Wow. So much has happened since last week's blog report, which I am now calling "Diy-saster-ala news," which is the restive Diyala province for those of you who don't read the newspapers.
The most memorable event this past week was when U.S. troops leveled an Iraqi village with 500-pound bombs. C'mon! Don't feel sorry for the Iraqis now. The village was abandoned and laced with explosives. See story (www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=56715)
Another was being out with some crazy-ass combat engineers who were blowing up 1,600 pounds of C4 explosive on an IED-infested road. The explosions looked like napalm fireballs. See story (www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=56746)
Perhaps the funniest thing I recently heard was from an Iraqi army commander. I asked him something about al-Qaida fighters and he said that his unit would kill every one of them. I then asked, "don't you mean detain or kill?" He replied, "No, we will definitely kill them all." I like this guy's style, I thought to myself.
Currently, I'm staying at a tiny base south of Baqouba. The base is in the middle of nowhere surrounded by miles and miles of dusty flatlands. It's some glamorous living out there. We're even forced to poo in communal buckets, which is far worse than porta-johns. The stench is so bad that it burns the nostrils.
The unit here has a dog named JAM, ironically after al-Sadr's army, that they've rescued from Baghdad. It's a nice dog with a deformed leg that hops around the place and wakes me up in the middle of the night.
The weather here is averaging around 115 degrees with no clouds in the sky. I think my pale-ass is actually getting a tan. It's also been weird not being able to down a beer afterhours, but I'm smoking like a chimney (or Geoff). I bet all of you would start smoking as well if packs cost $1 or less, like they do over here.
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