Another Day at the Lion

Saturday: Today I walked around the base. A lot. I got a ride up to the flight line, and visited my old squadron. There were only 4 people there I knew – it made me feel like an old has-been. After my visit, I walked back down to the main part of the base.

As I walked around, I wondered what it must have been like as an Iraqi pilot, say about 2 or 3 years ago. I wonder if there was so much trash all around, and the buildings in such disrepair. Or was it well kept, with grass on all the areas which are just sand now? There are sprinklers in some of the sandy areas, and I’ve heard that it was all grassy at one point. Just like in Yuma, you can grow anything in sand if you water and fertilize it enough.

During my walking tour I also saw lots of “wall art” – paintings and murals that I thought were interesting – as well as an old Soviet antiaircraft gun.

I read an article today about a recent poll indicating that military personnel had a more favorable view of President Bush than the general public. This is not surprising, given that 1) most military folks are on the conservative side – Republicans outnumber Democrats 2 to 1, 2) Fox News, the unofficial mouthpiece and war cheerleader of the RNC and the Bush Administration, is the network of choice in many military offices (including here), and 3) most people don’t pay attention to or honestly think about what’s going on, and their beliefs are shaped by what they hear from the hardliners around them and on TV (mostly conservative). Still, even given these advantages, Bush’s favorable rating was only about 70%.

The poll also indicated that service members have a rosier perception of the economy than the general public – easy to do when you have great job security with the “war on terror.” I know I’ve never really worried about the economy for personal reasons. If a poll were taken of military members who got out, the results might be different.

Monday: Today I had the opportunity for a driving tour of the “outer” parts of the base, away from the area where I’ve been able to walk around. I got to see the old dump, with MiG-25 and tracked vehicle carcasses, and the new dump, where they burn all those plastic bottles. Also on the agenda were some of the interesting hangers built into cliffsides. All and all it was a fascinating tour. The fellow giving the tour told me this base was built in the 1980’s, bombed during Desert Storm, and subjected to “deferred maintenance” in the 1990’s due to the less than stellar performance of the Iraqi Air Force in the 1991 war. In fact, this was not even an active base in last year’s war, so it was not targeted. The present dilapidation is mostly due to neglect, not war.

This is a huge base, with lots of facilities. I will be surprised if we ever totally pull out of here – I have read that the Bush administration’s goal is to have permanent bases in Iraq, and this is some prime real estate. Some “white man’s burden,” eh? In case you wondered, Al Asad means “the lion” in Arabic.