Peace in Iraq...for today at least

Today there was dust and peace for much of Iraq. By 1400 hours the only significant event was a thick cloud of dust which encapsulated everything in and around Camp Slayer, Camp Victory, and Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). The dust storm was thick enough that visibility was limited to a ½ mile at best. Now, you wouldn't normally think that a thick, massive, lingering cloud of dust could in any way be a blessing in disguise. In fact, dust storms are one of the experiences, such as getting shot, blown up, or knifed, that I haven't really been looking forward to. Surprising how wrong we can be sometimes. Today that huge mass of stagnant, eye irritating dust particles not only kept the sun off our necks and kept the temperature down, but I'm fairly sure it was a factor which kept our enemies' activities to a minimum. I suppose the weather just wasn't conducive to extreme acts of terrorism today.

So, with nothing going on operationally and a big, novel dust storm outside I did what I deemed best, given the situation. I grabbed a chair and went to the large eastern balcony of Al Faw Palace, where I proceeded to slowly smoke a tasty maduro. There I watched huge carp swim around lazily through the waters of Victory Lake and watched the little people scurry below from the heights of the palace. I wondered where the skimmers were, having noticed their docked boats tied ashore and a huge, floating mass of hydrilla which they would normally be pulling into the boat. Pigeons were nestled into crevices along the walls beside me and seemed to prefer a nap over flying around through the dust. Occasionally I'd hear the rumbling battle cry of the Tongan Marines who post security at the palace gates. Their battle cry sounds tough, like a low growl and a bark. Combined with the fact that the majority of them are well over 200lbs and 6'2", they make for a fairly intimidating crew. I wondered about their opinions of us, since the majority of people working in the palace are a bunch of braniacs who are physically small in stature, save the intense magnitude of their imposing craniums. These were just some of my casual thoughts today as I slowly smoked my maduro while at peace in Iraq. My routine started and ended as usual with a 0545 wakeup and a 12 hour shift, but sitting on the balcony is the memory I'll carry home with me.

-Cyrus