Ashura

The last couple of days have found us pretty busy. Today we were able to take a break and tend to maintenance with the vehicles and other annoying shitty admin things that have to be taken care of. The Iraqi's are celebrating Ashura right now. I don't know if celebrating is the right term, maybe morning the Ashura. Essentially the Ashura is "a major festival, the tazia (ta'ziyah). It commemorates the death of Husayn (also spelled Hussein), son of Imam 'Ali and grandson of Muhammad, on the 10th of Muharram, AH 61 (October 10, 680), in Karbala, Iraq. The event led to the split between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, and it is of central importance in Shia Islam. " Like any Iraqi holiday the streets and Mosques are decorated with the colors of Islam, Green is Islam, Red is Sacrifice, White is Purity, and Black being Martyrdom.

The beginning of our balls to the wallage, started by going out and taking pictures of billboards, to make sure that their were not any anti-ISF, or coalition sayings on them. This kinda prompted me to start taking more pictures of billboards here but that is for another post. The down side to this was driving up and down the main roads, which in recent days became a hotbed for EFP's. It snowed and hajj got all nutty and broke out the EFP's he had in the shed or something? After we drove around taking pictures of signs, we went and investigated some houses next to where an IED was found. The houses were just squatter shacks, built of mud bricks. I met some kids there who were actually not that annoying and very lovable, I seldom feel this way but I really wanted to take them home, maybe it was because they were about my daughters ages.

Damn the ground hog dayness of this place because I know we did some other shit but since I didn't write it down, I can't even remember what the hell we did. We did go out and try to give money out to local businesses and engage the population and hand out tip cards. We went out and secured an area and waited forever for someone to come out and do a meet and greet but low and behold said someone was running late so we waited an hour for nuthin. It was pretty cool because I got to meet the dude with the coolest mustache in all Iraq. I saw him walking as we drove by about a month ago, and I was totally stoked by his mustache, it was a muchacho mustache, a mustache that screams I'm a fucking bad ass. After talking to him in minced English and Arabic, this guy ended up being a pretty bad ass dude, in a good way.

Ah I remember what we did now..... We went and looked for supposed militia members renting out supposed houses, and my guys came across some old school jet fighter helmets, and flight suits in one house, and it turned out the guy that lived there was once a fighter pilot in Saddam's army back in the day.

Lately the militia has been threatening the locals, and people who are actually trying to help Iraq and make it better. We went to investigate this on the day before Ashura. People had the decorations up and the neighborhood was friendly enough. Our mission was to get out and talk to the people. You can always tell when your in a militia rich environment because the people will tell you "No meester no militia here this is a good area." They will also tell you "Everything is fine I cannot talk to you." After they tell us repeatedly at every house on the block that there is no militia you see these

Yup no militia here!

Other big indicators is if we try to get a young male alone to talk to him and his family starts freaking out. The people are either affiliated with the militia in some form or another, or scared to death of them. You won't ever really find a guy willing to rat out the militia because they know that if they are caught they are going to end up in some remote location with their head missing.

Muqtada called for a ceasefire among the Jaysh Al Mahdi to clean house as some have put it. Other news sources report that he is trying to get on board and make positive changes in Iraq. Hey I'm all for it. Its been quiet for the most part. Its frustrating because the militia is the major problem we have in our area, some will tell us fuck the Mahdi or spit at the name of Muqtada but you can't always tell if they mean it or if they are hiding it. Maybe they are part of a militia splinter cell and just don't like Muqtada for trying to make Iraq a better place. One thing is for sure is that the Iraqi people fear the militia, and if they would just take a stand against it and help us maybe we could make bigger gains in defeating them. Shit the Sicilians are starting to unite against the Costra Nostra. From what I understand the Jaysh Al Mahdi was formed in order to protect the Shiia from Sunni violence, then what it boils down to is that they actually bully and terrify their own people. I hope that one day we can just work together for the common good of Iraq because I think that it has every possibility of being a great nation.

Thats about it other than recieiving a lil info about a possible IED and going to investigate it as if we were some form of EOD. I hate that shit, "Um ya we have a possible IED at such and such grid and we are going to investigate it." Does it say EOD on my fucking shoulder patch? No. Why don't you have the experts look for that shit. The only time I seem to find the damn things is after they blow up on my fucking truck. No its not that I'm not looking for the shit, cuz I do. I look so hard that when I redeploy it will be months before I'm driving down the interstate not looking for them. It's that they hide the fucking things real good, not to mention that in my mind everything is a possible IED because it doesn't look right and if it were up to me I'd make EOD clear every 5 feet of road in front of me and we would never make it anywhere on fucking time. Ya ok! We'll go investigate it, like we are the fucking CIS for fucking bombs and shit.

Well till next time peoples.

DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!!!!