I’m Fine. How are you?

Friday 12/8/06
2200

My entry about my Christmas decorations seems to have given some of my friends and family the impression that I’m walking around in a blue funk. Not at all! I’m really fine – I was just being candid about a surprising emotional reaction I had while looking at some Christmas photos, as well as being realistic about the prospect of experiencing a bit of sadness again. But I’m really feeling surprisingly good. Seeing the decorations and the lights is a good thing, especially since I put up some pictures of my kids at the same time. It feels much more warm and homelike than it did before, and I really enjoy being in my room now. Thanks to Lindi, I even have a Christmas stocking on the wall!

I have been sitting here evenings and working with just the Christmas lights and a lamp on, instead of the harsh overhead fluorescent lights. It’s much more relaxing that way. I usually have my music on (I got some little battery-powered speakers for my iPod) and can either read, or write as I’m doing now. I don’t have an internet connection, but I do compose emails and blog entries to upload later. The way I can use my (expensive) online time more efficiently.

As frustrating as my work can be sometimes, I am finding ways to move the ball forward on a number of issues and so I feel like I’m making a difference and am making a positive contribution here. Each day is a combination of fighting fires and trying to make progress on longer-range issues. I suppose from that point of view it’s a lot like any other job, really, except that I wear camouflage instead of khakis or a suit and tie. :-)

This week I finally got my Christmas presents packed and mailed. There’s not much room in here anyway, and with that stuff in here (plus the boxes I was saving to mail them in) I really had no place to move. It’s nice to be able to relax in my room and actually have room to turn around!

Our trip to Kuwait City last Sunday was interesting. I took a few pictures, although not a lot, since we didn’t go to that many different places.

First, we visited the Kuwait Towers, which are a landmark and symbol of Kuwait. I didn’t get a good picture of them because we only got out of the bus directly underneath them, and then went up inside. But here’s a link to some photos on the web:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=kuwait+towers&btnG=Search+Images

The larger ball has a restaurant and observation deck. I took these photographs from inside:

061203 Kuwait Towers cafe
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.


061203 Kuwait City
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.


061203 Kuwait City 2
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

They had a little history lesson about the 1990 invasion by Iraq in photos on the walls:


061203 Kuwait Towers War Photo 1
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.


061203 Kuwait Towers War Photo 2
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.


061203 Kuwait Towers War Photo 3
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.


061203 Kuwait Towers War Photo 4
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

Do you think maybe they were trying to make a point?

Speaking of history, I noticed an interesting older feature of the city from the tower. It looks like a portion of an old curtain wall from when it was a walled city:


061203 Kuwait City Wall
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

Here is a crenellated tower (with a modern guard post built on top), taken at extreme zoom:


061203 Kuwait City Wall Tower
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

Shades of Beau Geste!

After visiting the Kuwait Towers, we got back on the bus and headed for a mall for some shopping. I had thought this would be in Kuwait City, too, but surprisingly it was back in Fahaheel (where I’d already been a couple of times). It did give me the chance to photograph Starbucks:


061203 Starbucks in Fahaheel, Kuwait
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

We visited Al Kout mall, which is about like any other shopping mall inside, but had some cool local flavor outside:


061203 Al Kout Mall 1
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.


061203 Al Kout Mall 2
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.


061203 Al Kout Mall 3 (blog)
Originally uploaded by hkp7fan.

Frankly it was a bit too polished and modern to be very interesting. I would much rather have gone across the street to the bazaars and narrow streets of the city. But that was off limits on this organized trip.

But it was fun anyway. It was very refreshing to get off post and have a change of pace and scenery. This place does get kind of monotonous. (I’ve only been here two months – I wonder what it will feel like after a year!)

It’s Friday night, so tomorrow morning is a bit different. We have WTT (Warrior Task Training) which for the officers in my unit usually means an OPD (Officer Professional Development) class with the commander. It’s cool, because he’s very well read and has thought a lot about issues in counterinsurgency warfare. I appreciate the chance to gain some insight into what’s going on from someone who’s been studying it for years. This week it’s actually going to be a discussion of Starship Troopers, about which I’ve already written here.

These Saturday mornings are another nice chance to take my nose out of the day-to-day grind and think about macro issues or do something different. Next week we’re going to the gym to do combatives (hand-to-hand combat drills), which is something they didn’t do when I first went through Basic Training (it was out of fashion at the time). So that should be cool, too. More on that later.

Mood: Good
Music: Franz Danzi – Wind Quintets

For All We Have and Are

Thursday, December 7, 2006
0730

Every year on December 7th I pause to think of the historical significance of this date, what it represents in the life of our nation, and of all the people who sacrificed so much to win the terrible war that followed. I think of John Hanson, the only Pearl Harbor veteran I have ever known, who was on duty in the tower at Hickham Field that morning and watched the attack, powerless to do anything about it. He spent the next several years on a series of remote island bases in the Pacific, providing signal support to the Army Air Forces. When I knew him he was a quiet man in his 70s who loved to work with his hands, creating useful, beautiful things with wood. I say a quiet "thank you" to him and all the others who woke up on that morning to a changed world, and who did what they had to do to preserve our nation and our freedom.

Yesterday at dinner I watched the news conference held by the Iraq Study Group (the “Baker Commission”) on the occasion of the release of their report on the Iraq War. The mood was somber and the message sobering.

Later in my room I was reading my volume of Kipling and I came across this poem of his from 1914. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to fast forward 90 years to our current war with militant Islam and consider the relevance of his message:

“For All We Have and Are”

For all we have and are,
For all our children’s fate,
Stand up and take the war.
The Hun is at the gate!
Our world has passed away,
In wantonness o’erthrown.
There is nothing left to-day
But steel and fire and stone!

Though all we knew depart,
The old Commandments stand: -
“In courage keep your heart,
In strength lift up your hand.”

Once more we hear the word
That sickened earth of old: -
“No law except the sword
Unsheathed and uncontrolled.”
Once more it knits mankind,
Once more the nations go
To meet and break and bind
A crazed and driven foe.

Comfort, content, delight,
The ages’ slow-bought gain,
They shriveled in a night.
Only ourselves remain
To face the naked days
In silent fortitude,
Through perils and dismays
Renewed and re-renewed.

Though all we made depart,
The old Commandments stand: -
“In patience keep your heart,
In strength lift up your hand.”

No easy hope or lies
Shall bring us to our goal,
But iron sacrifice
Of body, will, and soul.
There is but one task for all –
One life for each to give.
What stands if Freedom fall?
Who dies if England live?

- Rudyard Kipling


Mood: Serious
Music: Carl Stamitz, Cello Concertos