Friday, February 22, 2008

Dust Storms

We have massive dust storms over the past few days. serious stuff - it stopped the aircraft from flying. think about that one a bit - u.s. military aircraft stopped due to weather. this is a big deal - some times we are talking about helo. medevacs stopped for weather - that is not a good thing.

it lasted about 3 days, and reminded me of the harmattan in west africa. a good reminder of our limitations in the face of nature.

work rolls on, embassy housing remains up in the air, cease-fire with some groups seems to be continuing, fractures inside the bad guys continue.

speaking of bad guys, follow the link to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle reminding the New York Times that good journalism requires checking your facts before sullying the reputation of a presidential candidate. to think i would ever say anything postive about something in the SFC - the mind boggles. I'm also a major fan of Senator McCain, having had breakfast with him over three days during his visit in august, 2002 to Romania.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/22/EDJUV6KCB.DTL

2 comments:

Heather said...

I've recently started reading your blog. I'm a FSO currently serving in Bucharest and scheduled to arrive in Baghdad this summer. There seem to be a lot of former Bucharest officers who end up serving in Baghdad. Maybe it's a "B" thing.

Ed in Brigantine said...

Heather, okay, now I've figured it out. The Ro-Iraq connection goes back many years. Lots of sinister stuff during the Ceaucescu-Saddam times. I was in Bucharest 2000-2003 - we had an OSCE parliamentary assembly, an OSCE Ministerial, a POTUS visit, two SecStates, about 6 other Cabinet secretary visits, etc. so, i can imagine what you are going through. for the strain, i recommend the smooth, velvety chocolates from the Casa Capsa confectioner. numai bine, egs