Wasit

It's taken about a week after returning to Iraq before I've had a chance to return to posting, in part because access to the internet at my new location is difficult. I'm writing from a computer terminal in the MWR (morale welfare and recreation) facility at FOB Delta in Wasit Province. The computer commons is a popular place, especially with the many Ugandans here working for Triple Canopy, the company that provides security for the base, and so I'm rubbing elbows with them now as I write this. FOB Delta is located near the town of Al Kut (known to soldiers as "Al-Kutraz"), a place where the Tigris is split into two rivers. The base is a sprawling place that used to be one of Saddam's former airbases, now home to Coalition Forces. With the exception of Camp Victory near Baghdad, I don't think I've seen so many of the coalition partners represented here. Until recently, the base had a very large contingent from Georgia, although now there are only a few remaining because most have been called back to fight their own war. The Georgians have quite an unsavory reputation here, known for thievery, drunkeness, and all manner of disorderly and unbecoming conduct for a professional military. Next in number are probably the Salvadorans. They have their own compound and even have their own PRT. There is a Cuscatlan Blvd on the base. There are also contingents from Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, and Poland, Romania, and recently a contingent of Mongolian soldiers have arrived.
Our team has hit the ground running, thanks in part to Patrick Moore, a USDA employee who works for the local PRT. His team includes two BBAs, "Jimmy" and Kamil, who have been invaluable to getting our team oriented. We have visited some innovative farmers, including an interesting poultry hatchery, and have made our courtesy calls on the Provincial Governor, the Provincial DG for Agriculture, and the Provincial Council. Yesterday we spent most of the day in the air, taking a two-part helicopter tour of the entire province. We saw most of the main agricultural production areas. The irrigation system is very impressive but in many places is in obvious disrepair. There are vast tracts of land that were once supplied with irrigation water that have reverted to desert. There are also large tracts of land with the telltale white crust of land salinization, another serious problem. We also flew up to an area very near the border with Iran, seeing the port-of-entry with lots of trucks coming into Iraq from Iran. To get there we flew over a part of the province that was nothing but miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles, in the words of one of my teamates. It's amazing how much of the agriculture here is confined to a fairly narrow band next to the rivers, but it's also amazing the degree to which an attempt has been made to push the water back from the rivers as far as possible to support agriculture. I also saw some fish ponds yesterday, notably a large facility near the town of Al Sowhera that I hope to visit sometime this month. Near that fish farm we saw a large complex of bombed out buildings that used to be a training academy for Saddam's security services. Even in a bombed out condition, it's an impressive facility, with an Olympic swimming pool, running track, and many other stout multi-story buildings, now destroyed.
I was really drained after the helicopter tour. The heat has been really intense: the other day it was 122 and it's been routinely above 115 every day. I thought when I returned that I would be used to the heat and I thought at first that the heat was not quite as intense and the body armor not quite as heavy, but that was an obvious misperception.
OK....have to go now...they only give us a half-hour on the computer.