Day 87 / Feb 24
Still under blackout. I haven't heard what the delay is yet – probably having trouble reaching the families.
The Sunnis and the Shiites have been killing each other for longer than you can imagine and I suspect they will continue to do so, with or without us. Maybe we should just move up north, help the Kurds establish Kurdistan, build them up and leave. We can let the Sunnis and the Shiites figure out who is right on their own.
At this point, regardless of when we leave, the world will only see that we caused trouble, got people killed, and still don't have anything to show for it. It's not true, but that is what the world will see. We have built schools, rebuilt their infrastructure, we removed a savage dictator and we gave them all the pieces of the puzzle for peace and democracy and they have so far refused them. Maybe I'm just disgruntled today.
All patrols have been shut down for the time being.
I hear on the news all the bad things going on in the city that is nearby (Baqubah), but here on the FOB, we are still in regular uniform – we haven't upgraded to IBAS which would indicate an increased threat level. Outside the country is going to hell, people getting shot on the street, kidnapped, mortared and other things, but here, it is quiet. I just hope this doesn't bring the heat on us later on. Personally, I hope we say, "Hey, you all want to kill each other. Go ahead, but we're out of here. This isn't a war on terrorism, this is a religious war and it's not ours to fight." But, again, that's not for me to decide. We are still doing good things here for the Iraqi people.
Ok, back to the crazy cartoon issue. Recent news indicates that not only have offers of $1,000,000 (and a new car!) for the killing of the cartoonists been made, but also accepted! This is absolutely crazy, still. This mentality that everything must be avenged by death is what makes it virtually impossible to stop them from killing each other. I wish I had a good joke to make that would incite them like a kicked ant hill, but I don't. I think they make themselves look pretty foolish all of their own. Like I said before, their overreaction to this cartoon just goes to validate the premise of the cartoon. Even the head Muslin guy in India said he'd shell out some money to have the cartoonists beheaded.
Blackout is over again. In the end, three of our Brigade's Soldiers were killed. Before the blackout was over, the incident was on the news. You have to love the information age.
Blackout on again. More tofollow.
1 comment:
Reminds me of the "hit" put on Salmon Rushdie.
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