Sea Lion VI and the Green Zone

21 Jun

This is why our munitions did the damage they did...

In every language there is term that people use for procrastination and for getting out of a commitment.  In Iraq (Middle East in general), that word is “Insha’Allah,” which means “God Willing” or “If it’s God’s will.”  It takes me back to my Guatemalan days when all I would hear was “Primero Dios, Primero Dios....si Dios quiere...”  Yes, Allah wants you to have processes set in place so when we get out of here you can take over your own country.  In my opinion, “Insha’Allah” is one of the reasons why these countries are still living in the 15^th Century. 

You can’t just hope for something to happen and then “boom!” the job’s done...you have to apply yourself and commit to “SOMETHING.”  Over the past week or so, I have been working on a project, trying to set in stone a process for all of the contractors here in Iraq.  When most of them came in, the country was not stood up as it is today, meaning there were no institutions like the Ministry of Finance or Trade.  Now that these companies are leaving, the govt of Iraq wants to charge levies for those that have not directly supported the military.  Apparently there was one company (sub-contracted under KBR) that decided to make some money on the side from the Iraqi people.  So, I contact the customs folks trying to figure out the timeline for these companies to turn in all their paperwork and get approved/rejected for a Levy Export Waiver.  I asked how long it would take for them to accomplish the process “cradle to grave” or start to finish.  They told me “1 to 4 days”...okay, that is quite a range.  So, I tried to break down the process into phases, assigning a timeline to each phase.  I get called into my boss’ office and he told me that he liked what I was doing, but I had “ruffled some feathers” over in the Customs office.  They don’t like being committed to a certain time frame.  In addition I was to “cease and desist” all communications to the Iraqis.  Luckily I had only been talking to a representative (KBR employee) that worked along with the Customs office.  I never would have thought that inquiring about a process could cause so much consternation.

 25 Jun

            So, our Navy Capt that works as a liaison officer has been on leave since I got here.  He goes by the name of “Sea Lion VI.”  The story behind his name actually comes from the Commanding General of United States Forces-Iraq (USF-I).  General Lloyd Austin is in charge of all the military forces in Iraq.  Before him was General Odierno, General Patreus, General Casey, etc.  Well, General Austin goes by the call sign of “Lion VI.”  So, the shop decided to give our Navy Capt the call sign of “SEA Lion VI.”  Since he has been gone, I have been driving around his truck, which has helped me out quite a bit.  In fact, I actually call his truck “Sea Lion VI,” which in my opinion it sounds cooler attached to a vehicle rather than a person.  Too bad once we get out west we will lose our vehicles.

  I had a meeting to attend today “outside of the wire,” which for the record I did not realize it was outside of the wire until someone asked me, “well, how are you going to get there?”  Sea Lion VI (F-150 truck) can do many things, but it can’t handle the streets of Baghdad, nor would they even let me drive it off the base.  So, with the help of my “battle Buddy,” Maj Awtrey, we got hooked up in a private security detail convoy, which is basically a bunch of up-armored suburbans.  Their method to the madness of driving in Baghdad is pretty interesting.  The consistently change driving patterns, honk to get people out of the way, and are very observant to possible threats.  Driving on the highway made me feel like I was back in DC.  We had to stop at a couple of checkpoints and our trip there and back was uneventful.

I will say that it was nice to get out of the office and to see new sites.  We got done with our meeting and Maj Awtrey was able to catch up with an old friend from one of his previous deployments.  His friend had been an interpreter for the U.S. military back in ’06.  He now is the lead interpreter for the Minister of Defense.

Interpreter for Iraq Minister of Defense

  He showed us around the FOB told us where to get take some great pictures and he we had some good discussions on the future of Iraq.  It was cool to see (from a distance) downtown Baghdad, the International Zone (IZ), the new Embassy, the Tigris River, and the military training complex with the famous “two swords” statues.  We also got to see the mosque-turned mall.  They basically emptied an old mosque and put a bunch of stores (primarily pirated DVDs) and made an indoor market.  The return to base was uneventful and I got back to work just in time to do my daily ritual: Powerpoint Rangering.