Chapter 4

Leaving Safwan the sand felt more like talcum powder than the gritty white sands of America. An Iraqi General remarked at how we had been able to manuever, I guess they had never seen or heard of GPS before we came around. Old truck tires and oil barrels were strewn across the desert for markers, when the sand blew in it undoubtabley covered markers to a given destination. At any rate the road back towards the rail head was long and treachorous, sand and dust kicked up from the vehicles ahead stinged my tired red eyes. They were already red from hours of being wide open, no time to check your eyelids for cracks or holes in the desert. Shoot, move and communicate, 4 days straight running on empty... Upon arrival to Kuwait city, there were many children flashing peace signs and smiling while waving. We passed out food and drink as we strolled past. I did not see many adults amongst the children, I later understood that many of the Iraqi soldiers played a role in eliminating many, leaving several alone without parents to care for them. Kuwait before the war was a beautiful oasis, various picasso like paintings on the overpasses, green, green grasses and rich manicured magnificent palms lined the gulf, but now it was all amiss. There were bombed out storefronts, gigantic holes in the roadway and a stench that was earlier described in a song about the Vietnam war. "Ooh that smell, can't you smell that smell, the smell of death surrounds you." It was horrible. We went on through the town and headed for shelter further into the desert. We sat up camp on an oil slick nearby. There seemed to be so much oil there it practically was seeping out of the ground. The fires where near us, the smoke smothered out the sun most of the day and there we were breathing it all in.