Mobbed
Yeah! We made it! The Iraq War is officially 6 years old! You're getting so old, yes you are! Aww.... =D
So I had an amazingly craptacular day. Any day that begins by waking up at 5am after next-to-no sleep is off to a rough start. I could have spent the day being handed bags of money, and I'd still feel grumpy at this point.
So 120 prisoners were released from custody today. It was this huge media circus with every Iraqi news reporter, every one of these prisoners' family members, and tons of Iraqi police, Iraqi army, US army, in attendance at some huge mosque. To the Iraqis here in Baghdad, this massive release of prisoners is considered a momentous step in a positive direction. Sure these shit bags committed terrorist acts in the past, but they're all reformed now and ready to contribute to "a return to normalcy" of whatever the fucking tag line of the week is.
Every prisoner gets handed a bag of candy by some high ranking Iraqi dude to signify the prisoner's redemption. I spent the first hour+ of this day guarding this pile of candy at the mosque. Here I am, surrounded by these ate-up Iraqi army and police guys, and I'm pacing back and forth, M4 rifle in hand, ready to cap a mofo, There was going to be a double tap to the chest and one to the head at anybody who so much as glanced at the pile of candy in a way that met my disapproval. I did a really good job though. I guarded the shit out of that fucking candy.
And then I pretty much stood in the parking lot with the two other PSYOP guys for six hours until this ceremony was concluded. We were there really early to stand around for no reason while it was set up, and then we waited for the prisoners to complete their final release paperwork on site, families got reunited, and then there were a bunch of speeches that meant dick to me, because I don't speak Arabic.
But the final part of this endeavor was our time to shine. There was absolutely no reason for us PSYOP guys to be there. The brigade that we're attached to decided to tasked us with giving the children at this ceremony little backpacks, because PSYOP are the product guys. They order a lot of the novelty items, so let's make them pass out shit at this stupid ceremony that has nothing to do with them. The prisoner release ceremony concluded, and everyone began exitting. All of a sudden, we three PSYOPers are surrounded by a huge mob of people who are all leaving. We were told to only give these "I love Iraq" bookbags to the children at this ceremony. We had three huge black garbage bags of these bookbags at our feet, and we knew as soon as we opened them, the mob was going to gang rape us and take our shit. So we're just standing there dreading the inevitable until my NCOIC said something equivalent to, "Fuck it."
I opened up my bag, took out a little Iraqi bookbag and handed it to an adorable little girl who was standing nearby. Then all HELL broke loose. Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of people began mobbing around us, pushing their way forward, all warbling "Baby! Baby! Baby!" Apparently at some point in recent history, the Iraqi people learned that screaming "Baby!" when child related shit was being handed out was the way to go. And then the women of the mob started to reach into the bags and start grabbing all the shit. We did all we could, but there were just too many, and we were so few. Old women were shoving us around, reaching into our hands and ripping bookbags from our grasps. It was all I could do to grab a few to hand to polite people in the back who weren't being Muhammad McGrabbys. My buddy R. even grabbed some bookbags, and he was going to look for little kids to give them to. He got jacked immediately. 150 bookbags gone in under a minute. Holy shit.
And then we got back to base and worked another four hours until the end of our normal work day. I really need a beer right now.