  It was a quiet night on Haji's roof over looking the banks of the Tigris. The countryside looks peaceful under NVG's and the hills glow in shades of emerald light from Allah's incandescent crescent moon. There was a time when fighting men called the night unknown but that is not so for us. The advanced technologies of modern warcraft have made such mysteries obsolete.
It is difficult for a man of history to embrace these modernities. However it is by them that we make our deadly trade perfect, fictional reader. It is a day of new sovereignty and now our brave band are guests in this nascant host nation. Home is but a tender few months away. I pray that it is the world as I have left it and that a new life might be mine for the having. There is much yet to do, so I close. Do you think she is well dear reader? One can only hope. "Hope, he says, cherishes the soul of him who lives in justice and holiness and is the nurse of his age and the companion of his journey; hope which is mightiest to sway the restless soul of man.
" Plato 
