This blog records my experiences as a Provincial Reconstruction Team Leader in Al Al Asad, Al Anbar Province, Iraq 2007-8. My comments may be delayed several days. I invite your questions & comments. If you are reading for the first time, please refer to the first entry - John Matel Goes to Iraq - for background
Welcome Back to the Fight The Next Forest Carbon Credits Quiters can be Winners Life is Good The Big Idea Hypocrisy is the Tribute Vice Pays to Virtue Perceptions of Iraq Courageous Journalists Needed A Perfect Al Asad Day M*O*A*D*S COPS Water, Water Everywhere but Not a Pipe to Link Soccer Hazardous Work Sometimes Mad Dogs & Englishmen We're Gonna do What They Said Can't Be Done America Supports Us Success in Iraq: Thinking about our Team Change: Real & Imaginary The Study of History Various Subjects Into the Desert Department of Silly Hats The Oil Curse and the Patronage Trap Dennis Can't Find a Date Step-by-Step We Achieve Our Goals Bodily Functions Consent of the Governed Tour de Iraq Medieval Castles, Crusaders & Returning to Iraq The Cities of Civilization Are NOT Forever Jordan Travel Tips & Observations Petra - Chrissy's Comments Petra Up From the Jordan Valley & Meeting Friendly Natives Jesus, Moses and Mosaics Writing Things Down Everything is Looking Up Sic Transit Gloria Mundi You Get Used to It A Time to Gather Stones Together Vibrant Prosperity Returns to Iraq Various Things Our Work in Iraq: Going Forward A Liberal Blogger Sorry Groucho Joe Cool Epitaph Walking Through Hit Cigar Circle & Tandoori Tuesday Buried in Dust, with no Coca-Cola, Losing Hair You Just Wait in Q8 Protecting People not Places Is This Heaven? Hot Lanes & Direct Democracy The U.S. Marine Museum at Quantico Dreaming of Iraq Down to the Woods Tree Farming Arthur Treacher’s, A&W and Other Endangered Gastronomical Delights Two Cans of Coke Zero & a Salami Sandwich Shenandoah and Appomattox Vienna Virginia ... Again with the Running Running After the Meaning of Life Green, Green Grass of Home Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground No War for Oil Bureaucrats Who Can't Spend Money Measuring Success in Iraq Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, How Was the Play? The Fobbit No Man is a Prophet in His Own Village Hanging Around Like a Fart in an MRAP Water in the Desert Service & the Ivy League Marines Tree Farming & the Virginia Countryside Home on the Range Bright Light Curses the Darkness Friends Leave Personalities Seeing the Old Things Nothing Too Much Island Hopping The Theatre The Workers - United - Will Close All Museums Cyclops' Wall Kids Arrive in Athens Things Are Getting Better Travels in Kuwait & Greece A Noah's Flood Class Storm Mayor Daley Rule Losing my Best Leadership & Management Aida on Rails One Farmer to Another Catching Passport Fraud Polygamy Refugees Dogs of War 2: Man's Best Friend Rolling Down Perdition Highway Let Slip the Dogs of War Sanded Down by Red Sky. Wind Iraqis in Charge Iraq Perceptions Out of Date Lizards, Serpents, Sand & Scorpions Leaving the Asad Archipelago A Variety of Things A Million Here ... A Million There Enough Experience for Several Lifetimes Riverworld Riveron Redux Ghosts of Vietnam Charlie Wilson's War With Malice Toward None & Charity Toward All Trouble, Trials, Tribulations, & Travail of Travel Like Deja Vu All Over Again Maybe Best to Avoid Promotion Wikinomics An UnIraq Day The Meaning of Our Victory in Iraq Hunchback of Haditha Journalists in Iraq Just Like the Spiderman Ride at Islands of Adventure Walking Through the (former) Valley of the Shadow of Death Mujahideen Left Behind Swords Cold The Citadel, Mamluks & Mohammed Ali State Department Blog And Know the Place for the First Time Heliopolis Little Boy Gone Note on Chronology Far From Graceland Great Pyramids First Day in Cairo A Gift of Time Q8 A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations Note on Pictures Unexpected Things Lawrence of Arabia Keep Frozen Following up on Anah Courthouse Free Trade Zones in the Middle of Nowhere Getting Traffic Moving Shrinking the Vastness Thinking About Historical Parallels Christmas Moon, Aliens, Singing & Saving Kittens Now is the Winter of Our Discontent … Fatigue Makes Cowards of Us All Rule of Law; Purpose of Planning, Role of Chance Plexiglas, Tannenbaum, Tatooine, Can, NPR &c. Flamethrowers & Hesco Barriers Hanging in the Sky Cold and Windy Sweet Serendipity Strikes Again Heroes in Al Anbar Thank You Herb Shriner The Hajj Blogging Comments An Ordinary Job in an Extraordinary Place Great, Glorious and Grandiose Aspirations A Place for Fred Sanford (& Son) Not All Iraq All The Time The Secret Oasis Two Days in Fallujah Goat Grab Surging in Iraq Random Thoughts The Old Man and His Place Train Depot on the Edge of Forever With the U.S. Navy in Iraq Return to Normalcy A Talking Frog Celebratory Fire…Maybe the Odd Angry Shot I Can't Complain The Rest of the Iraq Story Veterans Day Happy Birthday USMC Civics 101 My New Friends Forestry When the Marines Go Home It's DaMayor Outstanding in His Field Salaam To My Overwrought Colleagues Dust FSNs are Coming! The Sheik’s Opinion on Iraq’s Future Complacency Kills A Man Can Dream Flying the Osprey So …WaddaIdo? Another Beautiful Day in Baghdad Wasting Away Again in Baghdad We Few, We Happy Few Big John the Translator Embrace the Suck Get a Life Drinking Tea with the Sheik in Hit An Uneventful, but Full Day in Al Asad Iftar in Haditha River City Charlie Helicopter Rides are More Fun in the Daylight Forward Operating Base in Haditha My First Chopper Ride Show Time 100 Years in Four Days Landing in Beautiful Baghdad Dulles & Frankfurt: Good Beer Makes it Okay Tying Up Lose Ends A Car Sick & Melancholy Resident of the Twilight Zone Exploring My No Skill Zone Iraq From the Bottom Up John Matel Goes to Iraq
