The Dining hall hours are *Secret* because days before Christmas 2004 the dfac (dining hall) at Forward Operating Base Old Glory (I think it is called Diamondback now). I was one of the first responders on scene. It really has nothing to do with how any American acts overseas, regardless of a persons nationality they can act a fool while in another country.

I've been in Thailand during their political turmoil in 2008 and some blokes who were from Australia got into it, and got their asses handed to them. Not just people from the states act stupid overseas. That's a fact of life, people who are immature can do stupid things in another country without even knowing they are breaking the law. Dubai arrested a couple back around 2009 Xmas time for kissing in public (Brits iirc).

The hours of the dfac, are a simple yet easy thing that people forget about being a secret. There is reason it is, even if often people do not understand the reasoning behind it. Which explaining *one* thing the reasoning behind it while it might take just a few minutes of my time to do, imagine trying to tell the public everyone in the public. The reasoning behind every *secret*.

Yes it can easily be used as a shield, and that should not happen, however when they do cover up even one thing it makes it that much harder to explain anything else.

Fact is, I know I do some good here, I dont need anyone else in the world's approval for what I do. I know that one day, my number will come up. All I can do is do the best job I can till that happens. I know I will die in Iraq, Afghan, or some other part of the world that no one cares about. I have made my peace with that. Yes I know I could leave, I know I should leave. I got a fellowship stateside and turned it down. Who is going to replace me here?

I recently hired a new person they came all the way to Baghdad and a controlled det went off... they got back on the plane and left. The burnout rate for people like me is 3 to 6 months. If a person makes it more then a year chances are they are in for the long haul. I can't even think of the amount of times bad shit has happened and then the mass exodus of civilians (Not locals) that follows. I don’t blame them one bit. They are not cowards. I might tease them abit, but the fact remains some gave all they could, and all gave some.

I do care about my life, I do not want to die, but at the same point I can not sit by and watch. In life you can either get in the game, or sit it out. If you or anyone wants to watch that is your right no one will force you to go to Jinji Uganda to dig a water well.

Those of us who come here or any of these places we do not do it for the money. Any of us here could take a job in the states making a whole lot more then what I make here. Some of the people here wanted the adventure, the cultural background, the history, everyone here has their reasons and they are as varied as the people here.

This is a fight, every day is a fight for me. To go kicking and screaming at the Iraqi gov because they dont want the Kurds to have an education, or the Sunni to have this or that or the other. Then I get to deal with the US Gov and basically go through so the same. Then I get to deal with the US armed forces same deal repeat process for EVERY stupid agency that you can think of. FBI, CID, State, SF, DoA, you name the group chances are I've had to deal with them. But I choose to fight that battle, to me it is worth it.

My girlfriend (current) does not want to marry me, because she wants me to leave Iraq. She loves me, and I love her, but I can not just up and leave. This isn't some silly place where bad things happen. This place, this whole country is *home* to me. To a lesser extent Afghanistan is like a home to me as well but there was a lot more bad memories there then there is here.

People are called to do something in their life. Some people teach, some fight crime, some entertain, and everyone has their thing they were born to do (sure you can do something else I could go flip burgers but I wont). The thing that even on those shitty days where the world has fallen around you, where you are holding your friends hand as he is laying there dying because he wanted to save some kid he did not know because he KNEW he could save him. Even that day, as much as I hated Afghanistan I knew that his death would go by unnoticed by the rest of the world. But to the people that were there, those people were impacted in ways that the rest of the world will never understand. Those people, a small handful of civilians, in some unknown part of the world had their lives touched forever by some American they never knew.

Those moments, those few glimmers of humanity that, that is what gets me through another fucked up crazy day. You have to be able to live with yourself, at the end of the day. That is all there is too it.

If you want to watch, watch, if you want to be involved, be involved, but do not please, please, please, please, pretend to be involved. Make a difference, if you feel that strongly in your beliefs, don’t give a shit simply because your mother told you to do so. Most of us are adults, and if you choose to care then care. Make that commitment and stick with it. Things will be hard for you, life is not easy, even movie/rock stars can suffer from depression. Anyone recall Kurt Cobain (Can not spell sorry), it is easy to think “Oh he had everything.” But the fact is he has his demons.

Anyway, this is TL;NR and that’s fine, those who read it, maybe it impacted you in a good way, if it impacted you in a bad way im sorry. There are things in life that should not be left unsaid, have a good night.

OH SHIT GOG RELEASED NWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (<-that is the part where you are supposed to go REALLY and then forget everything i wrote:) sure it should be funny or something but meh been a long day, and I need some sleep )

You know - I think we'll really really disagree on loads of things in the future still, akwater, but I really love you. Thank you for that post.

I've been living in Israel and Palestine for a while and people so utterly didn't understand why anyone would choose to - and yes, despite all the shit happening there, in the middle of that, there is so much that is worth being there for and experiencing right in these situations. I have met a lot of refugees from the Bosnian war and they are about the most life affirming people I've ever got to know. This doesn't make war or conflict any better, but maybe just is an indication that we, as humans, always have dealt with catastrophes of whatever sort - and those that do come out the other end alive are all the more worth cherishing.

I am still into these mad projects - of a different style now - but if not for them, life isn't really worth it. [I want to restore an old cinema / theatre here in this town. It's been left to rot since the 1980s. It'd probably take millions to do it in a traditional big-business way. But doing this, right now, in a recession, in a town that's stricken by poverty, and doing it on a non-profit base trying to involve the community - things like these are needed. Shine light into darkness in all you do - or some such.]

Once again, thanks for posting that. It's a complex situation and shouldn't be summed up with either all negative or all positive news, just like our ordinary lives (yours isn't so ordinary, I take it) are also filled with the bad, the good, and everything in between.

Stay safe over there.

I believe it's important to know the truth whether good or bad so we can understand what has happened around us and why it has happened. My other hope is the optimistic belief that with the truth, we can work towards belong better people and make the world a better place for all.

Someone should keep those new century neocons and their military contracts in check.

Everyone's favorite bunch of international relation destroyers are back with leaked US embassy cables, which are apparently causing a huge diplomacy crisis between the Americans and uh, the rest of the world. A whole bunch of stuff governments keep secret to other governments are now all over the place. What's more interesting is that the Saudi king wants the US to nuke the shit out of Iran and that Israel is willing to do it themselves.

LOL, dude,that's not news. What's news is that the Saudis really do seem to be on America's side, albeit for their own reasons, no doubt.

What is news is that Israel is willing to do it themselves, literally. Usually Israel more or less kisses America's ass and doesn't do anything without their express permission. Christ, the US gives Israel something like a billion dollars a year in aid.

The whole point of their nuclear program has been targeted at Iran since the beginning. While I suspect they're all talk, there's evidence that suggests that's not the case.

Something about this sentence sounds ironic, but I can't quite put my finger on it...

"Christ" and how Israel is on the verge of officially rejecting him (becoming officially Jewish)? Especially seeing as the US is borderline institutionally Christian.

I love how some documents leaked are somewhat embarrassing for the "Sarkozy team" in France. ^_^

The Saudi part is no surprise. The Saudis and Iranians have been engaged in a bit of a battle for who is the predominant power amongst Mod-East nations. As well, since the ruling elite of Saudi Arabia are hard core Sunni, it isn't really a shock that they aren't thrilled to see the predominantly Shi'i Iran flexing its muscles a bit regionally.

The problem is that there's a different between knowing something and being right about it. President Bush "knew" that there were WMDs in Iraq and that there was an Al Qaeda link with Saddam. Turned out to be completely wrong. So, you might "know" that you're doing good, but if you're counting Iraq, you might seriously want to consider whether doing good really includes facilitating the genocide of tens of thousands of innocent civilians.

Sure it's not the fault of the individuals on the ground, but at the end of the day, those individuals that toppled the Iraqi government are responsible for opening up the power vacuum which led to the deaths. In the US it tends to get glossed over because it's apparently wrong to point out that such a thing could possibly come of our meddling in other nations politics.