The good news.  We just finished a police station this last week.  Just in my small province recently, we've turned over a new police station, three electrical substations, new power grids for seven neighborhoods, and soon we will complete several hospitals. 

What I love about the projects is that they are all a team effort of both Americans and Iraqis.  Nothing gets accomplished here without the cooperation of both countries.  We are making a difference here, whether or not you hear about any of our projects on the news.  I've been unable to send pictures so far, but hope to do that in the near future.

The bad news. For his part in the reconstruction, Ian gave his life yesterday.  He was one of our bodyguards that I wrote you about.  The youngest of the team, he hadn't been married more than a year.

He was a gifted man.  A good mechanic and a good medic.  Good sense of humor and good team player.  His last words to me were to joke that the team was getting short-handed enough that they were going to have to recruit me to fill in.  "I'm ready," I had told him with a sly grin. 

And now the team is short one more. 

I'm still sorting through the emotions.  Rage.  Of course I want to go get them, we all do.  But there is no them.  A roadside bomb in the middle of the city detonated by whom?  Besides, I'm not here as a combatant anymore. 

I'm here to build this time.  And Ian wasn't here as a combatant either.  He was just here to protect. 

Sympathy.  He told me his wife had just left her family in the States to move to Ireland with his family.  I can't imagine what she is going through today.  I want to write her, write his parents. But I know how insignificant I am, and I know there is nothing I can say to help.

 

So I ignore the heat, go for a run to clear my mind, and then I get back to work.  We've got a new water network for a water treatment plant that just started construction.  Another gift to the Iraqi people.  This time it's also a gift to Ian.