Pete King's Thoughts & Whereabouts: 8/12 - 8/16

Monday morning - August 17th
Massapequa Park, N.Y.
Sorry for not being in contact the past few days. Here is an update:

Wednesday evening - August 12th
- Leave New York for Amman, Jordan en route to Iraq for status report on our troop drawdown.

Thursday afternoon - August 13th
- Land  in Amman and check in to hotel.
- Go to dinner with American embassy officials. Discuss Middle East generally and Jordan and Iraq specifically. No doubt that King Abdullah is our closest ally among Arab leaders. Everyone in region is watching our drawdown in Iraq to see if we can retain much of the gains we have made there.

Friday morning - August 14th
- Amman - 9:00 a.m. - fly to American base in Mosul, Iraq.
- Mosul - 11:45 a.m. - arrive at Mosul which is in northern Iraq and is the last Al Qaeda stronghold in Iraq. The American base is located in a very remote area - very hot, dry and sandy. Morale among our people is excellent as they root out remaining terrorists. Main concern is that now that Iraq is sovereign, its court system - in some instances - could start to release captured Al Qaeda terrorists because of threats, intimidation, etc. Our people realize these are the growing pains of a new democracy and we will work closely with the Iraqi leaders.
- Baghdad - 5:30 p.m. - arrive from Mosul, land at Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). What a difference from previous visits ('03, '04 and '07) when we were given body armor and helmet and had to run to fortified area to wait for helicopter gun ships to take us to the Green Zone embassy compound. Today everything was calm as we slowly walked to waiting SUV which drive along "Route Irish" which had been the most bombed highway in the world until it was cleared out by New York's Fighting 69th several years ago. Security personnel must still be on their guard and there is still a military presence but is light years ahead of the pre-surge days.
- Attend several briefings with key embassy officials. Consensus is that despite the risks inherent in the drawdown, Iraq will hold together if we continue to work closely with them until we officially leave in 2011. Key indicator will be national elections in January 2010.
- As a reminder that Baghdad is not entirely safe, the compound I slept in that night was virtually surrounded by concrete and root heavily fortified. On the wall next to my bed was an instruction list for what to do in event of rocket attack.

Saturday morning - August 15th
Baghdad, Iraq
- More briefings with American officials. Discuss the logistical problems of drawdown. Meet as many people as I can and thank them for their service

Saturday afternoon
Amman, Jordan - 4:30 p.m.
- Arrive back from Baghdad. Go immediately to our embassy for more briefings. That evening go to dinner with embassy officials at Tannoureen Restaurant in downtown Amman. Known for having great Lebanese food. I'm certainly no gourmet but it tasted good to me.

Sunday morning - August 16th
Land at JFK Airport.