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Love and Hate for Kuwait

Are you in Kuwait? Do you have news, a story something to contribute? Send it in!

Saturday, March 15, 2003

War is Tomorrow

Well I guess the time has come. All local newspapers say the war will start tomorrow. A camera man from a satellite channel also confirmed to me that this is true.

I wish all the local and foreign soldiers the best of luck, also to the Iraqi soldiers. I pray that you all return safely to your families.

posted by Rampurple | 11:20 AM

Friday, March 14, 2003

New Pictures added
Added 2 new groups of pictures:
Pictures of U.S. soldiers in Kuwait
Pictures of Soldiers on streets of Kuwait

posted by Mark | 8:05 PM

Life of a Soldier in Kuwait

This is an email I got from a soldier stationed in Kuwait:

-----------------

Kuwait is very sandy. We don't have much selection in anything.

Out here in the [base] we don't have any resturants like Doha's Army base or steady stores (or PX in military terms). The "roaming PX" comes by about once a week and offers mainly junk food and not much military required gear. Most of us are running short on our skivies. I really wish we had something out here to help us out. Well, we have the local Kuwaiti's that have a laundry service, but it takes 4 or 5 days minimum to get it back, and sometimes you don't get it all back. So, at very minimum you would have to have twice that to accomadate... most of us have 7 pair.

As far as food goes in the morning, it is a predictable menu. Tomorrow will be the same as today, so next week on any given day we will have pastries (normally a donut, pastry with fruit filling or glazed bread roll), a single piece of french toast (no syrup - ever - honey if your lucky), A spoonful of Hashbrowns, Watery style powdered eggs, some hot dog pieces and some egg rolls. There are corn flakes availiable if you prefer (whole milk). Salt and Pepper are a commodity and Sugar is only availiable during breakfast at the coffee bar (yes, they have coffee here.

Lunch will be a bagged nasty that must be eaten within 45 minutes (not sure, maybe it will self destruct or become contagious to other meals...). It has a sub (either hot dog, tuna, turkey or roast beef with lettuce and a ketchup packet), a bag of potato chips, a fruit item, a cookie (I think it's a cookie) with a nut in the middle, a juice box and a 250ml sized soda can.

Dinner is predictable too. Chicken (in some fashon) and Beef (in some fashon) with rice and a mixed vegtable and pita bread. There are either mashed potatos or choped potatos. There are little cakes if you'd like. That about describes dinner... unless we are lucky! Sometimes they actually have taco menu's, then we get to make tacos out of our beef and pita bread... Great!

Showers are alright. Most people leave them a mess though. We have large trailer's that have about 10-12 showers in each one, and a couple sinks. The only problem with those is that sometimes the powere will go out and we won't have any water pressure. Then we just have to go a couple days without a shower.

Sandstorms are horrible. We had one last week that knocked down our chow hall. It knocked down numerious other tents as well. That was the largest one we had. Wind is normal around here so it is nice to have goggles, last night we had a storm that I couldn't open my eyes in. In fact, just because it was late, I couldn't see more than 5 feet in front of me while using a flashlight. There was camp about a half mile away, but we couldn't see the lights that were on because of all the sand in the night air. So we got a little lost, went in a circle and finally found our way back to the tents. Those sand storms stur up a lot of dust. Many of us have trouble breathing out here, mostly during the sandstorms.

Camel herds are also seen from day to day just roaming the desert. That is nice to see. At least we have something to take pictures of.

About the worst part about being out here in the desert is that we have to be away from our spouses for the duration. I'm not sure if anyone knows how much stress that brings. And I'm not talking the type where you go on a buisness trip for a month and your spouse is at home. I'm talking about suddenly dropping everything you need to take care of on your spouse and hitting the road for 6 months, out in the desert, waiting for war. The stress that brings to the SPOUSE is amazing. Some of them simply can not handle it.

Do the majority of us want this war to start and get over with as soon as possible? YES.
Do the majority of us want to go back home? YES

We are in the middle of a desert, nothing around us for miles, and just sitting here waiting for the politics of war to decide when it will start. Waisting tax payers money while we just lounge around. Don't get me wrong here, we work 12 hour days 7 days a week. But what are we accomplishing? The war is not happening yet, we are just WAITING for it to.

At least we'll have stories to tell when this is over...

posted by nibaq | 3:05 AM

Thursday, March 13, 2003

Weather and the War

International Herald Tribune have an article up explaining the sand stroms that have been affecting Kuwait. It also explains how it came about and how the US Troops will use weather to their advantage.

One intresting tidbit is they plan to attack based on moon cycle; that they plan to attack when their isn't a full moon.

posted by nibaq | 1:14 PM

Freaky Dust Storm Pictures

I just got back home, I had to go pickup my younger brother from his friends place. Thank god for the navigation system or else I would have never been able to get to the guys house. You can only see as far as the car ahead of you and thats it. I dont know how I got there, what road the car took on the way back or anything. I was seriously relying on the cars navigation system 100%. Anyway I took pictures of my room just before my ibook died and then took pictures on the way to pick up my brother. When I came back home my ibook started working again so i was able to post all the pictures up.
Click here for dust storm pictures part 1
Click here for dust storm pictures part 2

posted by Mark | 12:38 AM

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

REALLY REALLY freaky dust storm!!!!
I am sitting in my room, you cant see ANYTHING outside my window. My fucking ibook stopped working because it chocked on the dust from my room, all i smell is dust, my dog is acting all weird, this is all just crazy. Out of no where we just got a freak dust storm. I grew up in kuwait so I have spent over 20 years here and i have never seen anything like this! I took some pictures but my ibook is dead so i can upload the pictures. I am on my PC which i think i should actually shut down before this chokes also.. will post pics as soon as i can.

posted by Mark | 9:54 PM

Army Docking in Port

Here are some pictures that were sent in to us. They were taken from an office window located at the port.
Click here for the port pictures.

posted by Mark | 8:09 PM

American School Evacuated
The American International School in Kuwait was evacuated today due to a bomb scare. The school only has seniors attending, a few teachers and the administration. They were all taken on the a football field nearby until they were told it is safe to return and resume classes.

posted by Rampurple | 5:15 PM

Good thing we are not press/media

Found this post with a picture of a flyer from the Kuwait's Ministry of Information stating that the press/media shouldn't provide any information to Israeli news and/or broadcasting organizations.

posted by nibaq | 1:01 PM

The Fear

[John] says:
u want to write for qhate.com? but dont tell anyone

KH says:
no way

KH says:
I will be in Lebanon next day if I do that

[John] says:
lol why

KH says:
I have a dughter

posted by Mark | 12:48 PM

Mtv in Kuwait

Mtv has made a "documentry" with their Diary series of being in Kuwait and with the US Troops. I haven't seen it yet, but from what I hear its pretty funny and kinda skewed a bit.

Will try to catch a rerun of it and add comments, I am amused by this Faisal the fixer guy.

posted by nibaq | 9:32 AM

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Army Lifestyle
While I was trying to find the menu for Hardees online i by chance found this page.

posted by Mark | 9:47 PM

Monday, March 10, 2003

I want to be a photojournalist
I just came back to the office after an hour ride in the car. I took the Gulf Road to go to a supplier and there was too much traffic. I noticed today that there is a cop car on the side of the road every 500 or 1000 meters. All the cops are carrying M16 Assault Rifles today and have hand guns straped to there thighs.
On the way back from the supplier I ended up passing by the Sheraton Hotel by mistake. What a sight... their were atleast six 4x4 jeeps parked outside the hotel's main entrance, all with satellite dishes on the roof and trunks full of sleeping bags and equipment! Amazing shit, I always wanted to be a photojournalist and seeing those jeeps parked outside, ready to be taken out into the middle of the dessert incase something happens.. i just felt a lot of envy..
I am currently acctually carrying all my equipment with me so just incase something happens i would be ready to take pics, shoot video and upload them all straight onto the web all from location.

My Gear
- Apple iBook G3 700mhz with 640MB RAM
- Nikon Coolpix 2500 Digital Camera with 256MB Memory Card
- Sony Hi8 Video Camera
- Palm Tungsten | T
- Sony Ericsson t68i with GPRS internet connection
- Iogear bluetooth adapter to connect ibook to t68i's internet connection
- Ipod 20GB
- Cables for all the above except i just noticed i dont have my ibooks power supply cable!

So be sure, if a scud falls while i am around, there will be pictures for everyone here to see!

posted by Mark | 2:18 PM

Sunday, March 09, 2003

High Alert
Today after work I decided to take a drive on the Gulf Road. It seems the war is getting closer. The Kuwait Towers has replace the 2 Egyptian doormen at the gate with around 8 new Indian security cards. The British embassy has atleast 8 soldiers on each corner and side of the embassy building, not including the armor vehicles. There are cops on every intersection and round-abouts. There are armor tanks every few kilometers and there seem to be a lot of army vehicles on the road. Everyone is saying the war will be this Thursday.
I tried the McArabia... really good.. had it like 4 times already :>

posted by Mark | 8:17 PM

McArabia

Dear McDonalds, America has already raped our culture. Please leave our food alone.

posted by Oilrig | 2:45 AM

An Apple in Kuwait

This Wired.com article talks about the US Army using a Ti Powerbook since the Toughbook can't do certain funcions quickly and easily compared to the Powerbook.

Though I wonder how does the Powerbook work compared to the Toughbook in the dust storms that been hitting them lately.

posted by nibaq | 1:09 AM

about the site

some of us are in kuwait, some of us are not. some of us are kuwaiti's, some of us are not. this site is about kuwait and how our lives are currently changing.