Author's notes about these
Military Support Cigar Chronicles

While not necessarily beating the drum for the cigar industry, it is a reality that smoking cigars is one of the few pastimes permitted soldiers in Iraq. Under Coalition command policy - General Order #1 - troops are forbidden to consume alcoholic beverages, and, it goes without saying, illegal drug use is prohibited and thankfully minimal. Partially as a consequence, most all soldiers either smoke cigarettes or cigars or use smokeless tobacco products. Of the three I personally consider cigars the most benign.
        
There is camaraderie among military people - even when old-timers like me interact with the younger generation - that transcends age, race, sex, or time served. Cigar smoking in Iraq played a large part in renewing that spirit for me and in building bridges across generations.
        
So I'm offering for your enjoyment a few stories from my too-brief time spent with the soldiers and thereby hope to give you a brief glimpse into life with the military police in Baghdad and beyond.

— Gordon Cucullu

The author with Iraqi General Ali Adnan (center) and US Army Colonel John Bogdon (right). Click the photo to read "Building Bridges to the Iraqi Police."

Life in the Red Zone with the Iraqi National Police

On my last day at Phoenix Base in central Baghdad, Colonel Rivers Johnson, the public affairs officer responsible for my scheduling and welfare, arranged for me to cross from the Green Zone through the Blue Door into the Red Zone. It all seemed very color-coded to me. The officers involved find all the various designations amusing.

The National Police, or NP, have their headquarters outside and adjacent to one of the walls that surround the Green Zone. Predictably, there is a pair of heavy blue-painted metal doors through which one can walk into the so-called Red Zone where the rest of Baghdad exists. The NP base is, to put it charitably, a work in progress. Quite a few of the buildings still have war damage. Others have been repaired and function as office and storage, barracks and motor pools.

At one of the two-story office buildings I was introduced to the NP operations chief, General Mohammad Sabri Letif and his staff. I was welcomed warmly, offered the ubiquitous super-sweet Iraqi tea and through an interpreter began to ask about recent operations in Basra City where the NPs, despite negative reports, had done very well combating Shi'a militia.

As we got started in the interview one of the Iraqi colonels present, a heavy-set, jovial character with the de rigueur thick black moustache men favor, offered me a cigarette that I declined. "But it's an American cigarette," he insisted. "It's good."

I began to dig in my bag. "I'd prefer a cigar," I said. His face brightened.

"Ah, you want a cigar? Good! I have a fine cigar for you." And off he scurried, to return in moments with a long, hand-rolled, handsome cigar that he presented with a flourish. "Cuban!" he announced with pride, as I clipped the end and lighted it. Together we smoked for the better part of the next hour while we discussed the present and future of the country of Iraq and the National Police.

After an hour or so with the jovial Iraqi officers, I was led to the Blue Door and passed from the Red Zone back into the Green Zone.

— Gordon Cucullu

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