Been on a few more patrols, getting more and more familiar with the area, and also, getting to know some of the people in my future platoon and other platoons.
A few nights ago I had my first sit down with some local Iraqis and drank some chai in their home. The TV show "Las Vegas" was playing in the background which almost made me forget that I was in Iraq except for the fact that there were Arabic Subtitles. For the most part, the poor people in our area don't give a damn about anything besides their home (literally and meaning family) and work. Many residents knew nothing about the new security agreement made with the United States or even that our base was attacked (they only live a very short distance away from us). This is very understandable when you are poor, but they still have sattelite TV.... I also realized that it is almost a necessity to become a smoker over here, or at least take a cigarette when offered. It is an excellent ice breaker, and opens up people to start a conversation, very useful when talking to Iraqis and of course my own soldiers and superiors.
Today, we visited a few vocational schools in the area and checked out a National police checkpoint. We were suppose to come back him after about 4 hours, be we were directed to cordon off an area of a suspected IED. So, we secured the area with help of the IP (Iraqi Police) and NP (national police) and cleared the area so EOD (Explosive ordnace disposal) could blow up the suspected bomb. Took a while... That is the worst thing about a cordon- waiting. Seems as though the IP did a good job of suspecting that there was a bomb and we (US forces and Iraqi) spolied a potential enemy attack. Kudos
Im tired...
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