This place is messed up

First of all, let me say that I, and everyone else in the US Army is completely OK. But there are a lot of torn up Iraqi families in this part of town right now. The Shiite Muslims are having their "Death of the Seventh Imam" celebration right now, and it is centered on a shrine which is probably 1000 yards down the road from where I'm sitting right now. There are an estimated 4.5 million people within 1 square mile of this location, all peacefully celebrating their religious event.

Well, you can't let people do their own thing in peace and security, so the Sunni Muslims mortar and rocket attacked the shrine this morning. I don't know if anyone was hurt by those attacks, but we anticipated the attacks several days ago. There is a bridge over the Tigris river that is about 50 yards outside the gate of Camp Justice. Usually the bridge is closed to all traffic because the insurgents were using it to launch rockets into our camp, but for the celebration, the bridge was reopened to pedestrian traffic so that the Shiite Muslims on the other side of town could get to their shrine.

Sometime after the mortar attacks, while the bridge was crowded with what had to be thousands of people, someone spread the word that their was a suicide bomber on the bridge and everyone panicked. We didn't have any idea of what was going on at the time, we can't see outside the protective walls of the camp, and even if we had seen it, there is nothing we could have done. At least 650 people were killed and 180 injured in the stampede and by being thrown off the bridge into the river.

The news release gives a bit more detail. I am continuously amazed by how these people treat one another, and the level of fear of the general population of this city.

I'm going to sleep tonight disgusted at the brutality of mankind.

Later
Trey

Death of the Seventh Imam

The Shiite Muslims have an annual festival commemorating the death of their seventh and last Imam, the descendent of Mohammed. And since the Sunni's get all worked up about Shiite festivals, we were supposed to stay in the camp. I just didn't work out that way. Apparently returning a laptop, a 9mm, and sending some money Western Union for some Iraqi to get a US green card was more important that the lives and safety of 20 American soldiers. But it did make for an interesting ride.

Regardless, all's well that ends well, and nothing of any importance whatsoever happened. Hopefully tonight will be quiet, and there won't be any fundamentalist secretarian violence in this part of town tonight. Here we are risking our lives to help these people build a country, and all they can think about is fighting each other.

Actually the story about the Iraqi needing us to send money Western Union to the Department of Immigration could turn into quite the story. He's been helpful to us, and a price was put on his head for his cooperation with the US forces. So he applied for political asylum and somehow the application was processed by a Sergeant Major. Part of the process was to pay a fee of $120 and he gave the Sergeant Major the money quite some time ago. Well, the money seems go have gotten lost in someone's pocket, so some guys fronted him the money and sent it tonight, which was the deadline. If the Sergeant Major doesn't pay some people back, there may be a criminal investigation into the stolen money. We'll see what happens as I get more info.

Oh, and we have a state of the art phone center here, with no long lines, and plenty of phones. Only the satellite uplink is down most of the time. (Sorry Linds, I tried!) Well, that's enough for one night.

Later Everyone

Trey

Another day, another mortar attack

Yesterday was exciting. We made 3 trips around town, drove through what we were told was a firefight (NOTHING was actually going on), and had 5 or 6 mortar rounds land in our camp (I don't think they hit anything). So basically it was a long day with plenty of adrenaline, but not too much really happened.

I don't have an APO address yet, once they tell me what it is, I'll post it, I promise. Sometimes the Army just takes its time. For instance, for the next few days, Iraqi people will be celebrating the "Death of the Seventh Imam". So we're trying to be out of sight out of mind for a few days. Oh well, I won't complain.

More info later,
Trey

Greetings from Camp Justice

Hello everyone! I know it's been a while since I've posted, but life has been CRAZY for the last 3 weeks. I've finally gotten to where I'll be for a while, perhaps for the entire deployment, time will tell. Kuwait was by far the WORST place I've ever been. I can't even describe the incredible desolation of the camp we stayed in.

Iraq has a much better climate, and time seems to go by more quickly here. Camp Justice is not very large, and lacks some of the facilities that are found at Camp Liberty (like the nice chow hall, swimming pool, PX/store, etc...) but makes up for it by having more phones and computers per capita than any place I've ever been. And the building we live in is actually pretty pleasant. Instead of trailers, it's like one big building with everything in it. The place could use some work, but it's quite nice.

Everyone has been asking about an APO address, but I still don't have one. Well, I do have one, but it's going to change in a couple of days. The APO that we were given went to Qatar instead of Iraq, so everyone who had stuff sent to them won't get it all until the end of September. In a couple of days I'll have a new one and I'll try to get it posted here.

More later,
Trey