November 2008 Archives

So, it's done. On or about January 20th, Barack Obama will become the President of the United States. I am half tempted to lower myself to the level of those who have the bumper sticker that says, "He's not MY president." However, I was not raised to be that arrogant or selfish. I will respect the duly elected president. We survived Clinton, I'm sure that this great country will survive Mr. Obama as well. I do think it is unfortunate that we will not have the chance to see Mr McCain serve as president. I believe he would have been one of the great presidents.
At the end of the day, I believe that the McCain campaign was it's own worst enemy. Many of the video pieces that campaign ran were sophomoric and mean spirited. Much of the message coming out of the McCain campaign focused on belittling Mr. Obama and not nearly enough time providing proof that Mr. McCain was the better candidate. The McCain campaign spent far too much time defining itself in the context of Mr. Obama. What it desperately needed was to define Mr. McCain in the context of his many years in government. That's a pity.
The McCain campaign failed to exploit new media (web 2.0, social networking, twitter, Digg, Facebook, etc.) effectively. I believe this is actually a fundamental problem that the Republican party as a whole needs to address and quickly. In the months after the primaries when it had been established that Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama were the real contenders, most social networking sites showed a strong Obama presence while McCain supporters were clearly a minority and poorly organized. There are a number of articles in the main stream press that talk about the Obama campaign's capitalization of new media. Having numerous people on the floor with video cams and then posting video to YouTube within minutes. The McCain campaign had nothing close.
Hopefully, Republicans will learn for this experience and make a greater effort to enlist the younger, more tech savvy members of the party to make better use of this powerful communication venue in the future. To be sure, Democrats have a significant advantage. Social networking is one of the primary tools of activists. New media in the form of documentary style content production using handheld pro-sumer video cameras, iMovie and Final Cut to produce propaganda which is then released on YouTube and similar sites is a core competency of any activist worth his salt. Republicans are definitely playing a serious catch up game.
The real pity of it is that John McCain lends himself so well to these forms of communication. It only required the campaign to actually enlist the services of technically savvy individuals. Had the campaign managed to take control of the message rather than depending on MSM to do it for them and allowing the Obama campaign to capitalize on the less flattering moments, I think he would have done quite well. I believe it was an opportunity lost.
Should be an interesting two years.

Almost two weeks here at FOB Hunter. As we were preparing to come here we heard a lot of horror stories about the conditions here.
No air conditioning.
There's air conditioning but the electricity goes out for hours and some times days at a time.
There are no showers.
The bugs will eat you alive.
You have to do you laundry in a bucket.
Some of this was true, most of it not. When we got here there was air conditioning. Electricity has never gone out since we've been here. There are bugs but they aren't as bad as I had expected. I don't get bit at all. A couple of the other team members do. Small, biting flies that they call sand flies. It is dirty and dusty.
The living spaces are crowded. We have ten men in a space that is approximately 30' X 20'. There are six bunk beds in the room so at some point we might be looking at twelve in the room. That would really suck given that there's hardly any room now. Not really enough room for ten guys and all their gear and team equipment. Hopefully, as the FOB develops we'll get a little more room. But, for now, living is pretty cramped.
There are showers. Some times warm water even comes out of them. It did take me a few days to discover them however. The shower tent is a couple hundred yards away and not readily obvious. Showers in the shower tent are small and the water is one temperature. You can't adjust it. It is warm, which is nice. Then there is a small structure outside our living area which also houses showers. These showers are fed from a tank that needs to be filled by the water truck. The hot water system has been problematic to the point that showers are either cold or scalding hot. It is getting better. The tank often runs out of water as well. The upshot is, one can get a shower here but it does require a certain amount of determination. Some guys stink.
Laundry service began today. I am proud to say that I did not wash any clothes in a bucket. Others on my team might wish I had done a load or two. At any rate, we can now turn in our dirty clothes and pick them up clean and smelling fresh 24 to 48 hours later. That's pretty cool. For quite a few of us, the opening of the laundry service is a pretty exciting thing. I'm pretty excited about it. I like clean clothes and I don't like bucket washing.
Hot food is served twice day. It's not great, they definitely wouldn't win any prizes for the cuisine but I've always come away full and the folks that work there put a lot of effort into making sure we have a lot of choices. Beats the hell out of MREs. There's a pretty decent gym that offers free weights and a couple of machines. I need to go there some time. The Morale, Welfare and Recreation tent has internet and telephones. I have finally figured out a way to post to my blog from those MWR Internet computers. Yeah!
At the present, that is pretty much the extent of the amenities offered at Club Hunter. There are promises of a PX, a barber, Internet in our room but they haven't show up yet. We get mail about once a week or so which, given the lack of a PX is pretty important. Care packages are the source of a lot of much needed necessities. All in all, life here on FOB Hunter isn't bad. Boredom is the biggest problem, especially given that it breeds complacency. And complacency kills soldiers. Fortunately, my team is out on missions most every day. There's work to keep us busy.
Aloha

And here we are. We have arrived at what will, presumably, be our home for the foreseeable future. At one time it was an airfield. We have occupied several of the hangers which have the added benefit of providing some protection from the occasional indirect fire attacks. Always nice to sleep in the bunkers. No running through the night in PJs, body armor, helmet and flip flops.

For the moment the weather is fairly pleasant. We're entering the rainy season. When it rains, the 'sand' turns something the consistency of wet cement and the adhesiveness of fresh molasses. Your boots gain about two pounds for every ten feet you walk. The mud cakes on them in thick layers that are very nearly impossible to remove. However, when it is not raining this area is really pretty nice. It is still a desert but there is a lot of vegetation. The other day I saw what appeared to be rice fields, big ones and a lot of them.

Many of the people in this region live in mud huts or woven reed structures. The mud huts look like, well, mud huts. Not terribly attractive. The woven reed structures are pretty cool looking. Not so much that I'll be building my next house out of them but I do intend to take a lot of pictures of them. The homes and yards look fairly typical of third world rural dwellers. Interesting that I often see a mud hut with a woven reed structure next to it and in the yard are a satellite dish and a fairly new car. The implication is that these people are happy living in their mud huts and thus willing to spend money on amenities like satellite TV and new cars rather than better housing.

So, are I am. 300 days left on this deployment. Should be interesting.