Happy Thanksgiving

Today is a milestone on a couple of different levels here in Baghdad. The 25th of November happens to be precisely seven months since I swiped my I.D. card at a machine in Kuwait to mark the start of my deployment clock in the Iraqi theater. More significant, I think, is the passage of Thanksgiving 7,000 miles away from home.

It is by no means my first holiday in theater, of course. Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veteran’s Day have all come and gone on my watch here beside the Tigris River. Each requires distinct reflections, and each is associated with its own traditional observations. But none equate to the concept of “home” quite like Thanksgiving does.

And so my own personal reflections and observations must adjust to this unwelcome reality. My little gang of analysts began the day at 0900 with a leisurely 4-mile walk, sort of providing the excuse for the culinary excess to come. The walk ended just as a flag football game began between two organizations I share a large cubicle farm with. I had a little down time after the game to have a cup of coffee and write this blurb before the next event, which is an Iraqi lunch in the office provided by our colleague Haidur. That will, in all likelihood, convince me of the need to sneak into the gym before heading to the dining facility in the afternoon for the massive Thanksgiving meal for which military mess halls are renowned.

I anticipate no earnest effort by anyone to engage in real work after dinner (not that any effort is being made before then, either), so that becomes the cue for folks to retreat to their CHUs and begin connecting with their loved ones back home. Bandwidth is always a challenge here and will no doubt be doubly challenging with the expected demand placed on Skype today.

With the adjustments to the holiday observation pretty much established, I’ll turn now to reflections. First and foremost involves the giving of thanks. It becomes pretty clear after spending a short amount of time in a place like Iraq that I and every fellow countryman of mine should drop to our knees every day and thank God we were born Americans. We certainly have long lists of peeves, gripes, and topics of grave concern, but the lights come on every time we hit the switch, the water is drinkable right from the tap, and it never crosses our minds that when we leave the house to visit or shop we might die a violent death. Go ahead and complain about potholes and school budgets – it’s your civic duty – but be thankful that these are the types of things that make your life difficult.

The big reflection on this day is, of course, family. Weirdly, I have pretty much zero concern about the ability of my family to take care of themselves and keep the home fires burning while I’m away. Susie has been managing so much, for so long, that I rarely have any troubling thoughts about the family’s ability to cope. However, I am fretting a great deal about the turkey and, more importantly, the gravy. These are my Thanksgiving tasks, usually begun immediately after reading the morning paper and culminating with the Last Task before serving, which is making gravy from the turkey drippings.

It will all get done, and done well, but it is what I think about on Thanksgiving, a comfortable routine that is traditionally a prelude to a wonderful day spent with family and friends, food and wine, fun and frivolity. This one hits home more than any other holidays, because this one is all about being thankful for what you have and you just can’t escape the fact that it all is, temporarily, just beyond your reach.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

For anyone paying attention, you know that finally, after months and months of posturing, bullying, sucking-up, foot-dragging, lying, arrogance, deceit, and lord knows what sort of illegal behaviors, we finally see conditions established to form the next government.

But enough of election day in the U.S. The same thing happened here in Iraq at about the same time. Eight months and four days after the national elections, the Iraqi Council of Representatives finally gathered to finish the session they opened, and left open, way back in June.

This probably requires some explanation, though the truth here won't necessarily clarify a great deal. In accordance with the Iraq constitution, the newly elected council of representatives (COR) must elect a President within, I think, a week of the first session. That would have been a simple enough deal except for this: every bloc/list/party that won seats in the government wants prestigious positions in the government and there is no systematic means of doing this. That means you can't name the President unless you know who the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the COR will be, and each of the three main ethnic and sectarian insists on at least one of these positions. Anyone not getting the position they want will insist on certain ministerial powers for their bloc/list/party to offset the diminished powers of their own office. Since all elected officials know this routine, they met for about an hour at the initial session, then went home without ever closing it. They have all been collecting paychecks (HUGE paychecks) for eight months and not doing a damn thing to earn it.

The Prime Minister is the plum position and the most powerful, so each bloc/list/party maneuvers to get it. It's a no-holds-barred ugly process and it puts the whole system in flux as power players seek alliances along any imaginable lines. Guys who hate each other's guts, sometimes multiple parties of guys who hate each other's guts, will merge then diverge, coalesce then fragment, form then deform, always trying to gain an edge that others won't be able to overcome.

There is no end to outsiders willing to "help." The U.S., Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, and anyone else candidates can woo or influence to make themselves appear to have the upper hand. The two primary contenders spent huge amounts of time visiting neighboring states in hopes of gaining some sort of "most favored candidate" status. Each of these countries has their own agenda to work, and there was a lot of behind-the-scenes pressure from every direction to form the government in ways favorable to those countries. The U.S. wants an inclusive and representative government to preclude too much Shia influence, which plays into the hands of Shia controlled Iran. We also want to limit governance roles for Muqtada Sadr, a rather thuggish dude with a large following in Iraq that collectively have shown no real talent for anything but mayhem. Iran, of course, has their own vision of how things should look, and Mr. Sadr figures prominently in that view.

Anyway, this soup has been simmering for a long time whilst being stirred by these many spoons. Somehow, all of the players reached a point where they all thought they agreed upon some grand bargain. The COR reconvened, they named the President, speaker of the COR, and a couple of vice Presidents before things started unraveling. It seems the leading vote-getter from the elections, Mr. Allawi, could not overcome the alliances forged by his nemesis Mr. Maliki, but did manage to force some sort of power-sharing deal that resulted in a brand-new position in the government. Unfortunately, the COR didn't bother to name him to this position on day one and things turned ugly.

I think they may have worked things back out, but we won't know for a few more days because after the first session they took a break for Eid al-Adha, the celebration of sacrifice held each year after the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). Once they reconvene, Mr. Maliki will be formerly charged to form the government and has 30 days in which to do so. That means satisfying all of the deals made to enable his claiming of Prime Minister, so I expect it will be an interesting time between now and Christmas.

If not before I leave, then upon my return from Christmas R&R there should be a fully-formed government. Insha'Allah.

Halloween and Subsequent Activities

November is here, along with Election Day, so I can add a couple of things to the list of things I DO NOT miss.

I do not miss election campaigning in the good ‘ol US of A. I catch glimpses of the madness on TV while eating in the dining facility and it is just a sad state of affairs. If these knuckleheads spent as much time ruminating on real problems as they spend on digging up dirt on their opponents they might actually come across as marginally enlightened.

The parallels to the political situation at home and in Iraq are alarming, though at least here a lot of it can be attributed to a lack of experience with self-government. The national elections here were in early March of this year and, while the government still has yet to form, all of the elected officials are drawing obscene paychecks and doing absolutely nothing. In the US, that also appears to be the endgame but within the construct of a fully formed government. It’s all about the paycheck and re-election, so safest to not do anything useful for the long-term good of the country because it probably will make the constituency angry.

Next on my list of things I don’t miss: I have not seen a single advertisement or store display, nor have I heard a single song or note, that suggests to me that Christmas is only 53 shopping days away! It is strangely refreshing.

Halloween has come and gone, but not unnoticed. We had a little gathering in CHUville, where we could suspend uniform requirements otherwise enforced, and did up the occasion as best we could. It was a good break in the routine and generated more excitement than I thought possible in terms of costumes. We had some tunes blasting, burned a lot of beef on the BBQ, and chugged a few NA Lowenbraus. Weather was awesome, as was the company.

I am remiss in my duties of recognizing departing guild members. One month ago we said farewell to Air Force LtCol Laura Garrett. She was an invaluable deputy for the organization, a brilliant analyst, and a superb ambassador for all of J-9. She returns to Albuquerque, NM, and her husband, squad of greyhounds, cat, horse, and nuclear munitions. I don’t believe she ever admitted which she missed the most. Thanks, Laura, and good luck in whatever comes next for you.

I alluded a few times to the pleasant change in weather conditions here. A few nights ago we had a nice little thunder storm and some accompanying rain. I got up early the next morning for a brisk walk and it was just plain gorgeous. Nothing like cooler temperatures and the smell of fresh rain to adjust your attitude upwards. I’ll bust out of here for R&R in about six weeks and the vastly improved climate should help ease the passage of that time.