Iraq through the eyes of a Danish grunt..
 

hosting site started using the links to other people's images..

Thank you for letting us see the Iraq we never see.

Wow.

intense photos... thank you, Freki

great pics, thanks, especially for showing the ordinary Iraqis.

brings back memories, especially the ziggurat, basra airport and the marshes. it was always nice to leave tallil for a bit and visit the marshes and see water. i saw the ziggurat thread on skyscrapercity and it was unreal to think that about a year ago i toured Ur.

i need to post my photos one of these days...but knowing this forum, i've been leery of the thread being hijacked. i have 5 threads worth of pics based on city location.

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great job Freki! glad you made it back safe and sound to show us these photos.

Thanks guys! :)
When you do let me know mate..

I wasn't really sure about posting either, but I've done a few test in my "Dose of the World" thread without any negative response, so I thought I'd see how it goes..

I work with an Iraqi at work who still have family down there and it's nice to hear how well it's progressing in many points - but the wars and Saddam's punishment did really mess the place up, especially for the Marsh Arabs and the poorer places outside of Basra, so it will take a long time..

But with all the oil and a Shiite majority in Gov they will hopefully see some cash rolling in soon and my personal dream is to visit it again in 20-30 years and find it to be like Kuwait - they truly deserve that after all those years of nothing but suffering and war..

^yeah, i've talked with a lot of soldiers who want to go back in 15-25 years and see that things are much better.

was there a lot of urbanization that you saw? i saw a lot of new neighborhoods being built on a large scale, and even a suburban-style development that made me laugh and think, "great, we've taught them sprawl."

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Great pics, Freki! :)

How long were your tours?

^6 months each
Not so much, the main priority in our AOR was to slowly get the water back to the Marshes and get the basic infrastucture up and running ( electricity, gas, cooking gas, water, police, roads, UXO removal etc ) as Saddam had really F'ed them over..

Problem with the Marshes was that when they were drained the desperate Marsh Arabs had to look for food and resources elsewhere and as all the land was owned by various tribes they weren't welcome on others land, so some settled in areas that now are risking flooding, so it's a very slow process, but in my time in country it changed quite drastically for the better

Outstanding photos. Thanks for sharing a part of your experience.

Wow, just wow. Thank you for sharing these. :cheers:

fascinating photos. Thanks for posting!

Awesome stuff.:cheers:

Absolutely incredible. I'm so glad you decided to post these, thank you.

Thanks so much for sharing.

Did you ever kill anyone? Sorry if that sounds insensitive; I'm just curious.

Compelling photos. It's great to see images of this place we hear so much about. Thanks for sharing.

What a fascinating and unique thread. Thank you so much for sharing!

A standing ovation kind sir! As always, Freki!

Is that a C7 with Elcan I am seeing there ? Standard Danish Mil rifle ?