Back In Baghdad

I only had two days notice to get back here. I wasn't expecting to leave Basra until Saturday, and I had hoped to be here long enough to correct a couple of problems that I will now have to leave for my replacement to solve. The flight was short and, unlike last time, my bags and I arrived at the same time. It was a long day though. It was getting close to midnight when I finally crawled into bed.

Fortunately, Fridays start a couple of hours later than usual, so I slept in a bit. My new job, at least for the next month, will be trying to figure out how to properly assess our progress in Iraq. We need to do better than we are now, but we aren't sure what we can do different or better. You have to be able to measure something if you want to change it.

One small bit of luck that came my way was a package from home that had been lost in the mail for a month or so finally turned up. I didn't have any room in my bags for it, so I ran it down to the post office and forwarded it to myself in Baghdad. Hopefully it won't take another month to reach me.