Just received an email from my fellow Houstonian and libertarian buddy Gil Guillory, a chemical engineer at Halliburton who decided a few months ago to take a year-long posting in Iraq. Left his wife and 2 young kids here for the duration. Edited excerpts from his email:“Stephan,
I’m enjoying, from time to time, your blog posts and various other postings on LRC, the LRC blog, MI, and the MI blog. I have lots to tell about my experiences here in Kuwait and Iraq, but no time to commit them to paper. I work at least 84 hours a week, and sometimes as many as 100. Not bad for the pocketbook. I miss my family too much, though; so, I’m applying for some jobs back in Houston now.
I have had time to read some (we commute to Iraq from Kuwait every day – a long drive), including the new Rothbard collection on the history of banking in the US up to WWII, and Menger’s Principles of Economics book – what a tour de force! […]
The Iraqis and I get on marvelously. We have really interesting discussions about politics. I persuaded one Iraqi to anarchism, after which he always referred to me as “organization man” – maybe there is something lost in that translation. He tragically died a few weeks ago, after being shot in the chest 3 times. Life here can be quite harsh.
Dude, I am really going to regret staying up this late. My day starts at 4 am, and it’s already 10 pm. Ack.”
9:40 am on September 19, 2003
