Back, safe and sound.

got back a few hours ago. "shit, shower, and shave" did all that, ate some subway..mmmm...and here I am now. Read on CNN.com about the suicide bombing at Najaf and Karbala, which is freaky because on the way up we kinda missed a turn and ended up smack dab in Najaf, and on the way back down we were by the outskirts of karbala. It's seriously weird how when I was back home and I hear these cities on the news I don't think much of it, but now I'm right in the middle of it.

Some pretty unusual (probably normal for the guys that have been here of course) stuff. Iraq has a population of 25.3 million people. a little over 40% of that are kids 14 and under. I swear to you, on my trip up north and back, I saw ALL 40% of them. I'm telling ya, I'm in the middle of bum0fuck desert no-where and out of the blue a gazillion kids pop up waving at me!!! some are giving the thumbs up to me, others are motioning to their mounth wanting food, but I swear, all 10 million plus of those kids were all along the road. DOGS...SOOOOOOO many dogs...sooo many dead dogs too..sad sight to see really..roadkill. I love dogs and I had to swerve an assload of em, or else they would've been part of the permenant scenery.

I found out that the Hajji stick I carried with me as a joke is actually a neccesity out there. The kids (not really kids..but around 14-16 yr olds) would try and come up to the convoy when we were stopped. My job is to keep them somewhat away. Why you ask? mainly because I don't want to have to blow a kid away because he dropped a grenade through a window of one of the trucks. "nah...that would never happen." is what you'd say. well guess what. it has happened. but anyways, back to the hajji stick story. See, the kids know that we won't shoot them, so pointing our M-16's don't really help, plus if they start throwing rocks, and we can't shoot them (not that I would anyways) it would hurt alot. So here eneters my hajji stick. it's pretty much the stick/handle part from an axe (without the axe head of course). Once the kids see me whip that bad boy out they scatter, it's kind of hilarious in a dark humor kinda way.

Christmas is in five days and yet it feels like a million days away. nothing here seems christmas'y.

CNN is coming to our camp tomorrow, or at least that's what I was told when I got back to my tent earlier tonight. Guess the whole "up-armor" fiasco as reach our unit, cuz I'm told that we have to line up four of our gun trucks for the news crew. I wonder how it'll turn out, I'm at times against the media but also for it, they need to be smarter about the shit they print, stop pretending to give a fuck about the story, just tell us you want what sells, don't lie and give bullshit excuses like "it's my duty to report the news..good or bad.." blow me...when's the last time you report good news out of iraq?

I started checking out this "online dating" hype..or whatever it is. I'm not looking for dating or anything....come on..how can I? but it's pretty interesting, get to meet different types of women, get to find out what they like and how they are and pick the one that floats your boat..cool stuff.
started exchanging emails with this marine gal that lives by San Diego, I can totally picture my self taking a girl like her out. but then again, it is the internet, what do I really know about her, and vice versa...that's why I kinda got a fishy perspective of these types of things...eh....

ooh ya..i just remembered a semi-rant I wanted to post. It's about the brutal execution of the 3 iraqi election officials in the middle of the town in the middle of the street. This is to you mr terrorist. I SWEAR TO GOD, IF I EVER HAVE THE PRIVELIGE TO KILL YOU I WILL MAKE IT SLOW AND PAINFUL, I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF THAT MAKES ME NO BETTER THAN YOU, YOU ARE NOTHING, SCUM, YOU WILL BURN IN HELL FOR WHAT YOU DO, MAYBE I WILL TO. MAN OH MAN, DO I WISH YOU FOR TO JUST "TRY" TO KIDNAP ME, MAKE THAT FUCKING MISTAKE AND DO IT, I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER, FUCK KILLING YOU; THAT WOULD BE TOO EASY, I WILL TEAR YOU APART PIECE BY PIECE, MIND, BODY AND SOUL. YOU AND YOUR WEAK MINDED WASTEFUL MAGGOTS.

ok enough of that....i vented...i'm done...sorry if i scared all youse off...but seriously though...how can someone do that. ya fanatical beliefs, blah blah. Skip the hoopla and just kill the fuckers...fuck trials, fuck arresting them..be brutal, that's how u squelch it, cuz obviously going to Gtmo hasn't really scared these fucks into stopping.