tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167361562024-03-12T23:37:31.396-05:00FactSmoking - IraqIn a 1970s ad campaign, for a short-lived product called "Fact cigarettes," a man stared straight at the camera and said, "I Smoke Facts." Always stuck with me....
Below are photos from my first trip to Iraq in 2005, along with some facts and opinions to consider (or smoke). There's a short video clip also, at a link in the sidebar.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.comBlogger166125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127348009385333912005-09-21T19:12:00.000-05:002005-09-21T19:21:14.573-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%208071.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%208071.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%208061.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%208061.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%208052.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%208052.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />I mentioned a second and final note of optimism I witnessed on the way out. As we were boarding the C-17, a long line of new Iraqi soldiers marched by from a nearby training facility. As they saw American soldiers our way, they began to wave and give thumbs-up signs. Not only did we wave back, but I must admit I swallowed pretty damn hard not to choke up.<br /><br />I hope it's not too long before we can leave their country in their hands entirely... and I hope everyone of them kills a terrorist before the terrorist kills him.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127347575778751582005-09-21T19:11:00.000-05:002005-09-21T22:21:17.703-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20831.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20831.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Rounding out yet another theme of the trip, that of women in the military, Capt Jennifer King flew us safely to Qatar, even re-negotiating with Bahrain from out over the Gulf, when it looked like they were denying us clearance to fly over. Excellent flight, smooth landing, and then it was well & truly time to go home ... and be the DC bureaucrat again.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127346012193461652005-09-21T18:35:00.000-05:002005-09-21T18:41:44.740-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20819.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20819.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Flight out to Qatar was a C-17, much bigger & better than the C-130 we barrelled in on during the night a week before.... Actual seats!Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127345248001785222005-09-21T18:16:00.000-05:002005-09-21T18:27:28.006-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20815.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20815.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Finally, out to Baghdad International Airport (BIAP), where by the way I watched a number of commercial flights land and take off, without incident.... That was one of two last optimistic signs I saw on my way out of Iraq.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127343469772872012005-09-21T17:52:00.000-05:002005-09-21T18:31:04.200-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20764.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20764.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Seen from Flintstones land: across the way, the unfinished "Victory over America Palace," which would have been huge. U.S. bombs had quite an impact, but it's nice the construction cranes are still there, an appropriate though rusty symbol of the corrupt foundation Iraq is building on now.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127342959590424482005-09-21T17:47:00.000-05:002005-09-21T17:51:15.956-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20791.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20791.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />The elevator has been "remodeled" extensively. What was once an extensive sound-system has also been smashed.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127401707330423532005-09-21T17:45:00.000-05:002005-09-22T10:08:27.330-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20757.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20757.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Any comment superfluous, cheers to the succinct perspicacity of the USAF Special Operations Command.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127342445874690952005-09-21T17:39:00.000-05:002005-09-21T17:40:45.873-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20724.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20724.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Downstairs, some rooms still have attractive tiled murals.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127342359984440162005-09-21T17:37:00.000-05:002005-09-21T17:39:19.983-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20788.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20788.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Lots of rumors about how Uday, Qusay, and Pops used to use the place... but "Criminal Number One," as soldiers refer to Saddam, isn't talking. There's a rumor that he himself was obsessed with the Flintstones cartoons and watched reruns every day. That one I'm not buying.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127342230547449422005-09-21T17:31:00.000-05:002005-09-21T17:46:40.790-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20770.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20770.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />The compound had a number of bedrooms, party decks, shower rooms, screened-in living rooms... well-designed and reminding me of some of the fancier Silicon Valley exec homes in the hills of Los Gatos or Woodside.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127341846986581702005-09-21T17:26:00.000-05:002005-09-21T17:30:46.986-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20737.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20737.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />The walls are covered in graffitti, added by US and coalition soldiers, who originally liberated the place and now visit it, not needing hallucinogenics to get a "weird trip" vibe from the surroundings.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127341589927671172005-09-21T17:22:00.000-05:002005-09-21T17:26:29.926-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20715.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20715.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />One can't escape the staggering irony, that all of Babylonia has been occupied by American forces - and the relics of corrupt totalitarian rule (like this odd spot) are simply relics, of a stone-age gone by...Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127341316565112982005-09-21T17:18:00.000-05:002005-09-21T17:21:56.566-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20796.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20796.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />At the corner of Flintstone Lane and Yankee Road, on the outskirts of what is now Camp Slayer, lie the ruins of what probably was a cute little retreat for the chosen few...Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127341006532588862005-09-21T17:12:00.000-05:002005-09-21T17:16:46.543-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/1600/Trip%20over%20713.jpg"><img style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/567/1597/320/Trip%20over%20713.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Okay, last day in Iraq - time to exceed all possible limits on Plausible Metaphors for the Iraqi situation. Yes, a visit to "Flintstone Village," the beyond-odd playground resort built by Saddam for Uday, Qusay, and children of them and other elites back in the heyday.Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127063143719338352005-09-18T12:05:00.000-05:002005-09-18T12:12:32.076-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%20682.jpg"><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: #660066 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #660066 1px solid; MARGIN: 2px; BORDER-LEFT: #660066 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #660066 1px solid" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%20682.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />From "Kubla Khan," by Coleridge:<br /><br />In Xanadu did Kubla Khan<br />A stately pleasure-dome decree :<br />Where Alph, the sacred river, ran<br />Through caverns measureless to man<br />Down to a sunless sea.<br /><br />So twice five miles of fertile ground<br />With walls and towers were girdled round :<br />And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,<br />Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;<br />And here were forests ancient as the hills,<br />Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.<br />But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted<br />Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !<br />A savage place ! as holy and enchanted<br />As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted<br />By woman wailing for her demon-lover !<br />And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,<br />As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,<br />A mighty fountain momently was forced :<br />Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst<br />Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,<br />Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :<br />And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever<br />It flung up momently the sacred river.<br />Five miles meandering with a mazy motion<br />Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,<br />Then reached the caverns measureless to man,<br />And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :<br />And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far<br />Ancestral voices prophesying war !<br /> ...<br /> <a name="30"></a>Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127063361393647352005-09-18T12:04:00.000-05:002005-09-18T12:14:55.203-05:00<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%206911.jpg"><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: #660066 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #660066 1px solid; MARGIN: 2px; BORDER-LEFT: #660066 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #660066 1px solid" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%206911.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Saigon? Baghdad?Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127062987025779952005-09-18T12:03:00.000-05:002005-09-18T12:03:07.026-05:00<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%20696.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #660066; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%20696.jpg'></a><br />NightfallLewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127062956118862152005-09-18T12:02:00.000-05:002005-09-18T12:02:36.120-05:00<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%20700.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #660066; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%20700.jpg'></a><br />Letters from children line the walls of many buildings, offices, trailers and tents. Last line of the one on the right reads, "Thank you for keeping the bad people away from us."Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127062866221510022005-09-18T12:01:00.000-05:002005-09-18T12:01:06.226-05:00<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%20698.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #660066; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%20698.jpg'></a><br />Fun on the base!Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127062822013613142005-09-18T12:00:00.000-05:002005-09-18T12:00:22.013-05:00<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%20686.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #660066; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%20686.jpg'></a><br />Getting that tan! Armband holds various ID cards, which are checked incessantlyLewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127062728223741462005-09-18T11:58:00.000-05:002005-09-18T11:58:48.226-05:00<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%20685.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #660066; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%20685.jpg'></a><br />One of many walls in Iraq with a few pot-shot holesLewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127062636971864962005-09-18T11:57:00.000-05:002005-09-18T11:57:16.976-05:00<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%20665.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #660066; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%20665.jpg'></a><br />Fine print reads, "Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again."Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127062601718627372005-09-18T11:56:00.001-05:002005-09-18T11:56:41.720-05:00<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%20662.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #660066; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%20662.jpg'></a><br />The British have multiple units here, co-located on our bases...Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1127062575476888332005-09-18T11:56:00.000-05:002005-09-18T11:56:15.523-05:00<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%20677.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #660066; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%20677.jpg'></a><br />Some "differently-abled" Soviet-made tanks, now half-buried in a sand berm inside Camp SlayerLewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16736156.post-1126988802658916042005-09-17T15:26:00.000-05:002005-09-17T15:26:42.663-05:00<a href='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/1024/Trip%20over%206012.jpg'><img border='0' style='border:1px solid #660066; margin:2px' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/5/7920/200/Trip%20over%206012.jpg'></a><br />Special post for Tom McEnery - inside the DFAC (dining facility) on Camp Liberty, Baghdad - the San Jose Sharks banner! I did the chomp...Lewis Shepherdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00645996141914253430noreply@blogger.com1