The Baghdad Flu

The problem with getting sick in Baghdad is you just can't shake it once its got hold of you. The flu or a cold will last for weeks (just ask Soldier). A cough can cost you a lung (Soldier, you okay?). And a stuffy nose can lead to pneumonia if you're not careful. Even a cut on your finger can take months to heal.

The problem with embeds, aside from the threat of KBR food poisoning, is that after all of the hard work and physical demands, you usually end up flat on your back with some new disease making the rounds. Returning home to our Baghdad "compound", living in cramped quarters with so many others, with an Iraqi housekeeping staff that doesn't believe in ever throwing away (or washing) a cleaning rag much less using the Hoover, and a heating system that spews out every speck of dust it thinks is worth re-circulating add up to a brutal attack on your body.

I have succumbed.

Unfortunately (as Soldier knows), the story continues. The workload doesn't let up just because your head is pounding. And even if you barely have the voice to answer it, much less a will to live, the phone never, ever stops ringing.