From an Army JAG Officer

Received this via e-mail from a trusted source. I have omitted names and the picture to protect identities. You will probably find the final paragraphs interesting as they apply to current headlines.
From: (govt e-mail addy)

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Dear Colleagues:

Attached is a description of what is going on outside of Baghdad by one of my junior oficers, (Rank and name). The next time anybody here is having a bad day, consider practicing law and living under the circumstances that XXXX is experiencing. Even if you don't support the war, support the troops.

-----Original Message-----

Subject: Hello

Here's an update on how things are with me at Camp Victory, Baghdad.Fortunately, our daily & nightly mortar/rocket attacks have quieted some so that we are not in body armor and Kevlar helmet all the time now. We did get hit a few times this morning with some mortars while sporadic gunfire could be heard constantly last night (both incoming and outgoing). All in all though, things could be a lot worse and I for one feel very fortunate that I am not living out of a fighting position like some of the Marines in Fallujah. Unfortunately, the attacks on the convoys seem to have made food and other items scarce around here. We have not had any fresh vegetables for over a week and have resorted to eating the same 2 or 3 foods over and over again. Because we are tired of eating the same food, I have decided with the other guys I work with to start eating just eat one meal a day (lunch). We may even start eating our MREs (Meals Ready to Eat - prepackaged food) just to get a variety. With the heat starting to rise, you really do not feel like eating that much anyway. The PX here seems to be out of almost everything (it usually carries a small assortment of sodas, chips, hygiene items, etc.). However, it did get a small shipment of bottled Diet Pepsi yesterday. We (the other JAGs I work with) were thrilled to see the Diet Pepsi because we all like diet soft drinks and have not had any in some time due to shortages. We bought 2 cases for us and were very pleased with our purchase. What we thought was really funny was that most of the other soldiers were complaining that the only soft drink in stock was "Diet Pepsi." Strangely, there is plenty of non-alcoholic beer to drink (Becks, Bud & Lowenbrau-sp?) as alcohol is forbidden in country. The non-alcoholic beer is available at all of the meals. We joke that you can tell who the soldiers from the South are at breakfast because they are the ones drinking the beer with their cereal. All three of us are from the South and have all drank beer at one time or another with or as our breakfast, so we know what we are taking about.

It is nothing short of amazing to see the difficult mission being accomplished here by young men and women, the majority of who are probably not much older than 18 or 19. Between the everyday mortar/rocket attacks, heat, bugs and the absolute hatred felt by some Iraqis towards U.S. soldiers, most Americans could not begin to comprehend the risks that those soldiers take every single day. It really hit me the other night coming into a camp at about 2300 when I was stopped a check point not 100 feet from the wire separating the camp from no man's land. The soldier who stopped our vehicle looked like an everyday typical teenager, notwithstanding the M-4 rifle, body armor and Kevlar helmet. He calmly looked inside the vehicle, checked our identification and allowed us to pass. When my eyes became accustomed to the total darkness, I was able to see other soldiers in various tactical positions watching our vehicle guardedly. Although armed of course (we all are constantly), those soldiers stand their post night and day, in every kind of weather, and with absolutely no idea who or what will happen upon them next. Even with their night optical devices, it still takes a tremendous amount of courage to do what they do, especially in the darkness. Of course, there are other soldiers performing just as dangerous work such as guarding convoys, looking for weapons in villages, etc. One thing that makes my job so rewarding here is that I am often able to help those soldiers. The strange thing is that many of them were born when I was in high school.

I have posted a photo below of me kneeling next to an unexploded U.S. bomb from Desert Storm. The bomb is located on the steps of a palace on Camp Slayer, near us (Camp Victory) and was the home of the former Ba'ath Party Headquarters. Saddam painted the "Down Down USA" on the bomb. Ironically, across the road is an unfinished museum that he was building to celebrate the Iraqi's defeat of America in Desert Storm. It would have been interesting to visit the museum after it was finished to see just how Saddam would have described that defeat . . . . In the photo, I am wearing my body armor which is about 2" thick in the front and back were the armored plates are. It weighs a ton and is very uncomfortable to wear in the heat but has saved more than one soldier from a direct hit.

Many of you may have heard about the alleged abuse by six soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison. I represent one of the six soldiers, SPC xxxxxxxxxxxx.

Needless to say, there is much more to the "story" that what you read about and see in the media.

Take care,

(Signed name)

(Rank), JA, Trial Defense Counsel

U.S. Army Trial Defense Service

Camp Victory, Iraq

Baghdad Field Office