Soldier Blogs

Murphy Around the World
http://www.fyste.com/

Lieutenant Colonel Tim Murphy has over 28 years of service with 3 of them active duty (11B, 1/509th ABCT out of Vicenza, Italy) and the rest in the Reserves. Last summer he got deployed to Iraq for 18 months. He actually got to Iraq sometime in October, 2005 and is currently stationed out of LSA Anaconda.

His latest post starts like this:

Friday, March 17, 2006
Visit to Kirkush

I spent a couple of hours last night talking to Col R., the Iraqi LNO that we have supporting us. We had him all day for our trip and had some time to kill waiting for our flight out of Kirkush. It turns out that Col R knows quite a bit of English, much more than my pathetic Arabic. We have a terp with us but I didn’t need him for this. We talked about a lot of subjects, the first one being women. Sign language is SO universal.

He wants an American or British wife next. He already has two wives and fourteen children between them and is ready for another. This was confirmed by Ben the interpreter (terp) and I guess it’s OK by the Koran to have multiple wives, so there you go. We started talking about western woman and how he may have difficulty treating them as Middle Eastern woman are treated, being a more “enlightened” sect than he’s used to. He admitted that they’re much more of a challenge but was infatuated by them. I asked him about the Koran and about woman and why it was ok for Muslims to have 4 wives (that’s the max ok? Absolutely, NO more) and why woman couldn’t have 4 husbands? He smiled; he knows there are incongruities in his religion.

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more

[Electrophil]

Religion doesn't stop me from having 4 wives. My wife stops me from having 4 wives.

[andrew.anderson]

You would hope a persons morals keep then from having four wives.
And no, I don't believe morals are relative. There is right and wrong.

Originally Posted by andrew.anderson

You would hope a persons morals keep then from having four wives.
And no, I don't believe morals are relative. There is right and wrong.

Yeah.... but sometimes I gotta wonder what life would be like with 4 husbands


This next blog is quite simple and uncomplicated. It is called "Cecil"'s Journal and that's pretty much all it is. A series of entries, some consisting of just a line or two, others a bit longer and more descriptive. "Cecil" is 25, loves his Cobra (car, not snake) and re-enlisted last year. He's currently serving in Iraq and not having very much fun, it seems. But then again, getting shot at on a regular basis isn't my idea of fun, either.

Warning: at times his language can be a bit "colourful"

His latest post:
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
9:35 pm Twice bitten shy.....
So we rolled out today just like any normal day but we didn't know what we had in store for us,We rolled out and did our route security as normal and as we were sitting there we saw a few semi trucks,4 of them on the side of the road down the street,And we don't allow people to park on the side of the road because thats how they plant the IED's.And we saw some guys get out and drop something on the side of the road,So we rolled over there and 33 pasted the 4 trucks and cut off the 1st one and we stopped behind the last one,Little we knew the 2nd one had a IED next to it and after we waved them on we both started to roll and as we pasted it,We got hit,The blast knocked me into the turret wall and my TC got knocked into me,I thought at first he was killed but then he started to move and got up with blood all over his face,I ripped opened the Combat life saving bag and got out the bandage,Then the medic jumped off 33 and I switched out with him and they went back to the FOB,We blocked off the road until EOD came and cleared the area,Being on 33 we did our best to piss of every Iraqi we saw and came real close to shooting a few stupid ass ones that wanted to talk sh!t to us,We returned and I had a headache so I got some sleep,Later on I went to the hospital to get checked out and I was fine minus a little ringing in my ears,On the way back we got mortared,I was in front of the PX and the 1st round impacted about 50 feet away,I was so close I saw the flash from it going off,So I ran to a bunker and we waited it out 7 total hit the FOB before it was over,Thats all for today I'm lucky to be alive again I know if I was out of that hatch about 2 more feet I won't be writing this right now,Oh well just another day in hell...


http://oneninekilo.livejournal.com/

Forgive me if I go a little off-topic, but I found this blog simply fascinating. I've been meandering my way through it since there's lots to read. The blog has been active since November, 2003 and continues to be updated frequently.

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

Omar is an Iraqi dentist living in Baghdad and working at a clinic. He also owned a grocery store in Bahgdad before the fall of Saddam. His English is excellent and he writes in detail about what's going on at various levels, from the problems in forming a government to why he couldn't get any newspapers yesterday.

Apr 4, 2006

Apparently, the mujahideen made public their latest threat over the last few days:

"....they said that they will kill anyone who continues to print, distribute or sell newspapers.

He [newspaper seller at kiosk] then showed me one of those notes; the ban includes virtually every paper but basically "papers that promote Safawi [Persian] Shiasm, blasphemous secular ideas and democracy…".

I had a hard time trying to swallow what I read, why newspapers? What's going to be next? Will they try to stitch up our mouths and chop our tongues off?!

Those pen-hating cowards are afraid of the words written in our newspapers and they tried to paint their new anti-free speech campaign with a sectarian dye to make it look as if they were only after Shia and secular papers but in fact they are against everything that does not approve and praise their sick mentality.

Yes, I may not agree with what many of those newspapers do, and a few of them even sound offensive or disgusting to me for one reason or another but I cannot accept seeing them silenced in such a way and I am for their right to speak freely exactly the same way I want this right for myself.

Strange though that no one uttered a word about it as far as I know, even the papers themselves mentioned nothing about this threat on their websites and neither did any of the other local media outlets…maybe there has been a threat against that as well? I don't know right now but I'll try to find out.
This is one more time that makes me feel happy we have the internet and the means to use it.



In his Wed, March 29, 2006 post he wrote:
....
I recently had the chance to meet a member of the new parliament during a meeting for NGOs and since this person is an old friend of mine I did not hesitate to go deep and ask a few rather embarrassing questions, something like: what the heck is going on?

"I swear to God I don't know!" the answer was.
"Don't be mean, c'mon give me some real answers" I insisted.
"Trust me, I know no more than you do, although I'm a member of this party and I'm officially member of parliament they do not tell us (the smaller members) of what's going on. News are restricted to the close circle around the boss while we at the peripheries depend on whispers and leaked info or rumors…just like you bloggers do".
...

[andrew.anderson]

A Soldier from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division participates in a raid near Tafaria, Iraq. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Jackey Bratt.

[andrew.anderson]

An Iraqi boy salutes the camera while Pvt. Aaron Croussore, from 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, patrols a street market area in Kirkuk.