I was in Iraq for a year and lived in an old cigarette factory called Camp Marlboro in an area of Baghdad called Sadir City. After hearing how progress is being made each day and then watching on the news about insurgents and militants are out of control in Sadir City makes me think how far we brought that city up and running and then to look on the news and see how much of what we did went to Hell.

In the beginning we would get ambushed a few times in Sadir City. Over a period of time we established several police stations and worked closely with the Iraqi Police to get them out and about to enforce the law. It was a lot safer when we left than it was when we first got there. It is worse now than before we even stepped foot in Baghdad.  About the insurgents: Most of these insurgents we always hear about are nothing more than outraged Iraqis that are up in arms about our occupation. I am all for getting the Iraqis back on track but to sit here and see everything we did go to pot does not tell me that we are making progress.

I remember times we had to post female MP's at the Oil Ministry so they could search the female employees. The Oil Ministry was heavily guarded like a fortress with tanks out front and guard towers. I met one guy that worked for Halliburton who said he was making about $150,000 a year just to make sure some of the oil revenue was going to US oil companies. He further went on to say that he was in a board meeting in Houston, Texas where he was a facilitator of a meeting about sending Halliburton to Iraq. He said he heard Cheney's name mentioned many times in reference to those who helped Halliburton get on track with being established in Iraq. He said during the meeting that Cheney was guaranteed a cut of the profits of Halliburton since he ensured and paved the way for the no bid contract in Iraq. There were contractors doing security work alongside US military and doing the exact same thing except the military would switch out duties and go on patrol in Baghdad. The other difference was the military was getting paid an average of $2,000 to $4,000 a month which would equal about $24,000 to $48,000 a year depending on the rank. The contractors doing the same job were making $50,000 to $90,000 a year plus other expenses. Where was the fairness in this. We are definitely not making progress because big business does not care about progress it cares about money.