Inside The Wire

Afganinstan Now Obama's War

2009-12-04T16:05:00.002+03:00

In the wake of President Obama’s announced increase of 30,000 US troops in Afghanistan I want to share an article forwarded to me by a friend. Out of everything I’ve read and watched over the past two days this was the most insightful analysis of Obama’s decision. I was a bit apprehensive at first due to the writer’s glowing approval of Obama but his praise was tempered

A Strong Rough Cut

2009-11-26T11:28:00.005+03:00

It was my junior year of college, back in the Spring of ‘97 when I made a last ditch effort to save myself and traveled back to my elementary school, P.S. 44 on Staten Island to make a short documentary about the school’s Principal Albert F. Quinn. I had become very depressed that year after my daughter's mother left me for what I thought was a friend. She and I had lived

Rummy Cake

2009-11-16T11:50:00.003+03:00

A friend of mine back home posted a comment on Facebook mentioning that administration officials in Washington were cited two days ago in The New York Times projecting that it would cost US taxpayers at least $1 million per soldier to provide General McChrystal his requested 40,000 additional troops. The Facebook comment was about the ugliness of putting a price tag on the lives of American

No Rain No Rainbows

2009-11-13T16:16:00.001+03:00

This morning… I wake to my cell phone beeping. The battery was dieing. Half asleep now, the phone beeped again. This time it’s a text message from one of my coworkers, “No movements today.” That tells me there’s a security threat and we’re staying at home for the day. I fall back asleep. It’s Friday, the High Holy Day and my day off. Ninety minutes later I was woken up

One Small Cog

2009-11-12T09:58:00.004+03:00

The temperature dropped and the wind picked up this evening. Three days ago my coworkers and I arrived t Kabul International Airport, the acronym of which does not bode well. I’ve arrived here to start work on a new contract that should keep me here in Afghanistan over the next year, maybe longer. Similar to when I arrived in Iraq last January I've

Happy New Year

2009-03-20T09:10:00.003+03:00

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. John LennonSt. Patrick’s day was two days ago and I heard that there is going to be a party tonight at the American Embassy. A week and a half has gone by since I arrived in Kabul, once again working in one of the foremost arenas in the “War On Terror”. It’s a city completely surrounded by mountains,

Born on Groundhog Day

2008-09-08T18:48:00.001+03:00

I can’t think of another time when I’ve endured over 115 degree temperatures consistently for three months straight. In the haze of this Groundhog Day we keep waking up to I can hardly believe it but it’s the kickoff of football season, my daughter started her first year of high school, and there’s only two more months left before we vote for a new President.A little more than a week ago John

Nominal Degrees and Rising

2008-06-01T17:14:00.002+03:00

Most nights are uneventful. There have been very few mortar attacks on the base except for last night. Since one of my supervisors is on vacation I’ve been asked to fill in and provide tech support for a couple hours a night at a trailer compound that we provide internet service to. The incoming alarm went off while struggled to figure out how to get some guy’s PC laptop to recognize the signal,

Sandstorms Bad Kites Good

2008-05-06T13:36:00.002+03:00

Over the past few months I haven’t posted to this blog for one reason or another. You could say it was my belated show of solidarity with the WGA strike. Maybe they’ll give me an honorary membership. Below are a few notes from my recent experiences living here on Camp Victory and Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq. I enjoyed watching the movie The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford,

Mahmud Ahmadinejad Visits Iraq But Where Are The Saudis?

2008-03-07T17:19:00.004+03:00

This past Sunday Mahmud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president visited Iraq. He arrived early in the morning at Baghdad International Airport not far from Camp Victory. The day before his arrival a friend of Mohamed offered a bet that Sunnis would attack because of Amehdinejad’s visit. That made me a bit nervous but if Mohamed had taken the bet he would have won. Thankfully things were quiet that day. I

Marriage and Cease Fires

2008-02-24T22:55:00.000+03:00

March is soon approaching and will mark my 32nd birthday. I was born on Staten Island, N.Y. and never lived in one place longer than two years my entire life. The first three years I lived with my mother and grandmother on South Avenue in Mariner’s Harbor, with my Aunt Ethel in the Bronx for a while and several months with Mother Hale in Harlem. When I was three I was put into foster care, one

Not Your Typical Groundhog Day

2008-02-18T19:33:00.004+03:00

It’s strange when you have dreams, you can clearly recognize things while you are asleep but the moment you wake their memory fades and becomes as elusive as your distant past. Last night I dreamt of seeing Kim dressed in a blue silk dress with a red flower pattern, her hair was down and teased a bit on the sides, she had a large, yellow sheer fabric, somewhere between a scarf and a Sari, and was

What's The Mob Got To Do With It?

2008-02-16T19:00:00.004+03:00

The days are starting to slow down now that I’ve begun to get used to things. I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and noticed that there are two tubes draining water into the ditch outside the office trailer. The ditch is lined with reeds and I started thinking about what use we have in creating good things in this life. Many people believe in an after life. What is the use of creating a

Man Eating Fish and Speeding

2008-02-08T18:40:00.003+03:00

Friends of mine know that I’ve been sending emails to keep everyone posted on my experiences in Iraq. Considering that I’ve begun this blog I’ll assume there will be folks reading this that don’t know me from a whole in the wall. Basically I’m a filmmaker from Los Angeles that landed a job as a video editor in Baghdad. I left LA about four weeks ago and this is my second week here, as they say “