FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAWK, Iraq – Only after dinner, two hours after the Americans had first arrived, did the general air his complaints.

Brig. Gen. Abbas Abdul Jabbar Eidan al-Kubeisy wanted his base – which lies inside the grounds of the larger Contingency Operating Base Qayyarah West – hooked up to the Americans’ power supply. He also had problems with securing replacement equipment for his gear.

But when the meeting ended, about three hours after about 15 American soldiers first arrived, the general was all smiles. He gave a colonel visiting from Mosul a coin emblazoned with the brigade’s logo. He posed for photos and made small talk even as the American soldiers were climbing into their cars for the quick ride back to Q-West.

This was military politics, Iraq-style.

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CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE QAYYARAH WEST, Iraq – I was flipping through the radio stations we receive out here at Q-West (there aren’t many) and came across an audio feed of an Armed Forces Network television channel.

The broadcast was the audio feed from "Jeopardy!" On a starry night in the Iraqi desert, I listened to Alex Trebek deliver answers about cows, literature and history.

Freedom truly has come to Iraq. Or at least the greatest quiz show of all time.

QAYYARAH, Iraq – We were driving out of the marketplace. The rains had turned the streets to mud. Most of the shops had closed. Few people were on the streets.

But as the convoy of an Mine Resistant Ambushed Protected vehicle and three Humvees began to drive away, an Iraqi boy sprinted from one of the shops to the roadside, where he smiled wide and offered a big thumbs-up. (Sorry the photo isn’t great. I scrambled to get my camera and then snapped a shot through the muddy windows.)

It was one of those encouraging moments that often get lost in the talk of roadside bombs and the Sons of Iraq and the status of forces agreement.

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE QAYYARAH WEST, Iraq – Every trip to the post exchange or the coffee shop brings back memories of sixth grade.

Pogs were all the rage at Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary School in Slidell, La. Not sure why, but my classmates would collect thousands of the cardboard circles. They’d basically gamble them at lunch.

Now AAFES – the Army and Air Force Exchange Service – has brought these things back. They’re used in place of change throughout Iraq.

One side is the denomination – 25, 10 or 5 cents. The other side has photos of deployed soldiers: joes in front of a tank, guys dismounted from a Humvee, dude wearing Oakleys in front of a Stryker, etc.

I’ve become so accustomed to receiving them that when I went to the post office today, I looked at the (real) change the cashier handed me and jokingly asked my friend, "What the hell can I do with this?"

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE QAYYARAH WEST, Iraq – The 81st Brigade Support Battalion hosted a Black History Month celebration tonight. Good stuff, with heartfelt speeches and a fantastic jazzy tune from a saxophonist.

Here are a few snapshots I took:

Lt. Maria Torres of Seattle presents a slideshow of the life of President Barack Obama.

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CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE QAYYARAH WEST, Iraq – An MRAP costs $1 million, is encased with bulletproof armor and can take a beating from a roadside bomb.

But all that means nothing to some of the livestock that make their way onto Q-West. Earlier this afternoon, a pack of four donkeys halted traffic down the main thoroughfare. (It's cute but not funny; they sometimes wander onto the flight line.)

This base in Ninawah province, home to about 7,000 people, is everything Joint Base Balad isn’t. One can walk for blocks without seeing another person. The airspace is thankfully absent of fighter jets. Turkish-run shops on base sell custom-tailored suits, energy drinks, rugs and offer haircuts and massages. Indirect fire alarms aren’t a nightly occurrence.

If Balad and Baghdad are the military's equivalent of New York and Los Angeles -- and that's a stretch -- Q-West seems a bit more like Amarillo.

Of course, there isn’t a full-size movie theater. Or two swimming pools. Or an array of fast food. But that’s well worth the trade off, many of the soldiers stationed here say.

“It’s a bit quieter here than other places,” Command Sgt. Maj. David Nunn of the 81st Brigade Special Troops Battalion said. “And that’s not a bad thing.”

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – This sprawling base in central Iraq is home to 30,000 people and inevitably draws comparisons to a small town. The commercial activity is clustered in two downtown-like areas, and different housing pods make for neighborhoods

And where there’s a neighborhood, there’s usually a party.

An Iraqi interpreter tries to throw a weekly shindig near his CHU (that’s milspeak for “containerized housing unit,” which is basically a trailer). About 20 people arrived last night. There was meat on the grill and freshly baked bread and hummus for snacks. Arabic music played from a laptop while partygoers sipped on Dr Pepper (this is Iraq, after all).

The get-together attracted Arab interpreters, soldiers, airmen, National Guardsmen from Washington and Arizona and one reporter.

When all the meat was grilled, the gracious host brought out three hookahs, Middle Eastern water pipes, and brewed some strong tea. For more than an hour, people from every corner of the world sat around and pulled drags of the mint-and-lemon-flavored tobacco.

“This,” an Air Force engineer said, “is about as much fun as you can have on a FOB.”

Amen.

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – As the military reporter at The News Tribune, I often receive e-mail from readers telling me about a good deed someone from the community has done on behalf of service members.

I thought about those letters today when I waited for a few minutes in the lounge at the 555th Engineer Brigade headquarters at Joint Base Balad. Part of it is basically a bar without the booze. Above the bar is a sign from Farrelli’s Gourmet Wood Fire Pizza, customized for the Triple Nickel.

It reminded me of the periodic e-mail I get about the good deeds the folks from Farrelli’s do for the deployed service members of Fort Lewis. The company rarely gets the recognition it deserves for it. Hopefully this blog post is a good start.

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – Another holiday has come and gone almost unnoticed for the 30,000 people here at Balad.

Mardi Gras was Tuesday, yet the dining facilities didn’t serve Hurricanes or king cake. Even at the Popeye’s on base, the line was no longer than it usually is.

The only masks anyone wore were the Iraqis working close to the burn pit. At Catfish Air, the helicopter terminal run by Louisiana National Guardsmen, no one threw beads or doubloons.

But this New Orleans transplant made the most of it. At lunch today, I drank a non-alcoholic Coors. I can probably count on no hands the amount of times I’ve drank Coors on Mardi Gras, and it wasn’t particularly good.

But c’mon: I had to do something.

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – It’s a common sight in the developing world: The poor wearing secondhand clothes from the United States.¹

It can be a weird mismatch1: You can see 50-year-old men wearing Hannah Montana T-shirts. Or some guy who can’t say "bonjour" wearing a Casino de Montreal hoodie.

But today I came across a guy who has some serious taste. This Iraqi, on base as a day laborer, was wearing a Louisiana State University sweatshirt.

For those who don’t know, that’s the greatest football program of all time.

^{1 – It’s also tremendously sad. The clothes we donate often get dumped at cut-rate prices on poorer economies, depressing the price of clothing and often effectively destroying a domestic textile industry.}

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – It’s no surprise here that quite a few soldiers would prefer to be in Afghanistan. Infantrymen aren’t, for the most part, conducting missions that end in firefights too often. And many soldiers often don’t make it off Joint Base Balad.

But there’s one way to see some action without leaving the friendly – or air-conditioned – confines of the office: video games.

The guys at the public affairs office, many from the Arizona National Guard, set up their Xbox 360 and were playing the Call of Duty series, where they could shoot M-4s, rocket-propelled grenades, Squad Automatic Weapons, M-16s, sniper rifles and just about any other military-grade weapon. They talked trash to each other while munching on hot dogs and drinking the ubiquitous one-liter bottles of water that can be found everywhere in Iraq.

Countless soldiers (and civilians) dig these games. As one of them told me last week, "Hey, I’m trained as an infantryman. And I’m not doing infantry stuff. This is as close as I can get for now."

ABOARD A C-130 HERCULES, Iraq – Plan C came to us via a two-way radio.

"Highlander Delta, this is Highlander Alpha,” the crackled voice said. "We can get a flight to JBB, but you need to be at the pax terminal in 10 mikes."

Everyone stood frozen for a few seconds. And then we made a mad dash to pack our gear.

We – the group of eight of us who visited the ruins of Ur near Tallil – were sitting in our tent. Our flight to Joint Base Balad had been grounded because of a sandstorm. We put our names on the standby list (Space-A, in milspeak) and hoped for the best. About 40 people had already submitted their names for about 20 spots. We weren’t hopeful.

Plan B to return to Balad had already been set up. We were going to ride with a battalion of the Texas National Guard on its Mine Resistant Ambushed as it convoyed between Contingency Operating Base Adder and Balad. But that was going to leave the next day and take about 16 hours. So we were killing time in the tent, mostly by playing cards or listening to music.

That’s when Maj. Joe Hammiel’s voice came over the two-way radio. He checked the standby list, and the flight had room for us. The only catch: We had 10 minutes to make the roll call at the passenger terminal and get on the flight.

=> Read more!

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq – The folks from the 81st Brigade Combat Team's 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry Regiment aren't leaving this base in southeastern Iraq anytime soon.

A windstorm swept across this area overnight (and is still blowing in mid-afternoon), throwing dust into the air. Visibility is so low, most flights and missions aren't leaving the base.

(The photo above are guys posing for a shot a few hours ago. Visibility has worsened since.)

It's just one of the liabilities of traveling in Iraq: Flights are postponed or canceled often, and everyone is at the mercy of wind patterns.

UR, Iraq – The trip to the home of the prophet Abraham had similar effects on four soldiers with the 81st Brigade Combat Team’s 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry Regiment, all who approached the subject with differing perspectives. I’ll post a few quotes to give you a flavor of what the story will look like.

● Maj. Joe Hammiel of Surrey, B.C., the battalion chaplain: "It has been awe-inspiring to look up and know that those are the same stars (that God promised Abraham his descendents would outnumber.)"

● Sgt. 1st Class Allen Ashworth of Deer Park, a student of ancient Near East history: "It put a tangible handle on book learning and theory. Walking the grounds was a profoundly emotional experience. It added a real touch to everything I’ve read."

● Sgt. Jacob Harrington of Bellevue, a Conservative Jew: "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that had a major impact on me. The history of the place, the fact that Abraham was born here, was amazing. It was profound. I never thought I’d step foot in the places where the patriarch of Judaism stepped foot in."

● Sgt. Monty Webb of Gig Harbor, a Christian seminarian: "There are things you can learn in a book. But when you stand in a place of such historical magnitude – not just from a theological standpoint, but a historical one – and the two intertwine, it is indescribable. When the wind blew, it was like feeling the touch of God."

UR, Iraq – I’ll admit it: I just wanted to use that dateline.

Check back tomorrow for more on the trip to the site of one of the oldest cities on Earth.

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq – I noticed on my flight from Joint Base Balad to COB Adder that the man sitting two seats away was one of the Catholic chaplains on base. I didn’t strike up a conversation; I could barely hear myself think in a C-130, much less speak to someone else. But I hadn’t given it much thought.

I checked my e-mail this morning and read a Fort Lewis-based engineer was killed in action. He was serving with the 14th Engineer Battalion at COB Adder.

The priest, it turns out, was flying down for the memorial service, which will be held here tomorrow.

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq - The modern world meshes with the ancient at this American base in southeastern Iraq. Armored Humvees drive down streets with a clear view of the Ziggurat of Ur. Outside the circles of concertina wire, the prophet Abraham lived.

I'm at this base outside Tallil – and, more importantly, outside the ancient city of Ur – with a handful of soldiers from the 81st Brigade Combat Team's 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry Regiment. They're here as part of a trip to learn ancient Mesopotamian history.

The trip is half learning experience, half unofficial R&R for the overworked soldiers. But I'll also be dropping by Bravo Company, 181st Brigade Support Battalion, which runs convoys out of here.

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – Meet Swat. He’s one of the stray cats unofficially adopted by Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry Regiment at Joint Base Balad.

A few people I asked don’t really seem to know when he showed up. One thought it was shortly after the 81st Brigade Combat Team arrived in Iraq in November. Another thought the unit inherited him from the Indiana National Guard unit it replaced.

Either way, he’s friendly. He purrs when you pet him (and meows until you do), and a head scratch seems to send him into a sense of existential relaxation.

The positive benefits seem to go both ways. One soldier said that taking a few minutes to pet Swat is a nice distraction amid a stressful atmosphere.

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – Tom Cruise trying to kill Hitler – what else could a base full of soldiers and airmen want in a movie?

"Valkyrie" opened at Joint Base Balad this weekend. And Sunday night’s show was packed, with hundreds filling the lower deck and balcony of the base’s sole movie theater.

Admission to all movies is free, and snacks are affordable by American movie theater standards. (A large bag of popcorn went for $3.50.)

The showing began with a playing of the national anthem, complete with a series of video clips from the Vietnam War to today’s conflicts – including a Stryker driving in a very Fort Lewish setting. After that, it was easy to feel like it was back home – if you ignore all the M-4s the service members brought with them.

Some of the movie’s lines clearly resonated with the almost all-military crowd.

"Remember," one of the conspirators tells Cruise’s character, "this is a military operation. Nothing ever goes as planned."

That caused a short roar of laughter in the crowd.

"Preach it, brother, preach it!" yelled one airman sitting near the front.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq – It’s no secret that you can buy, well, almost anything at the Iraqi-run businesses that operate on American military bases. By far the most popular item are bootlegged DVDs: Slumdog Millionaire sells for $2, the entire collection of Disney movies is $30.

Cuban cigars - no embargo here in Iraq - are another popular item. And so are energy drinks that are only sold in the Middle East. A couple of the guys with whom I joined on a convoy security mission picked up Tiger energy drink. Not sure exactly where it’s made, but some of the folks swear by it.

The main kick Tiger provides: It’s laced with nicotine.

Your move, Red Bull.

MULLALAH, Iraq – The route took the soldiers on cratered roads, by bombed-out buildings and past waving children.

The platoon from the 571st Sapper Company of Fort Lewis’ 14th Battalion, 555th Engineer Brigade rumbled past Mullalah, a remote village in Diyala province, Wednesday to inspect a temporary bridge the American military had set up several months before and was scheduled for removal.

It was the kind of mission that often goes unnoticed even to many people at Joint Base Balad, where the platoon is stationed.

Much of the 571st Sapper Company’s time in Iraq is spent performing route clearance, cache searches and minefield clearance, but 3rd Platoon usually goes on an engineering mission every week or two, platoon leader Lt. Raymond Lopez said.

The temporary bridge was put in place several months ago because the existing concrete bridge, which lies about 20 feet away, is crumbling and can’t support the weight of military vehicles. But the metal bridge doesn’t see enough traffic to justify keeping it in place, Lopez said, and the soldiers plan to return later this week and dig it up.

"We can put it somewhere else where it’s more needed," the 30-year-old New Mexico native said.

The soldiers arrived in mid-afternoon at the site. Donkeys ran wild in a nearby field and a lone Iraqi policeman stood guard. They sappers climbed out of their Mine Resistant Ambushed Protected vehicles and carefully approached the bridge, in case it was booby-trapped. They then took digital photos and determined what sorts of equipment they would need to remove it and transport it back to Balad.

They took about 30 minutes to snap plenty of photos and jot down enough notes, and then they headed back to base.

The soldiers also squeezed in some grassroots goodwill.

On the way to the village, a boy who appeared about 9 ran alongside the MRAPs and held out his arms. Pfc. Matthew Goodnight, the gunner of the lead vehicle, tossed him a bottle of water.

And as the MRAPs returned to base, they stopped near a village to hand out two Beanie Babies that arrived in care packages from the United States. Goodnight, a 21-year-old Soap Lake native, gave the dolls to a boy and a girl, each about 7. They smiled wide and gave thumbs up as the vehicles started rolling again.

"It’s pretty cool to see the smiles on their faces," Goodnight said. "That can be the highlight of quick missions like these."

SALAH AD-DIN PROVINCE, Iraq – The route-clearance convoy stopped along the highway. The Iraqi army sergeant who runs the checkpoint, a 27-year veteran named Ali Ajeel, came out to greet us.

The area was quiet that night, he said. He told the soldiers of the 571st Sapper Company, with whom I was riding, that 25 soldiers regularly patrol the area.

The platoon leader, Lt. Loren Fuller, turned to me and asked if I had any questions for Ajeel. I didn’t – I was there to observe – but I asked a few basic things: Where are you from? How long have you been in the army? How are your relations with the Americans?

After I stumbled through that, he asked us if we wanted to come into his office for some tea. The four soldiers and myself agreed (this is hearts-and-minds stuff) and walked into the sergeant’s sleeping area – a converted shipping container with a cot, a TV playing Turkish channels and an indoor burner.

Three other Iraqis joined us, and one emptied a few bottles of water into a teapot. They pulled up a small wooden table around three plastic hairs and moved the cot to provide more room. We chatted about Ajeel’s background (he served in Saddam’s military, lost his job during the dissolution and returned a few years ago) while the tea brewed.

They served the tea boiling hot with heaping spoonfuls of sugar. We talked about the security situation in Iraq and about our backgrounds. One of the sergeant’s subordinates shot me a thumbs-up when he saw my ballistic vest’s nametape (I have my last name written in Arabic). And we snapped plenty of digital photos.

It was surreal: Here we were in a dimly lit office in nowhere Iraq, sharing tea with the guy whose job is to keep bombs off the roads. The soldiers carried their M-4s in there, but we all took off our helmets and everyone was relaxed. We spoke English and they spoke Arabic, but it was a bunch of guys sitting around, laughing about women and talking about beer.

These are the kinds of moments that receive little publicity but are crucial to the future of Iraq and the American military serving here.

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – Some folks wanted to grab dinner yesterday. Their choice: Taco Bell.

Welcome to Balad, where the amenities are posh by Iraq standards.

If one tires of eating in the chow hall – which offers a dozen entrees daily and often has a Baskin-Robbins cart near the exit – fast-food joints like Burger King, Pizza Hut, Cinnabon, Popeye’s and Subway are open most of the day. A café offers Turkish food and thin-crust pizzas.

To kill time, you can head to a Morale, Welfare and Recreation building for a night of salsa dancing or karaoke. Or take a dip in the pool – there are two, one inside and one outside. Or go to the movie theater, which shows first-run films. Or haggle for rugs and souvenirs at the Turkish bazaar. Or visit the massage therapist.

Balad sure ain’t home, but it’s probably about as good as one can hope for in Iraq.

When last we heard from Lt. Gen. James Dubik in September, the former Fort Lewis commander had just returned from a year-long stint overseeing the training of Iraqi Security Forces and was in the first days of retirement from a fine Army career.

The pace must've been too slow for him. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) announced last week that Dubik has joined the Washington D.C.-based organization as its first senior fellow. He will do research, write policy papers and brief policy makers.

ISW President Kimberly Kagan said in a prepared statement:

General Dubik will be an excellent asset to ISW. His expertise on Iraq's Security Forces will contribute to ISW's robust research program on the conflict, especially as the United States and Iraq implement their new security agreement in 2009. General Dubik's extensive experience in professional military education will enhance ISW's ability to bridge the gap between senior civilian policy makers and officers.

Dubik took command of Multi National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I) in June 2007. Before that, he was the commanding general of Fort Lewis and I Corps for 2 1/2 years.

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – It’s good, but it’s no Starbucks.

Green Beans Coffee serves up much of the usual fare Washingtonians prefer. Triple-shot soy latte? They have it covered. Blended chai? It’s available.

Still, several members of the 181st Brigade Support Battalion who are fully ingrained in Washington’s coffee culture say Green Beans just doesn’t cut it.

"They don’t have a big selection – all the things I normally get," said Staff Sgt. Diana Wood, a 35-year-old Lacey resident.

Lacey is a Starbucks regular; about twice a week, she orders a half-caf caramel macchiato with no whip. With Green Beans, the squad leader with the Seattle Armory-based battalion settles for a double mocha.

Staff Sgt. Robert Camacho of Puyallup gets a four-shot white chocolate caramel mocha twice a week from Green Beans. "It’s coffee and I won’t complain," he said, but he wishes the usually-ubiquitous stores would open on this sprawling base in central Iraq.
"Starbucks isn’t here," he said. "They have them in Kuwait. They have them in Bahrain. They should put ’em here."

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – The priest’s combat boots popped out from below his vestments. A choir member was wearing his PT uniform; another, his Navy camouflage. M-4 rifles tucked under seats. The homily was interrupted by the roar of fighter jets screaming overhead.

Welcome to Sunday Mass, Iraq war-style.

About 100 people crammed into Provider Chapel – a prefabbed building under a mortar-proof roof – for the services. It certainly wasn’t Saint Peter’s Basilica, but organizers made it seem as church-like as possible, with statues of Jesus and Mary displayed against the gray walls and a choir featuring a keyboard and a clarinet.

The crowd was a mix of service members in uniforms, American contractors in jeans and polos shirts and several Ugandans, who provide security around the base.

The priest spoke of letting God’s plan take its course. He used language that appealed to the service members in the congregation; he began with an anecdote about watching the Super Bowl replay on Armed Forces Network Television after a middle-of-the-night patrol.

Milspeak was a constant during his homily.

"The victory is already won, brothers and sisters," he said, talking about eternal salvation. "The victory is already won."

Click here to a photo gallery of members of B Troops, 1st Squadron, 303rd Cavalry Regiment in Baghdad's International Zone.

BAGHDAD – I got a bit of a walking tour of FOB Prosperity, where the 81st Brigade Combat Team’s 1st Squadron, 303rd Cavalry Regiment is based. That meant stops at one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces – complete with a gym under an ornate, marble ceiling – some of the Iraqi-run businesses and a two large, iron Saddam heads.

One of them has a few holes blown into it; you can peer inside and see the steel-girder structure. And if you want to have a fun photo to send back home, you can climb those bars and poke your head out his shoulder or the top of his head.

You know the old saying: You can’t understand a man until you’ve stood a minute in his head.

BAGHDAD – A 30-second oath will likely mean a promotion for a Washington National Guardsmen serving his third deployment to Iraq.

Sgt. Rick Scidmore of Tacoma re-enlisted for another three years at his unit’s operations center in Baghdad’s International Zone on Friday. The 48-year-old journeyman floor coverer – who is the armorer for B Troop, 1st Squadron, 303rd Cavalry Regiment of the 81st Brigade Combat Team – will now obliged to serve in the Guard until 2012.

Troop commander Capt. Jason Bledsoe – wearing the trademark Stetson hat of the cav unit – led Scidmore in the oath.

His reasoning behind re-upping is simple: “I did it so I could get a promotion,” said Scidmore, who will soon become a staff sergeant.

He’s trained as a cavalry scout and an aircraft refueler. He deployed with the 81st Brigade in 2004-05 and with the Washington National Guard’s 66th Theater Aviation Command in 2007-08.

He’s not finished: Scidmore plans to deploy next year to Afghanistan with the 66th TAC.

BAGHDAD – A few of the Iraqi-run shops in Baghdad’s International Zone sell dozens and dozens of stickers branded with Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pictures of the Homer Simpson in ACUs. Unit logos. European-style car stickers.

And a flag for just about every country that has troops or contractors here. Unfortunately, that means a really, really divisive one.

Many former South African Defense Force soldiers are serving in Iraq as private security contractors. The apartheid-era flag sticker sells pretty well, the owner of the one the shops told me.

"I sell this one all the time," he told me. "All the time."

How divisive is the apartheid flag? Think the Confederate flag, and make it offensive to 80 percent of your native country’s population.

The right badge is everything in Iraq. Some badges will get you in any building. Others won’t get you anywhere.

Before I could start my embed, I had to report to the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad so I could get a press ID. That isn’t difficult, but it takes a mountain of patience. Here’s a recap of my four-day quest for a press badge:

Monday
I looked out the window of my airplane for my first glimpse of the Middle East. It wasn’t much: Many of the buildings appear as brown as the land, and a thick cloud of dust blurred out the horizon.

I walked off the plane. Cigarette smoke reached the walkway before I stepped into the terminal. Arabs wearing dishdashas and Americans sporting a lanyard displaying their Department of Defense civilian contractor card both ignored the no smoking signs posted around the airport.

The wait for a visa took more than an hour. The Arabs on our flight had left, leaving dozens of Americans standing around an undersized waiting area. They passed the time in one of four ways: smoked, complain about how bad the wait was, compared stories about their last trip to Kuwait or stared blankly into the distance.

After 90 minutes, immigration agents in crisp blue uniforms asked a few cursory questions, took their fee and stamped my passport. I found my luggage downstairs and passed through customs, where another agent in a crisp blue uniform didn’t bother to look at my passport. He grunted and waved me through.

=> Read more!

BAGHDAD – The loadmaster’s voice pierced the engine roar.

“Make sure you’re buckled up,” he said. “We’re going to land in about five minutes.”

From my seat aboard the C-17 Globemaster in the skies above Iraq, I could see out one of the side windows. We were still easily thousands of feet in the air.

And it didn’t even take the full five minutes to land in Baghdad.

The cargo jet – operated by a crew from Charleston Air Force Base – began its descent by dipping its wings to both sides. The pilot then pointed the nose toward the ground, and the plane shook as it picked up velocity. It flattened out as it approached the runway, and soon we were on the ground in Iraq.

The last-minute preparations in Kuwait have a way of wearing people down. I shared the flight with dozens of members of the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 56th Stryker Brigade, 28th Infantry Division, many of whom hadn’t yet deployed. Even as we were making the descent into Baghdad – something that one would think would create some jitters – almost everyone aboard the jet remained asleep.

ARMY LIFE SUPPORT AREA, Kuwait – No truer test of patience exists than trying to fly military air from Kuwait into Iraq.

Here’s how it works: An official at the base in Kuwait processes your passport and arranges for visas. The next day, after the passport is returned, you sign up for a flight to Baghdad or Mosul or Qatar or whatever your destination might be. You are then put on a list that gives preference to people who signed up earlier. A projection screen shows the flights leaving the airbase, when they’re leaving and how many seats are available. All those details can change; flights are routinely added and canceled, and the number of seats varies.

There are also two “accountability roll calls” per day. If you miss one, the Kellogg Brown and Root employee that runs the system assumes you’re not interested and removes your name. People quietly cheer when people at the top of the list don’t show up.

When a flight does become available, they begin reading the list. If you’re not there, you don’t get a spot. The contractor reads all the names until either the list is finished or all the seats are full.

The lists never seem to end.

=> Read more!

ARMY LIFE SUPPORT AREA, Kuwait - Life on this dusty base would rarely be described as luxurious, but certain corners of the base can remind American service members of home.

Every outpost of the United States’ influence – even this military base, which can’t be named under media ground rules – needs that quintessential piece of Americana: a McDonald’s. The fast-food restaurant, available here only for takeaway but open 24 hours a day, seems to be the most popular draw of a small collection of places to grab a bite when someone decides to skip the dining hall.

There’s also a KFC, Subway, Pizza Hut, a donut shop and a Chinese restaurant.

The Morale, Welfare and Recreation folks operate several tents, and they know how to attract a crowd. One has a large projection screen that shows movies (usually comedy or action, and often a few years old) all day. The tent also features a DVD checkout stand and a row of personal TVs where service members can watch a movie or play Xbox 360.

Another MWR’s is packed all day. Soldiers sit in rows of chairs watching Armed Forces Network television on a nearby plasma or lay across one of the couches to catch some sleep. Others talk smack over games of Ping-Pong, billiards or foosball. And there’s always a waiting list to make a phone call back home or surf the Web.

The activities provide a welcome distraction at a base where it seems like most of the people are simply waiting to get somewhere else – to Iraq, to Afghanistan or to return home.

=> Read more!

KUWAIT CITY - The sign that greets visitors as they walk off the airplane in Kuwait City proclaims in English with black, bold letters: “Welcome to Kuwait.” No Arabic script accompanies the message.

Perhaps that’s no accident.

Likely 80 percent of the people crammed into the KLM flight from Amsterdam to Kuwait were American. In the terminal before takeoff, eight employees of DynCorp – you could tell they worked for the defense contractor because of the matching hats and khakis bearing the company’s logo – talked about their upcoming assignment in Balad.

A few young Marines stood in the plane’s aisles before the flight took off, cursing loudly and trying to figure out which of the flight attendants was the most attractive. (They settled on the blond Dutch woman.) The flight crew first made its announcements in Dutch, then English. Each time, they followed up five minutes later with the same message in Arabic, as if it was an afterthought.

Sitting next to me was a fiber-optic technician who working in Kuwait. “Even when the economy goes south,” he said, “people always want to fight. And they’ll always need people to help those people.”

Three rows up sat a man proudly wearing his hat for Kellogg, Brown and Root, the contractor. And a nearby tattooed thirtysomething bragged about how he left Triple Canopy for his new job because they paid better. He, like many other younger contractors, had that fresh-out-of-the-military look: They wear the regulation haircut but have grown a goatee and put on a few pounds.

As the plane descended into a dusty haze (the horizon was blurred from the sky), the first plane it passed was an Air Force C-17 Globemaster. As the passengers walked off the plane, dozens carried camouflaged backpacks.

The contractors, though, provided valuable experience. A crowd of about 200 people mobbed the visa counter. “Follow me,” said a guy from Wisconsin who was going to work for KBR. “This is my third time. I know exactly what to do.

“It isn’t easy,” he continued, breaking into a smile, ”but hey, it’s Kuwait.”

The Ambien I took on the flight from Sea-Tac to Kuwait worked about as effectively as something you buy from those “pharmacies” in Tijuana, but the upshot is that I had plenty of time to read.

For this trip, I packed “The Great War for Civilisation” by Robert Fisk, the venerated foreign correspondent who works for The Independent. It’s a 1,000-page-plus history of the Middle East and came highly recommended by my friend, the cerebral John Wallingford.

I’ve always tried to read up before I cover something or go somewhere. Before moving to South Africa after college, I devoured Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom,” Rian Malan’s “My Traitor’s Heart” and a few others.

I cracked open Fisk’s book for the first time on the flight to Amsterdam, but I’ve read a lot of good stuff on the Iraq war lately – maybe a dozen books in the past four months. I just re-read “Fiasco” by Thomas Ricks last week. Some folks weren’t happy with the conclusions he reached (hint: read the title), but the guy knows his stuff, and it’s fascinating to see how the decisions of five years ago are still being felt today.

Hopefully Fisk can deliver the same comprehensiveness as Ricks, but on a larger scale. Will let you know, and I’m always looking for tips on good (nonfiction) books to read.

By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way to Iraq (via Amsterdam and Kuwait). Because I’ll be off the radar for a few days – gotta get processed in Kuwait, credentialed in Baghdad and meet up with the 81st Brigade Combat Team in Balad – I’m hoping you guys participate in the comments section.

What stories do you want to read?

My task is to tell the day-to-day life of the Washington National Guard soldiers, but are there any specifics you’d like me to chase down while I’m there? Are you interested in the technology they’re using? What they do during downtime? The soldiers’ interaction with the Iraqi population?

Ideas, please.