Catching up
Not too much going on lately. Made the switch to night shift reasonably easily.
Overheard today at the chow hall, Army chicks giggling about all the "mincing fairies" in the DoS. The whole conversation made me laugh- the difference in culture between the DoS and DoD is night and day.
My ex-room mate, the cop made known to me his personal temperature estimation: when your eyeballs start to feel hot, back in your eye sockets like eggs boiling, you're somewhat over 115 degrees. I noted that this is true.
HAd a great conversation with some of my Iraqi co-workers last night. Very educated guys, opining that what Iraq needs is a strong, ruthless leader. It was a wide ranging talk, but that's the gist of it. People here are ignorant and easily led astray by Iranian influences that they follow just because they're Shia, not realizing that they are shills for Iranian fronts. Most people are uneducated- flatly contradicting what the left told us before the war about Iraq being a well-educated secular state. My guys here say that maybe 30 percent of the people have an average education - completed high school and some college. Another 30 percent or more can't even read, which bears out some of my observations in the field last year. That's not something that started with the war, or even with the first Gulf War. Many of these 70 percent on the ignorant end have no idea what democracy even means, much less th subtler aspects of personal responsibility that go along with the rights of free people.
They kept saying "democracy is a beautiful word" but means nothing to most Iraqis.
Thankfully, a large portion, probably the majority of my people still remember that freedom is not all about entitlements.
They asked me what would happen if 80% of the people in an area of the US started looting and stealing and rioting. I had to reply that it's hard to say, because even in the most violent of times we've had in the US, nothing approaching that percentage have ever been lawless. We agreed that there is a big difference between a place where people have trust; in society, in each other, in themselves, and a place like Iraq where no one trusts anyone else.
I'm thankful that my people don't have to learn this lesson first hand, though I do wish more would pay attention to the lesson in general.
Tag: Patriot's Journey (with JimK, Scott, Lil, Doug, Moorewatch and our fearless leader Drumwaster)
Overheard today at the chow hall, Army chicks giggling about all the "mincing fairies" in the DoS. The whole conversation made me laugh- the difference in culture between the DoS and DoD is night and day.
My ex-room mate, the cop made known to me his personal temperature estimation: when your eyeballs start to feel hot, back in your eye sockets like eggs boiling, you're somewhat over 115 degrees. I noted that this is true.
HAd a great conversation with some of my Iraqi co-workers last night. Very educated guys, opining that what Iraq needs is a strong, ruthless leader. It was a wide ranging talk, but that's the gist of it. People here are ignorant and easily led astray by Iranian influences that they follow just because they're Shia, not realizing that they are shills for Iranian fronts. Most people are uneducated- flatly contradicting what the left told us before the war about Iraq being a well-educated secular state. My guys here say that maybe 30 percent of the people have an average education - completed high school and some college. Another 30 percent or more can't even read, which bears out some of my observations in the field last year. That's not something that started with the war, or even with the first Gulf War. Many of these 70 percent on the ignorant end have no idea what democracy even means, much less th subtler aspects of personal responsibility that go along with the rights of free people.
They kept saying "democracy is a beautiful word" but means nothing to most Iraqis.
Thankfully, a large portion, probably the majority of my people still remember that freedom is not all about entitlements.
They asked me what would happen if 80% of the people in an area of the US started looting and stealing and rioting. I had to reply that it's hard to say, because even in the most violent of times we've had in the US, nothing approaching that percentage have ever been lawless. We agreed that there is a big difference between a place where people have trust; in society, in each other, in themselves, and a place like Iraq where no one trusts anyone else.
I'm thankful that my people don't have to learn this lesson first hand, though I do wish more would pay attention to the lesson in general.
Tag: Patriot's Journey (with JimK, Scott, Lil, Doug, Moorewatch and our fearless leader Drumwaster)
posted by Larry at
6/25/2007 01:47:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home