What I do Every Single Day!

I said that a description of the day would beforthcoming, and indeed here it is.

Basically our days are a lot the same and a lot different.  We always have to be around because, frankly, the Iraqi's are lazy.  They will not do anything, sometimes, not even for they family.  (Oddly, they are very protective of their family, if harm should come to them, but will not move a finger to protect them in the first place.)  Therefore, I will spend the majority of my day checking on the Iraqi's to see if they are actually doing there job.  Of course, they are not, because if they were we would leave.

I will move from police station to army checkpoint, and police checkpoint, and so on for most of the day.  Then, eventually, something will go wrong.  Whether it is an attack of some sort, or things as trivial as a disaggreement between two tribes over gasoline they will inevitably come to me.

Sometimes, I have to do something.  If it is a simple problem I tell them to fix it on their own.  Sometimes, I cannot trust them to do it though.  For example, when Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was killed, we closed several streets, because we believed there was a heightened threat of attack.  That would be a simple task, requiring only some concertina wire and a couple of guards, but guaranteed, the Iraqi's will let people through.

This is not always malicious.  Sometimes it is just naivete on their part.  For example, if someone is dressed as a woman (you can't tell with Burkha's) they will not have them get out of a car.  Nevermind that there are men in those clothes, or that there have been female suicide bombers.  And if we arrest someone, that we caught in the act, invariably they will tell me that person is a good guy.  They no doubt believe it in some cases, but they are unwilling to accept the social cost of being a lawful society.  Basically, they all think the rules don't apply to them.

So this is what makes my day so long, and hard.  Basically, I am running a special education school where the students are heavily armed.  They all want my personal attention, and they all want exceptions to every rule.  I lose my voice almost every day because of talking, and sometimes I think if I have another conversation about why you have to search every vehicle when there is a threat of a VBIED, I am going to scream.  But then I guess that would just make me lose my voice sooner.  It could be worse though.