Long Time

Qatar

All,

Wow, it's been a while since I last emailed. Time is starting to go by a little faster, I'm on the backside of the hill now, and that little spec might be light at the end of the tunnel. I took a 4 day pass to Qatar in November. The best part of that being I had my first beer in over 6 months. It's so good when it hits your lips! We were limited to three a day, but after 6 months that is really all you need. I went on a tour to the city of Doha. Qatar is a small, oil rich country on the Persian Gulf. Only about 200,000 of the 800,000 people living there are citizens. The rest are on work visas. In Qatar, there are no poor citizens, just rich and extremely rich. The government provides subsidies for everything. It is still a tree-less wasteland of a country, but there is a lot of money. We went to some old shops, had a traditional Qatari meal, and then went to some large western style malls. It was odd seeing people dressed in traditional Muslim clothing eating at McDonald's. I also find it odd how obsessed Arab countries seem to be with our culture, given the fact that is supposedly "evil." There are literally TV shows, on the Arab channels, about the top ten movies in the US. Strange. The rest of the time, I played a lot of X-box and just relaxed. The have real eggs and real milk in Qatar too. You don't realize how much you miss something like that. It was a nice 4 day vacation.

Back in the IZ, we had Thanksgiving. The chow hall was open pretty much all day. I think the closed for around an hour after breakfast. The spread was huge. And the food was surprisingly good! These was really turkey, not a processed mound of pressed turkey meat like usual. I even had corn bread stuffing. The eggnog was virgin, but it was still nice to have. We played basketball for about three hours that day. Everyone was a little sluggish from all the Turkey, but it was still a good time. Plus, it helped make room for dinner.

The Army Navy game came and went. Again, Navy was victorious. Which is a good thing when you are working in a joint command. The Army guys were pretty down trodden after the game. They played the game on a projector, so the screen was about 8 feet tall. The chow hall set up wings, hot dogs, pizzas, and jalapeno poppers for the game with root and near beers. It was quite a spread, and a lot made you feel normal. We started to play poker, but everyone started losing on purpose so they could watch the game. I brought a bright yellow Go Navy Beat Army shirt that I wore all day under my uniform. I took off my cami top every chance I got. I got some interesting looks, but no one told me to change. We did have one West Point grad in our group, but he was a good sport about it. We didn't give him too much grief after the game.

I think there is some real progress over here. Attacks are down a lot. The struggle is still political and economic though. But, our own Democrats and Republicans can't agree on which way is up, so how can we expect the Iraqis to settle their differences so fast? I saw a quote the other day from an Iraqi who joined the Iraqi Army. He said he signed up now cause he was waiting to see which side, US or the insurgence, was going to win. I think that is key. Politically, Iraq will never be where we want them. But, if they can enforce their own laws, and defend their own country, we can leave. Even some of the militia leaders have called cease fires. If those hard line radicals are sensing some improvement, I think there is definite hope. I hope the time comes soon. We keep spending money here, and it needs to stop. Iraq has plenty of it, they don't need ours. At least the government does. I think there will be a power struggle here when we leave. Hopefully, the army and police are strong enough to deal with it. It's getting there, but it has a bit to go.

Well, that's about all for now. Christmas is coming soon. Merry Christmas to everyone, be safe traveling.

Till next time, Jase