But it's a dry heat

Well, the weather is here. Wish you were lovely.

It got up to 119 degrees yesterday. So warm, in fact, that the two-sided tape holding my outdoor thermal sensor gave up, and it dropped off the eave. I found the sensor lying in the dirt, baking in the sun, showing 126 degrees.

Mostly it’s been around 115 this week, and not a cloud can be seen anywhere. It gets really windy in the afternoon, and we’ve started to have dust devils kick up. I’m used to these from back home, but they’re pretty small potatoes compared to the ones here. These dust devils go hundreds of feet up, and are 15-20 feet wide at the base, spinning weeds, dirt and garbage high up into the air, and making the whole area dusty.

I saw two earlier today, and thought they must be 300-400 yards away. I happened to be driving, and as I got past some obstructions, I saw that they were at least 2-3 miles away.

We have been one of the warmest places in Iraq this week, hotter even than Basra. I had been hoping, given our more northern location, that it would be cooler here than elsewhere.

SecDef

My last couple of posts have been critical and negative, but that is not the sum total of how I feel about senior leadership.

I saw Donald Rumsfeld on Armed Forces Network yesterday, taking questions from soldiers at some type of gathering. It’s normal for him to be surrounded by soldiers. After all, he’s the Secretary of Defense. And, it didn't appear to just be a backdrop to add legitimacy to some other point he was trying to make.

I saw him take questions from soldiers when I was in Kuwait, and in fact got to ask him a question. This was the same Q&A when the soldier famously asked about up-armored vehicles. Rumsfeld at least gives pretty straight answers, and he actually answers the question asked rather than just ignoring it and repeating a talking point. It is this candor that gets him into trouble.

Although I disagree with him on many things, I do respect him. I asked him about a pay problem our soldiers were having, one that I had been working hard with minimal success. Rumsfeld had an aide take information from me on the spot, and right afterward things started to happen. Although it was probably almost effortless for him, he caused the bureaucracy to quit screwing around with our pay and just get it fixed. He followed through and helped us out, and I respect him for that.

He is entitled, of course, to different philosophical goals. That’s what elections are about. I just think he’s a capable, smart, honorable man.

Shame on you

I’ve been thinking about President Bush’s speech last night. I didn’t get to hear it, not wanting to get up at 0400 to listen to it, but I have seen news reports and images.

The first thing that I noted was that he made the speech from Fort Bragg North Carolina, home of the 82nd Airborne Division. Why there? Why not in the Rose Garden? Well, I’m pretty sure it was so he would have a docile audience, and so he could get photos of himself surrounded by soldiers.

I understand from reports that the only time, the ONLY time, soldiers clapped for him was when one of his staffers started clapping and kept it up until the President got a round of applause. That tells you something.

The soldiers were in the Class A uniform rather than the normal battle dress uniform. I.e., formal, not informal. When the Commander In Chief comes, the soldiers have no choice but to show up. Not attending is not an option. So, it seems to me that the President just ordered up a nice photogenic backdrop for this speech, not unlike his “Mission Accomplished” speech on the aircraft carrier. I wonder why, if the mission was accomplished, I am here seeing my fellow Idahoans being maimed and killed.

I do think that we have an opportunity to permanently remake the Middle East, and to start a process toward permanent peace and democracy in the region. I believe this is a noble endeavor. We are doing well here, but we need lots more help. We will need 10 to 20 years, a generation, maybe two, and at least a trillion dollars, to pull this off.

I just don’t appreciate soldiers, sailors or any service person being exploited to provide good images in support of a cause for which they are already being asked to risk their lives. That is shameless, especially when the person doing the exploiting refuses to ask anyone else to make a sacrifice. President Bush said Americans can fly a flag, or send a letter, or help a military family down the street, to show support. He's asking Americans to fly a flag or send a letter, but he's asking service members to give their lives. Seems disproportionate to me.

Clueless

A friend of mine, Joe Bergeman, once told me a story about GM executives. During the 1980s, Detroit automobiles were notorious for poor quality and design. The Japanese cars were rapidly gaining market share due in large part because their cars were more reliable than Detroit’s. As a way to try to understand the problem, the executive would ride to work or wherever in a GM car, and thus thought he or she understood the ownership experience of such cars. According to Joe, part of the problem was that the executive would be driven to work by a chauffer. The chauffer would drop off the executive, and if anything was going wrong, it would get fixed during the day and the executive never saw the problem. Even executives that weren’t chauffeured could get car problems easily fixed. Thus, the executives really had no clue as to what was wrong with their cars and why people were buying Japanese cars. Everything seemed fine to them.

Likewise our senior military leaders. We had a visit today by a military bigwig in the National Guard command, one of the biggest wigs, in fact. His visit was not announced until yesterday, and his itinerary is not published, as security measures. If he were to get killed, captured or ambushed it would be big news and would reflect badly on the security situation in Iraq.

I wonder what he thinks he’s doing here. Talking to combat commanders is important, of course, but that’s what phones are for. I suspect he thinks he’s getting a feel for what soldiers are experiencing. He probably is, a little bit. He is outside briefly as he goes from location to location, so he smells the air and feels the heat and breathes the dust, but only for a minute between leaving an air conditioned building and getting into his air conditioned up-armored SUV, so there’s that.

Eating with the troops is a time honored political tradition for leaders to get in touch with the soldiers. Remember President Bush sneaking into Iraq for a photo op with soldiers on Thanksgiving Day? Same deal.

So, for lunch today we had lobster, not our usual lunch fare, believe me. They had a special serving line set for the bigwig and his straphangers, which included items that weren’t being served to the soldiers today. A bunch of soldiers and airmen were rounded up to sit at tables near him, but he sat with leadership, not with the run of the mill soldiers and airmen. Not sure why they round up special troops to sit near a visiting bigwig, since the chow hall is full of such troops anyway.

The bigwig’s security contingent was in civilian clothes, and thus were probably contract security, not soldiers. He came and left through a door that is usually locked and not available to soldiers. He stood up and just left his plate instead of depositing it in the trash like everyone else does. He wasn’t even wearing the same uniform as us. He was wearing the new version.

Plato offered the allegory of the cave. People living outside the cave looked in, and thought they knew all about the people living in the cave, because they could see in. What they were seeing, however, was shadows of the people living in the cave, thrown onto the cave walls by flickering firelight. No real understanding at all.

So, no doubt Mr. Bigwig will head back and give his opinion of morale and living conditions in Iraq. Senators and Representatives from the US Congress have made similar visits. Fun and exciting for them, expensive for the taxpayer, misleading to policy makers, and useless to the troops. Everything is fine, just like American cars made in the 1980s.

Balmy weather

Summer has definitely come to Iraq. It got to 112 degrees today, though only briefly, according to my Radio Shack indoor/outdoor thermometer. The last few days it’s been in the 110-111 degree range. The high in the last week, per my thermometer, was 113.7, and the low was 75.9.

I’m told that while I was on leave it got near 120, but I consider such reports with considerable skepticism. I’ve seen some of the big round thermometers, the ones that look like clocks, hanging on various structures around here. One might register 120 degrees, but it would be in full sunlight at the time which will skew the reading. I put my sensor underneath an eave so it never gets direct sun.

It is usually in the mid 70s around 0600, but up to about 90 by 0900, and it reaches the high usually by noon or shortly thereafter. It stays at the high until around 1700, then it starts to slowly cool off. It is still in the low 90s around 2200. After that, I’m not sure.

Our soldiers understand the need to drink lots of water so we have had very few heat injuries. I suspect I'll see warmer days, so I'm trying to convince myself that this heat isn't so bad. It’s hot, but it’s a dry heat. Mark Twain wrote, “Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it.” Here, no one really complains about the heat, although people comment on it all the time. It’s 1645 right now, and it’s 109.6 degrees in the shade.

Unwelcome visitor

Having been gone for a couple of weeks my office was dusty and dirty, so I decided to clean up a bit. As I swept, I saw what I thought at a glance was a dark piece of cloth, or a lump of yarn. I swept it with the broom, and it took off across the floor, startling me.

The yarn was actually a dark brown, six-legged scorpion. I realize that scorpions are supposed to have 8 legs, but I could only see six. I took a couple of pictures, and after studying them I can still see only 6 legs.

I’m not sure how to describe the size. Do you include its reach with its front pinchers? With its tail up over it’s back, or stretched out full length? This one was wider than my chapstick tube, and from outstretched claws to its back side, with its tail curved up and over, it was about as long as the chapstick tube. Straightening out its tail would add another two or three inches.

The scorpion trundled across the floor, and, of course, under my desk. I didn’t like the idea of it hanging around my feet, so I moved the power cords it was trying to hide among, and it moved off to behind the trashcan, off to the side of my desk, and there it stayed. Still, I kept my eye on it, not wanting to have it sneak up on me. Luckily it moved pretty slowly.

I didn’t want to just stomp on it and kill it. For one thing, we’re always told not to mess with snakes and scorpions. I didn’t want to have to police up the gore from stomping such a large arachnid. And, I generally try to live and let live, if I can, and the scorpion hadn’t attacked me.

I left it alone, and when I returned to my office the next day, I couldn’t find it. Oh great. Now I’m just waiting to stumble across it and get stung. I looked around for it, carefully, and haven’t seen it anywhere. I hope it went back from whence it came. I’ve kind of got the heebie jeebies, wondering where the damn thing got off to, waiting for it to show up and freak me out again.

Easy come, easy go

On my way back from leave we stopped in Kuwait for a few hours, and while there received a welcome back brief from a chaplain's assistant. I don't remember much about his speech, other than it took only about 3 minutes. He did ask if anyone had gotten engaged or married while on leave. Three smiling soldiers raised their hands, and we clapped for them. The chaplain's assistant next asked if anyone got divorced on leave, and three more smiling soldiers raised their hands, and we clapped for them as well.

If it's Tuesday, this must be Kuwait

I left for leave June 1st, and just got back a couple of day ago. My biggest impressions; the sky is really blue back home, compared to here, and the streets are all swept clean and free from dirt and debris.

I was set to leave the 1st, and reported at 0800, expecting a flight in due course after that. Turned in our weapons and were told to return at 2300. We did, got a couple of briefs about staying out of trouble, and waited for the plane, expected at 0200. We went wheels up in a C130 at 0338, and flew about two hours to Kuwait, arriving about 0600 (0500 Kuwait time).

Deplaned and took buses a short distance and stood around a dirt parking lots for a half hour, then got on other busses for an hour ride to Camp Doha. Turned in our helmets and body armor, and were given large bays containing bunk beds with plastic lined mattresses where we could wait. More briefings. Got our itinerary and tickets around 1100, and reported at 1330 with all our gear to go through customs. By this time, our group had grown to nearly 300, including soldiers from Kuwait, all over Iraq, and Afghanistan.

A bunch of Navy guys scrounged through our gear looking for contraband, and once we passed that we went to another holding area, full of about 300 canvas folding chairs. We hung there until around 1900, then bussed to Kuwait International Airport, arriving around 2030. Stayed on the busses until around 2200, then boarded our L1011 chartered flight and flew to Shannon, Ireland, a six hour flight. The sun came up around 0400, Ireland time (by this time I was groggy and completely lost in time.)

An hour and a half in Ireland, then a 10 hour flight to Dallas, where we were greeted by two fire trucks making a water arch for us to drive through, as a salute. Had a really warm reception in the Dallas airport by a welcoming committee. WArm, but kind of hard to take. Arrived in Dallas at 0920 Dallas time. Got a flight to Denver around noon, and then to Boise, arriving about 1700. I have no idea how much time that all adds up to. I couldn’t sleep on the planes or busses.

The return trip was essentially just the reverse, except no customs search. I left at 0600 Boise time on Sunday, left Dallas at 1830, got to Ireland at 0906 local time (0306 Dallas time). Departed 0930 local time, arrived in Kuwait at 1945 local time, and back to Camp Doha at 2200 local time (11 am Monday, Boise time). Spent the night on the plastic covered mattress, large bay, lights on all night. Got to sleep around 0200, and woke up at 0600. Finally got back to the FOB around 1500 the next day. I’m still getting over jet lag.