Jibber jabber on two hours of sleep

I am so tired that I don’t think I can write another word, but I will because I owe it to the two people who read this blog. Today, I sat in a room no bigger than a stand-in closet. I scanned the streets of Mosul all day and did nothing but look for the enemy. On a day that the terrorists clashed with Coalition and Iraqi forces more times than I have fingers and toes, and bombed a police station or two the day prior, my pucker factor was on extra high. To top it off, I had really bad gas and the soldier observing these streets with me got a little tired of me hiking my leg up and squeezing off a juicy one every five minutes.

Anyway, as I am observing these streets, I can’t help from notice how Iraqis just meander through the streets. There will be a group standing in the middle of the road just talking, while a sheep herder takes up a lane of traffic with his flock. Then, random cars are pulled over with the driver searching his trunk. Of course, my first thoughts are this guy is making a car bomb. Turns out, he’s pulling out a spare tire. I saw 12 spare tires changed today. If somebody watched a main road in the U.S., I’m sure you could spot a dozen cars easily with flat tires. But here, you have a different mentality and you’re skeptical all the time of everything. The people seemed so peaceful and happy, and it’s hard to spot an enemy, as they don’t wear a uniform and shoot at us from crowded areas.

Every five hours, the mosques broadcast their prayers and all Muslims are supposed to stop what they’re doing and pray. Honestly, I don’t know what the prayers are saying, but they sound very soothing. I’m sure whatever the imam is saying, he’s not saying kill Americans because they want to rebuild your country. At least I hope not. OK, I have to go sleep right now.