We had a bit of excitement last night which was both alarming and humorous.  While working inside our building, we began to hear some pretty heavy gunfire outside our compound.  I quickly assumed this must be one of our operations or from a weapon test.  The firepower seemed much too heavy and persistent to be an insurgent attack.  After I confirmed it was not coming from us, it became apparent that the gunfire was coming from every direction around the compound and it was getting more intense.  If this was an attack, it was a biggie!

Fortunately, it was only about 10 minutes into this that we learned that Iraq had just won the “Third West Asian Games” edging out Syria and Iran.  The Iraqi’s were offering us a full demonstration of National Celebratory Fire. 

So… a happy ending all around:  No attack,  Iraq won a soccer match while demonstrating it still has a good dose of National pride & identity, and........ Iran lost.