New Iraq realities bring much more down time

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New Iraq realities bring much more down time
By Aamer Madhani - USA TODAY
Posted : Wednesday Oct 21, 2009 5:38:15 EDT

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq — Pfc. Adrian Vesik heard that war could be hell.

He was happy to discover when he arrived in Iraq earlier this year that his war experience also would include salsa dancing, yoga and martial-arts classes.

“When I signed up for the Army, I thought I was going to be a hero — go out and do some fighting,” says Vesik, 19, during a break at a Filipino-Okinawan jujitsu class. “I haven’t come close to doing anything that I was trained to do. I work, maybe, four to five hours a day. I have time to try all these new things. It’s not so bad.”

Because of new rules that require Iraqi approval for all U.S. missions, and a general decline in violence nationwide, many of the 117,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq say they now have more idle time than at any previous point in the six-year war.

Combat is still a daily reality in some parts of Iraq, and U.S. troops are being killed here at a rate of about one a week.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/10/gns_iraq_changes_102109/