Iraq is Great Once You Get Used to the Mortars
Posted by Ilan Goldenberg
This tidbit brought to you via Patrick Barry: NSN's newest staff member.
Deputy Chief Patricia Butenis should really work on her pitch if she expects more State Department employees to pack their bags and head to Baghdad.
"There are all kinds of opportunities here," said Patricia Butenis, the deputy chief of the US mission.
"There are people who think we live under a constant barrage of mortar attacks, but it isn't that way all the time."
"I think some of it is based on not knowing what it is to be here. It's true, two days after I got here we had 36 EFP (explosively-formed penetrators) strikes," she said.
"That was serious, it's scary. But you adapt, you get used to it."
The observation that the State Dept and other civilian organs of the US Gov have not done what they might in Iraq and that we have relied too much on the US military alone is both myriad and said by many writing on and commenting on this blog.
There should have been a lot more Foggy Bottom bottom's in Iraq years ago. Not to worry. Blackwater has not lost a single diplomat in it's charge.
Posted by: Lane Brody | November 06, 2007 at 02:06 AM
See, move to the Green Zone, it's fun! I don't even call thm mortars anymore. To me, every day is just like the 4th of July. Up close! It's like being at the birth of America. Rockets red glare and all that! Please move here. Please?
Posted by: Mike M. | November 06, 2007 at 08:49 AM
I'm sure Ilan never got used to any mortars.
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On this particular mater the US hopes the election will bolster Iraq's fledgling democracy and pave the way to a smooth pull-out of American troops by the end of next year.
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