Update From Baghdad

National Sovereignty Day for Iraq was just a little over a week ago, when the Iraqi government took back operational control over their cities and the US troops were ordered out of their cities.  Well, as I reported a week ago, we aren’t all out of the cities however things have changed a lot.  The Iraqis truly have taken responsibility for security in Baghdad.  We have nearly completely scaled back operations and frozen our movement in the cities.  The National Police have been doing an excellent job securing the area at least in my area violence has appreciably dropped to almost nil with the Iraqis in control.

This development, though excellent from a soldiers stand point (trust me, sitting on your outpost and doing nothing beats trudging through dirty streets in 60 pounds of gear on a 120 degree afternoon) is beginning to pose some interesting problems.  My soldiers who use tobacco are beginning to run out, and its not like they can run to Walmart to pick up another can of Copenhagen.  For some soldiers finding another pack of cigarettes is becoming their chief occupation, fortunately Iraqis smoke like fiends so cigarettes are relatively easy to come by but dip is another story.  Soldiers are very adaptive however and in one of the most disgusting but creative solutions to a problem, one of my soldiers who has run out of dip, has begun saving his already dipped tobacco, drying it out a little and redipping it…thank God I don’t dip or smoke cigarettes. 

How do you avoid cabin fever when holed up in a little building with no windows, very limited space to move around outside and the little space you do have is shared with your buddies and the Iraqis?  So far the answer has involved hitting the gym hard on a daily basis.  I think at least 75% of the men on my outpost are embarking on a personal quest to see how swoll, ripped, jacked or generally big they can get over the next few months.   Unfortunately most cardio equipment is limited (our couple of treadmills and elliptical machines are broken) and you can’t pump iron every day, so you have to get creative.  I’ve been using the one jump rope we have on this place to get some intense cardio and running sprints up the steps to the top floors of this building as a sort of a hill work out.  You can only work out so much in one day, particularly when your gym is approximately 110 degrees.  Other time is filled with watching movies or TV shows, reading books, throwing darts and surfing the internet.  Even the occasional crossword puzzle fills my time.  Its only been a week, but the relative relaxation post Iraqi National Sovereignty Day has been great so far, but sooner or later I fear the walls may start closing in on me.