Iraq and the Politics of Oil by Gary Vogler

Author:Gary Vogler [Vogler, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780700625079
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Published: 2017-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

A Break between Tours

2004 to 2006

Gary, get your suitcase packed.

—Oil Minister Thamir Al Ghadhban

Anyone returning from Iraq after military or civilian tours experienced a period of decompression. I was no different. My first tour lasted seventeen months. I had spent more time in Iraq than any other American. I was physically and mentally exhausted. Civilians do not normally fire weapons, but we got fired at. Many times our responsibilities resulted in the loss of lives if we did not execute effectively. This is a heavy burden for anyone.

There must have been some type of exit interview by someone at the Pentagon. My only recollection of communications with the Pentagon upon my return home was my final leave and earnings pay stub that arrived in the mail. I recall looking at it and just thinking that was the end. My government service was finished.

Unfortunately, it was not that easy. Like many of my colleagues, I became an Iraqi news junkie. My days started with reading everything in the news that I could find on Iraq. There were not many Iraq books written yet, but I read everything that was on Amazon. It got to the point where Amazon would notify me whenever they started selling a new book on Iraq.

Gold’s Gym became home for two hours every day. My physical conditioning improved quickly while my psychological adaptation adjusted slowly.

It is amusing to look back at those days now. I saw the movie American Sniper in 2014 and found myself laughing when others in the theater were wondering what was so funny. One scene showed Chris Kyle gazing at the blank screen of a television set in his Texas living room. That seemed to be my favorite position in late 2004 while my brain relocated back to Iraq. It made no difference whether the television was turned on or tuned to golf; my mind was in Iraq, reliving my tour.

Various groups that were doing studies or were holding conferences on Iraq contacted me. Most were very gratifying. The one that left the biggest impression on me was a study conducted by the Dupuy Institute in Annandale, Virginia. This was a small group of PhDs who had received a contract from the US Army. They studied insurgencies over the last eighty years to understand the current insurgency faced in Iraq.

Norm Szydlowski, Hussain al Fatal, Gary Vogler, and Dathar al Khashab at oil ministry for appointment of new Oil Minister Thamir Ghadhban on June 3, 2004. Photo courtesy of author.

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