An interesting sight at a local school

The other day we went out to visit a city neighborhood and came across some graffiti at one of the local schools – which happened to be almost 100% Arab, as opposed to Kurdish population. The graffiti said “Long live the great Jihad warrior Saddam Hussein”. I promptly got a spray can from another soldier and commenced to spray over the graffiti. The nearby kids seemed to enjoy me doing the spraying. It is hard to tell who actually still supports the “enemy” when I am out and about speaking with doctors, business owners, children, gas station operators, police officers, etc. Perhaps some of the people I speak with are pro-USA during the day but anti-USA at night – I don’t know, probably will never know. The main thing I would like to see amongst the general population, regardless of their feelings towards the U.S. forces is that they get out and vote in October…and then again in December.

Here is a picture of a mall in Doha, Qatar. Yes, that is a skating rink in the middle of the mall. My unit commander authorized me to go on a four day pass to Doha, Qatar. How could I pass that up! What a difference Qatar is from Iraq, as you can imagine. Qatar is an extremely wealthy country - I just read today that Qatar has donated $100 million to the US for the Hurricane Relief Fund. Wealth is evident everywhere - upscale mall, booming skyscrapers in construction, no trash on the streets or even poor people, etc. Iraq is almost at the complete opposite of the spectrum - crumbling, ancient infrastructure, trash everywhere, little construction, and threats of violence constant in the air. Here in Qatar, the base here offers MWR activities (MWR = morale, welfare, and recreation). The other day I took a trip to a local mall and except for most of the shoppers wearing either long flowing white robes (men) or long flowing black robes (women) I would have thought I was back in the USA at an upscale mall - very impressive.

It is nice to take a break after being �in-country� for a little over three months - where has the time gone? It is nice to wake up and have absolutely no responsibilities - the questions of the day around here are: should I go to the pool after or before my run? How much reading time do I want to do before the free movie starts at the base theater? Should I go for chicken quesadillas or ribs? J

The summer is over - and I think about the school season starting for my daughters. Another season has commenced - my favorite one actually being the fall. I hope everyone has enjoyed their summer and is looking forward to this fall season with their friends and families.

Hey folks. I was lucky enough to go to Doha, Qatar for several days on a "MWR" pass which stands for morale, welfare, and recreation. At the base I stayed at they offered some tours. This is me trying to look like a model on the back of a boat in the Persian Gulf just off of the capital city of Qatar (Doha). The whole trip was very relaxing which was good because I was starting to get a little edgy with my buddies...so the break was nice.