From today’s e-mail (emphasis mine):

This is from a guy who used to work here as an attorney but left for
his second tour of duty in Iraq (he came back to work after his first).
Thought you might find this interesting — a pretty good account of
what’s going on over there from a reliable source. John is a great guy.
Keep in mind that he has gone over there twice now on a voluntary basis.
The only reason he came back the first time was that he was injured when
a rocket hit his humvee.

—–Original Message—–
From: John Teer [mailto:johnteer@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 1:52 PM
To: john teer
Subject:

Salam Alaikum from Baghdad. For my second trip to Iraq, I lead an Army
Reserve civil affairs team attached to a brigade combat team of the 1st
Cavalry Division in central Baghdad, covering some of the same territory
that I patrolled during my first tour. With the exception of a very
tiny minority trying to kill us, the people are really friendly, wave to
us while we’re on patrol and are almost always happy to have a
conversation with us. The kids are the exact same as last time - always
eager to shake hands and try out a few phrases of English with the
soldiers.

On a typical day, I attend a patrol and intelligence brief before 6 am,
go on one or two patrols or missions, which are generally about four to
six hours each, attend a couple of meetings with either Iraqis or
Americans and write a few reports. If lucky, I can usually hit the rack
around midnight. On Fridays, we rest and prep for the other six days
(and I’ll maybe attend few meetings). We like Fridays.

The military has developed a bizarre fetish for Powerpoint slide
presentations. Find a bomb, meet with a tribal sheik, build a school,
capture a bad guy or save the world? All the same - you have to paste a
few photos into Powerpoint, add captions and email your digital
concoction to higher headquarters. The chow is great. Last time the
Army gave us month after month of nothing but MREs (so we’d sneak off
and eat at local Iraqi restaurants). This time there’s a huge dining
hall in our Forward Operating Base (hooray for KBR!), which was one of
Saddam’s many palaces. Our FOB borders the Green Zone, where I’ve seen
soldiers from around the world, including Canada, El Salvador, Fiji,
Britain, Georgia, Ukraine, Uganda, Italy (actually, their paramilitary
police), Denmark and Finland. The United States is building its largest
embassy in the world next door to where I lived last time I was here. I
think it is scheduled to open this winter.

While it’s regularly been around 110 to 120 degrees this summer, within
another month the temperature here will be about the same as North
Carolina’s until next summer. With the days now growing cooler, it’s
much easier to walk around with the typical 75 pounds of body armor,
weapons and ammo. Our vehicles are up-armored Humvees with huge gun
turrets on top. Each door weighs more than 700 pounds. Last time, I
didn’t even have doors on my Humvee. And we have more and better toys,
from improved night vision to new, non-lethal “Nerf” rounds that are
fired from M203 grenade launchers. One of our gunners got to nail an
un-compliant Iraqi with a Nerf round just the other day. That’s good
stuff.

Of the civil affairs tactical teams in Baghdad, my team’s work is some
of the most complex because we also oversee substantially all of the
reconstruction projects in central Baghdad that are over $200,000.
Typical projects include coordinating and contracting for the
installation of huge generator stations in neighborhoods, rebuilding the
war-shattered Haifa Street area (a real miracle - from raging war zone
to shining example in less than a year), running new water mains and
rebuilding schools. With about $40 million in projects underway right
now, many of our patrols necessarily entail driving and walking between
various construction sites around Baghdad. I also meet with the
construction executives on a regular basis to review the progress of
their projects and try to work through any issues.

Iraq faces huge obstacles, and no one can claim that it’s safe, yet. In
the last few days we’ve had four car bombs blow up on our patrol routes
(fortunately, in each case, when we were a safe distance away).
Unfortunately, Iraq seems to have been stagnant and decaying for the
last three years. But in the last few months, there have been real and
visible signs that Iraq is moving forward again. Projects are being
completed before they get blown up or stolen in the dark of night. New
solar-powered street lights make it safe to go out after sunset and
create bright bubbles of thriving coffee shops and teenager-packed
internet cafes. The city of Baghdad is beginning to tackle new
projects, such as water and sewer lines, totally independent of the
coalition forces.

Iraq is far from being in a civil war. Most of Baghdad’s residents -
the vast, vast majority - are good people. They don’t care what
religion their neighbor is. They just want to live in relative peace
and safety. Tiny groups of terrorists kill indiscriminately, hoping to
spur reprisals, divide opinion and drain resolve. The good news is that
we’re crushing those evil bastards and seem to have them on the run for
the first time. It will take time. I hope against hope that before the
end of my tour, I’ll be able to take off my body armor, helmet and
weapons and join some kids playing a neighborhood game of soccer, if
only for five minutes. At that point, I’d know their future is secure.

Which brings me to a final thought. If you are looking to make a
non-deductible donation, send me a soccer ball to pass along to a kid.
Or a box of crayons or magic markers. And someone just told me that
Beanie Babies are a hit with the toddlers and girls. Many of these kids
have never had a single toy of their own.

CPT JOHN TEER
CAT3/B/422 CAB
FOB PROSPERITY
APO AE 09348

Ma’is salam.

Finally, something we can all do to show our support of our troops. Please join me in what we’ll tentatively call “OPERATION SOCCER BALL” and drown John with soccer balls. Crayons, magic markers and Beanie Babies are accepted, too.

I want John and the thousands like John to come home, too, but like he said, not until they know that they’ve secured the futures of those children. Now go find those soccer balls!

Update: We’ll have to tentatively call it Operation Soccer Ball, part deux.