PART FOUR - THE CONCLUDING INSTALEMENT OF A FASCINATING SERIES OF ARTICLES
Firstly I was over the moon on Saturday and if I had some to hand would have celebrated with a wee tipple but a great result for Gus and the boys over Hamilton. I have since watched the highlights on GooTV.
Well I am getting excited now, like the proverbial kid, leading up to Christmas, at the time of writing this, I will soon be back in Dumfries. Yes my rotation ends and I am off on 3 weeks holiday, although I will be returning to Iraq in October.
I am looking forward to many things when I get home; the first and most obvious one is my wife and family. Then there are the Queens matches, I should get to Morton at home, Kilmarnock away, Ayr away but will miss the home game to Dundee as I am taking my wife away for a week’s holiday to Majorca but will obviously keep an eye out for the Queens results then there is a break and I return to the desert, so it will be back to flashscores and other means to keep up to date with match results.
Once home it will be great to do other simpler things, like walk the dogs, cycle through the woods at Mabie Forest and Heathhall, maybe walk a few hills and just generally relax without fear of ‘incoming alarms’ sounding.
I will not for one minute miss the dry arid heat of the desert and I am looking forward to the different climate and, believe it or not some rain.
Well this tour has seen the company win some major contracts with oil companies of which I was a part of so that is probably my biggest sense of achievement and brought the most satisfaction work-wise. On a sadder note one of my Operations Managers and a good friend has left the company, he has been poached by one of the Oil Companies, we will keep in touch but now I have a huge hole in the team that I am gapping until his replacement arrives.
There has been more violence this tour, more than the previous two tours put together, all over the country but mostly in Baghdad. We have had more rockets fired at us then usual but thankfully I am alive and (touch wood) will be returning home shortly. I look around the region though and compared to Syria, Egypt, Libya etc it could be a lot worse.
There is a lot of discussion within the Expat community as to what will happen if the US Military leave because we do not believe the Iraqi Security Forces can stand on their own two feet yet. Maybe some of the planned attacks are a reminder of that and maybe a calling card to get them to stay?
Without the US Military assisting the security forces the security situation will worsen and the insurgents will have an easier time moving around, doing what they do unchecked.
Without wanting to sound racist, the Iraqi race are lazy and need constant motivation/prodding to do the most routine of tasks, if the US Military leave there is no-one to prod/motivate so check-points will become un-manned or they will not check people/vehicles going through which will allow the insurgents free reign to move munitions around and to do what they want with them.
Anyway, for all those that know me and even if you don’t, feel free to say hello at the Morton game, I don’t bite and am looking forward to a few pints before the match and hopefully a few celebratory pints after.
If there is the demand or the Admin wants more of this, then I will let you know what is going on in Iraq when I return to the desert in October.
Regards
QosinIraq