Hillah, Iraq.

Slow day today. No missions planned, so I pretty much slacked all day. I will offer the following comments:

1. American toilet technology totally rocks. We have totally lame Euro style toilets here. These toilets are concerned with saving water, and not at all concerned about the serious business of flushing. Additionally, we have lamer Euro toilet paper which has maybe five uses on a roll before it is gone. I already miss Charmin.

2. I have come to love washing my hands. Everything here is dusty and dirty, and I have come to love clean hands.

3. I learned that I am willing to pee in a bottle in the middle of the night. The bathroom trailer is not a far walk away, but the grounds are patrolled by Mongolian riflemen in the night. The Mongols are reputed to shoot at anything, so I would rather pee in an empty bottle than get shot trying to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

A word on flashlights: American flashlights rock. When pretty much everything outside happens by flashlights, you can form an opinion pretty quickly. I brought an entry level Mag Light for every day stuff. Of course, I have the high output SureFire (thanks, Pat!) on my gear, as well as some clip high output LED lights for CAS work at night. But for around camp, just a two cell Mag Light. And it whips ass on anything that the non-Americans have. Their cutting edge gear is the equivalent of the three pack of crappy Target flashlights powered by Ray-O-Vacs from the 70s. They suck. My Mag Light is brighter than most of the city lights. Oo-rah Mag Light!

Since I am in a commando unit, working for commandos, I am, in fact, going’commando’.