Wadi Stones

I have two stones that I found on separate occasions in a wadi in Iraq in 2004. That was the year that killing and mayhem in Iraq markedly increased with roadside IEDs and VBIEDs. It was a horrible but unremarkable escalation of violence against occupiers, tribes and sects. On one, a large three-sided stone, I wrote, "Simplify" On the other, smaller stone, more akin to a stone you'd use to skip across a stream or lake surface, I wrote on one side, "Love Life." On the other side I wrote, "Dream." They have been on my toilet tank cover since I returned. They are the first objects I see every morning when i wake and the last things I see every night before bed. Ten years later, those words from a younger and wiser war-fighter me, written on wadi rocks with a black Sharpie, continue to inform my life. And for what it's worth, those wadie stones inform the lives of my employees; they just don't know it.

The Shit that is Iraq

my professional journey in iraq via tweets of mine and others.

!!! Why we stuck with Maliki — and lost Iraq via @washingtonpost http://t.co/E5s9u06uEe
— YGBSM (@YGBSM) July 4, 2014

Iraqi colonel: 'Anarchy is what America has granted Iraq' http://t.co/he1RSYrBPy
— BI MIL/DEF (@BI_Defense) July 2, 2014

POTUS: "American forces will not be returning to combat." Except for those 300 troops (and any others) we're sending. It's combat for them.
— Paul (PJ) Rieckhoff (@PaulRieckhoff) June 19, 2014

hubris and chutzpah "Donald Rumsfeld on Iraq" via @Marketplace and @kairyssdal http://t.co/FgZXINomkG
— YGBSM (@YGBSM) June 15, 2014

In case anybody deletes this tweet: pic.twitter.com/wqWHEykgax
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) June 14, 2014

iraq: 3,528 US combat deaths. 4,489 total US deaths. 32,021 US wounded. https://t.co/B2XIleHd4o
— YGBSM (@YGBSM) June 13, 2014

My fellow Iraq War veterans are missing a crucial point about the sacrifices they made http://t.co/p1qVaejZv0
— BI MIL/DEF (@BI_Defense) June 13, 2014

.@reihan your analysis is flawed. as a boots on the ground trainer in '04, we all saw this coming. sects/tribes trumped nation. ALWAYS.
— YGBSM (@YGBSM) June 13, 2014

.@ron_fournier it's a bullshit piece. i trained NIA '04 KMTB. sunni/shia/kurd factionalism was rampant. everyone knew it couldn't be solved.
— YGBSM (@YGBSM) June 13, 2014

We used to write letters....