been a while

so, yeah its been a while since i wrote last, but sometimes its hard to jump on the old computer that is not controled by the military. but as we speak, i am sitting on the west bank of the tigris river in mosul. We have a make shift base on an old sadaam river house. its pretty nice, but i got about 20 flies on me and about the throw the computer bc they DRIVE ME CRAZY! And its like these desert flies and bugs are aggressive as hell bc food and water is far and few between. We are seeing dudes bc of a mass mutiny and without going into detial, some stuff that is suposed to be right is not and people could die. The AWOL rate is rediculous with the Iraqi Army. I mean some if not most are good and brave, but MANY will turn and run if they dont like the situation, or out of pure laziness.

On a brighter (kinda) note- i offically recieved my CAB (Combat Action Badge) for some fights up in mosul. Not really a big deal, but its is just some flaire or bling for the old uniform.

I met my new counterpart with our iraqi unit, which brings me to another problem. This guy has been in the iraqi army for over 20 years but with the old regieme (you know the guys who twice fought against the US forces) Most have a smooth transition into working well with us, but some like this dude just has an old way of thinking. Not really hate or distrust with the US, but just an overall "thats not how we used to do it" kinda attitude. Its a problem bc all those commanders in key postitions are "old regieme" dudes. What we really need to do is fire all these old dudes and let the newer, modern thinking leaders take charge. not saying that is really the answer to all the preoblems but it would be a blood transfusion that this decaying country needs.

sorry a lot of complaining this time- but im about 3 months in and sometimes its just starts dragging....