If you want to see a grown man cry...

All you have to do is kill one of his brothers. A few days ago AQI (al-Qaeda in Iraq) made a lot of the strongest men I have ever known come to tears. I feel for the family's of my 5 fallen brothers. They themselves are in a better place, the greatest pain falls on the families of these heroes. I ask that whoever reads this pray for their comfort in their time of need. All the comfort I need is in the trigger of my weapon and the unlucky terrorist whom is in the sights of my weapon. It is going to suck being a member of AQI in Mosul for the next year. They have brought the pain upon themselves. This is why soldiers of the United States Army fight, for their brothers who fight next to them, for their families and others who are not able to fight themselves, and for God's great nation of freedom called America.

I am so very thankful to you all for your prayers and support.

CNN's story on what happened:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/28/iraq.main/index.html?iref=newssearch

Rainy Season

One of the worst parts of Iraq is its winter. It starts off in December by getting cold and gets worse in January when the rainy season starts too. When it rains, it doesn't rain for a long time but it always pours down. The rain makes it colder and it also turns everything into mud. The worse part is I work with vehicles for the time being and if any of you have been around where lots of heavy vehicles have been moving you know that they crush all the rocks and make "moondust" a very fine dirt. Well, when this dirt gets wet it feels like mother earth is finger painting. The mud goes everywhere and it doesn't come off unless you wash it, which doesn't help for the boots but at least they are brown anway.

I can't complain much though. The food is excellent, the rooms are good, the toliets are cleaned twice daily, the showers... well, to many people + 1 water heater = not so warm environment.

All in all morale is high which is always good in times like these.

Finally Here! -Mosul-

Well, this FOB is a lot bigger than expected. We heard there was suppose to be like 1 other battalion with us, but it is a whole regiment (like 8 battalions or close to it). Also, I have never seen so many females on one FOB! I don't think females should be allowed to deploy or even be in the military for that matter but, if you want to debate that issue you can always e-mail me (toldude@gmail.com). This FOB is pretty big, they have a lot of roads and cars rolling around. Defiantly not like the last time I was in Iraq. Oh yah, the chow is fantastic too, that is defiantly not like last time either (Hank remembers the cold burnt pizza and coming in from mission and there only being green beans and Gatorade left).

In other news, the world mourns Bhutto's death. I do also. The fact is, she could have beaten Musharraf in the elections coming up and I think it was him that had her put to death. Anyway, now that she is gone I think that the US Military is going to be deployed to Pakistan in the near future, especially because I believe a Democrat is going to be elected as President this year.