I had an opportunity to travel in to Basra proper this past week. I attended a meeting of a lot of Iraqi Security Force officials and American forces representatives.  It’s an important meeting because it’s lead by Iraqis and it’s for Iraqis. (Do I get points for incorporating a command message into my personal blog?)  It did seem like real issues were talked about.  I can’t tell you for sure because the meeting is conducted in arabic and they had 15 of those translator ear thingy you see them using at the UN.  I was somewhere around number 16 on the priority list.

Iraqi Police Brig. Gen. Sabah Mahmood Ali along with the commander of 17th Fires Brigade, Col. Steven L. Bullimore. and the commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Col. Butch Kievenaar listen to Maj. Gen. Muhammad Jawad Huwaidi during a recent Basra Security Council meeting. Cpt. Eric Elliot the 17th Fires Basra Operations Command liaison of Bremen, Ohio says, "The meeting shows that Iraqi's are in the lead and that they want things better for Basra."

Since I’m the NCOIC of our public affairs shop, I’m responsible for more than just video product.  My soldier had been out on missions three days in a row, and he needed time to write. We were told we would be supporting this mission for various reasons. It was not a video mission, it was a print mission. That means to accomplish the mission, I rolled out with Galloway’s Nikon D200. I have a little experience with the Nikon D1X from my TCU yearbook days in 2004. The camera hasn’t changed that much and I felt pretty comfortable with it.

All of my Basra time has been spent at the airport facility outside of the city. The Iraqi Basra Operations Command is right on the river in the city. It’s a converted hotel named the Shatt al-Arab. You can see other photos of it from when the British occupied the building. To say the building is falling apart and rat-infested would be too easy. I can see how it was a nice place 30 years ago, but I think that was the last time any sort of maintenance was performed. The hotel is right on the river and isn’t all that scenic. What i’m getting at is I don’t think the Shatt al-Arab is ready for tourists, not that anyone is implying that it’s ready for that.

You can also read some other stories about Basra that include the Shatt al-Arab Hotel.

• UK Ministry of Defence
• UK Guardian: Venice of the East
• Flickr.com

This post is tagged 17th Fires Brigade, 343rd MPAD, BaOC, Basra Operations Command, Basra or Basrah, command message