days ago) described returning home in January:
Back Home
After 18 months away the 1-184 IN returned to the sunny shores of California last Monday. It has only been a week since A Co touched down, but when I look back at my days in Baghdad they seem somehow vaugely unfamiliar. It is almost as if I were watching the actions of an unfamiliar other move through my memories. As the memories reconsolidate I will be posting again to finish filling in all the gaps in our deployment… but for now I am just enjoying the free air.
Matthew Burden at Blackfive offers fiery, conservative war rhetoric and little document about soldier life. But here’s a letter from an Israeli soldier posted on that site today, if only to show that ideology is a pretty busy highway:
This is our time to rise to the challenge, put on the helmets and the bullet proof vests and make sure that the northern border is secure.
We shall fulfill any mission in a most effective manner, in face of any challenge.
If we shall not fulfill our mission we shall forfeit the right to exist.
We shall not lose this war, which we did not start.
Our duty is to serve as a defense force of the Jewish People, and to secure the peace of mind of the civilians in northern Israel.
If we shall not do it, no one will do it in our place.
For two thousand years we waited for the establishment of the Jewish State, and we are not going to roll back because a bunch of terrorists assume that they can scare us.
He who cannot defend Liberty does not deserve Liberty.
If we will not be able to fight until our last drop of blood, in order to secure the Liberty of our People on its own soil, our People will not enjoy Liberty.
There is time to talk and there is time to act. At this time, when missiles and Katyushas afflict the North all the way to Haifa, in addition to the two kidnapped soldiers, the ten soldiers killed and the dozens injured, it is time to fight and not to talk. We are the force, which has been chosen to fight, and we shall perform in the most effective manner.
I will be the first one to enter the battle and the last one to come out, and will do everything in my power to get you out alive and well. On Friday, with God’s help, we will rejoin with our families. However, I cannot do it alone. Once we cross the northern border, you should exercise full alert and full responsibility toward your fellow soldier.
