Making the World Safe for Democracy (Prior to 30 June 2009)

If you're unfamiliar with the current status of forces agreement in Iraq (or I should say, Security Agreement, as I came to find out), you really should read up on it for a minute to gain perspective on what's going on.  (The reference to 30 June is based on the date when all US troops are required to withdraw from major cities in Iraq.)  Here are a couple of links that are a good starting point.  All I did was a simple google search to find them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.%E2%80%93Iraq_Status_of_Forces_Agreement
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6052/is_2009_May/ai_n35527852/pg_5/?tag=content;col1

I have to particularly emphasize one quote that I found while reading from page 4 of the second article above:

Now, instead of U.S. Forces operating unilaterally, subject only to multinational force regulations and rules, (53) their operations must be "conducted with full respect for the Iraqi Constitution and the laws of Iraq." (54) Additionally, such operations are limited to those "conducted with the agreement of the Government of Iraq" (55) and, in fact, must "be fully coordinated with Iraqi authorities." (56) This coordination "shall be overseen by a Joint Military Operations Coordination Committee [hereinafter JMOCC] to be established pursuant to" the SA. (57) Lastly, military operations "shall not infringe upon the sovereignty of Iraq and its national interests, as defined by the Government of Iraq." (58) The practical reality of these limitations is that U.S. commanders must work "by, with, and through" (59) the Iraqis and develop processes for obtaining the appropriate Iraqi operating authorities. Preferably this cooperation and coordination is occurring at the lowest levels through U.S. commanders' relationships with the GOI and Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) leadership. However, the exact level of mission coordination required by Article 4 may prove to be a significant friction point between the United States and Iraq.

This is quite the reality.  This basically means that we as US forces have to establish a strong sense of cooperation with the ISF if we want to participate in maintaining the security and stability within Iraq.  I won't go into much detail here, but the bottom line is that this adds an extra layer of difficulty and complexity to what we're trying to do. 

On a personal level, at least we've made it here now.  We finally hitched a plane ride up here and got places to live.  I'm living with one other guy in my unit in what is basically a trailer divided into three sections.  They call them CHUs or Containerized Housing Units.  And yes, we do make everything an acronym in the Army - it makes communications easier.  In this case, by easier I mean more convoluted and jargon-ized.  I'll post a picture of my space when I can.  It's actually quite nice.  The biggest plus is just having some personal space instead of living in a big open space that houses me and my 73 closest friends. 

Another interesting feature of day to day life here is the bus system.  Because we're a little spread out and there are not enough vehicles to go around, there is a network of buses that travel around the camp.  In fact, there are multiple lines.  To get to our work area, I have to either catch the purple route and transfer to the orange route at the "bus depot" or i can catch the "DFAC express" during meal times that goes all the way there.  Ha!  I feel like I'm commuting in Chicago again on the Ell trains.  I can hear the voice in my head now "This is Clark and Lake.  Transfer to Blue, Orange, Purple and Brown line trains at Clark and Lake." No train voice here, though - only a driver from somewhere on the Sub-continent of India who seems bored out of his mind and probably wonders how he ended up on a US base in Iraq driving buses.  Or maybe that's just what I wonder when I'm riding the bus...

Oh, and I almost forgot.  My address here is:
Frazier, Tim
C/38th TF 201
COB Adder
APO AE 09331

If you put it exactly like that, I'll get it.

Well, I guess that's about it.