Today, one of our interpreters came back from leave, and I filled him in on the past few days. In particular, I asked him about an Iraqi dish, a white cheese that looked watery. I asked if it was goat cheese. He informed me that it was not cheese at all. Read more »
The past few days have been dominated by two rather significant events: my team moving to a new base and payday for the Sons of Iraq. Read more »
Soldiers sometimes take in dogs and cats here in Iraq as pets or unit mascots. We try to justify this practice, saying that they'll keep mice away or alert us of dangerous persons. But, to be honest, many Soldiers just have big hearts. Read more »
Today, my team attended a meeting of sheiks, who are prominent, influential men in local communities. This was the first time that all 41 sheiks, or even a sizeable majority, of the area southeast of Baghdad met at one time. Read more »
Imagine you are driving along Williamson Road just past Preston Park heading toward the Roanoke Civic Center. Imagine all the shops on the right and left without glass in their windows, their exteriors scarred by munitions damage.
In front of and around the shops lie trails of trash; open spaces are completely covered in debris. Piles of rubble from construction or ruins. Rusting frames of burned-out cars and trucks. Tires. The stinking detritus from a family's kitchen.
It may be hard to imagine in Southwest Virginia, but that's what you see in the areas surrounding Baghdad. The landscape is covered with litter. Read more »
Rich Connaroe graduated from Northside High School in 2000 and VMI in 2004. Now a Captain in the U.S. Army, Connaroe begins a one-year deployment to Iraq in August. During that time, he plans to make regular blog posts that he hopes will connect readers of the The Roanoke Times to U.S. soldiers who are deployed in Iraq.
