Roller Coaster

Have you ever been to an amusement park with a signature thrill ride? It is usually some sort of roller coaster, and its image and logo are emblazoned on black t-shirts and souvenir bumper stickers. Ever been in line to get on one of those things for the first time? Remember how your stomach felt?

I was thinking of this the other day as we waited to roll outside the wire. We were going to an area I was entirely unfamiliar with having never been there before. An hour before, the convoy commander himself had approached me to try to find out how to get to our destination. On top of that, our element was only traveling with three humvees; significantly less firepower and armor than we'd become accustomed to. So, when the headset radios started crackling with reports of IED strikes and discoveries of unexploded IEDs in our area, I began to experience that familiar pre-roller coaster tension in the gut. Here we go. Fasten your seat belts. Keep all hands and feet inside the car. Enjoy the ride.

Once again, fortune smiled upon us. A few wrong turns were made, and we needed some help from HQ, but we did eventually reach our destination unscathed, performed our mission successfully, and returned to base.

The Iraqi PM, al Maliki, has been making press lately by bristling at reports emanating from the U.S. that his government is not making enough progress in meeting benchmarks, and increasing pressure in Congress for a withdrawal of U.S. troops. His puffed up retort that U.S. troops can leave 'any time they want' is being greeting with bemused smiles by many soldiers here. Everybody knows this is political posturing, and not an accurate reflection of the current state of readiness of Iraqi forces. I believe we're making a lot of progress across both fronts; pushing back the insurgency, as well as training and equipping the Iraqi Security Forces. However, my own sense is that we're nowhere near a tipping point that would allow the ISF to be self-sustaining.

I keep forgetting to throw in this little tidbit from several weeks ago. As we roll through the streets of just about any town in Iraq, it is very common to see kids run out to greet us, holding both hands up as if holding a soccer ball above their heads. This is, of course, the universal sign for, "Mista, Mista! Give football!" In a previous post, I believe I alluded to the fact that soccer balls are just as popular, if not more so, among Iraqi police and soldiers. However, the Iraqi security forces are generally a little more subtle when it comes to begging for soccer balls. So, one day when we rolled through an Iraqi Army checkpoint, I was a little surprised to see one of the soldiers manning the checkpoint standing next to the road childishly holding both hands above his head begging for a soccer ball. I about choked on my camelback when his partner smacked him on the back of the head and gave him an incredulous look that said, "What in the hell are you doing?!"