Day 377

Yesterday a bomber detonated a vehicle borne IED in front of the government center here in Baqubah. Over 40 people were killed and many more were injured. Bombings took place in Baghdad and Mosul in the north the same day, so the bombing here was part of a series of attacks. I was sitting at one of the computers in our upstairs computer room when there was a large bomb blast somewhere close by. You can usually tell the bigger ones because the shockwave rocks the building more. Immediately people started to speculate on what happened. About a half an hour later our headquarters platoon along with the commander and first sergeant were on the way to Camp Warhorse to get the vehicle mounted bomb squad (EOD) and escort them to the site. We had to take a roundabout route to get to Warhorse because the bombing occurred in the middle of heavy traffic on the route we usually take.

It is really terrible that there were so many civilian casualties. I'm not sure how many Iraqi Police if any were hurt, but the bombing targeted civilians, not our forces. Our platoon drove through the crowded street less than an hour before the bomb went off while on a different mission. I feel very lucky we weren't there because a bomb of that size would have injured us even if we were in our vehicles.

Riding through the center of town today I noticed a mark on the pavement where the bomb went off. There was barely any traffic, in stark comparison to the traffic jam there the day before. I looked at some of the Iraqi Army soldiers standing guard on the side of the road there and they looked disturbed. They may have helped haul the bodies off.

Although things have been quiet here for the most part, there is a constant threat. According to Rear Adm. Greg Smith “They (Al Qaeda) no longer possess the capability to terrorize and intimidate major population centers or large swaths of Iraq’s countryside, but they certainly maintain both the will and the capacity to indiscriminately kill and maim innocent Iraqi citizens with vehicle and suicide bombs”
--http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20080416/ZNYT03/804160331/1003/NEWS

I have learned that the conflict is not what you expect or what you want it to be, and that bombings or attacks will come at odd times. We are trained to spot roadside bombs and suspicious vehicles, but there isn't much we can do when the attacks are so few and far between. With less than two months left my main concern at this point is to make it out of here safely. Whether the Iraqi Army and Police are trained and competent to take over our duties or not, I am ready to get out of here.

In other news, a number of our guys have been arrested while on leave or have gone AWOL. One soldier is rumored to have joined the UFC rather than coming back from leave. It's true he is a fighter but I have no idea what he's up to. Less recently one of our guys committed arson while on leave and went to prison rather than come back to our unit. Several others have been arrested on leave for drunk driving and spousal abuse and their return was delayed.

The list goes on - there was a guy from my squad that didn't show up the day we deployed. Instead he stayed back and was attached to a different brigade. Word came around that he landed in jail as well; there was a bench warrant out for his arrest in Louisiana. One of our sergeants supposedly went crazy and insisted that he couldn't take it any more, he needed a drink of whiskey. I was on leave at the time, and when I came back he wasn't with us.

This is not to say all our men are criminals or capable of evil deeds. We have a lot of stand up guys that are here to fight for our country and our people and that includes myself. In fact our unit is statistically one of the better ones. There is enough stress and bad feelings around here that people want to leave for good. Going AWOL isn't the solution though because they usually drag you back.