Some random photos

For today's post, a few random photos which don't fit an overall theme, but which I thought I should nonetheless share:

The palace compound, seen from the balcony.

The Al-Doura Refinery on fire off in the distance after an attack. This is an important source of revenue for the Iraqi people, yet some folks will target any infrastructure, from bridges to power lines, to water treatment plants, because in their twisted view of Islam, starving and penniless Iraqi people are better than prosperous Iraqi people.

That's an Apache helicopter patroling above.

Just a random street scene here on base.

During World War II, American servicemen started tagging abandoned building with paint in this unusual fashion, featuring a bald guy looking over a ledge,

adding the words "Kilroy Was Here."

This is probably a couple of years old and heavily faded, but it's good to see some old traditions are still kept up. This is painted on one of the bunkers that we're supposed to jump into whenever things start exploding. Not sure why they put windows on this one, though.

And below is the insurgent "Killroy was here." Not sure what it says, but it probably means "Yankees must die." Of course, back in the 1860s, my great-great grandfather serving in the Confederate Army was probably saying the same thing, so eventually these guys might come around like we did. Unless they're referring to Major League Baseball, in which case I heartily agree with the sentiment.

Below are some various Hummvees, including my favorite,

the Hummvee pickup truck (closest). I need one of these back home.

This is me standing next to the impact point for the rocket which perforated my trailer a while back. Most of the impact was absorbed by the retaining wall. Score: Concrete 1, rocket 0. For all those people who criticize Halliburton and KBR (the folks who put this here and saved my trailer from much greater destruction), I say these were tax dollars well-spent.




A closer view.


This is another impact point across the road from my place. (I don't give locations because then the bad guys might figure out whether or not they're falling short, overshooting, or just right). Not sure which attack caused this, but it was probably in November or so. That was the last attack we had here that I can recall, and I'd been by this area before and hadn't noticed this.