Day Two

Iraq is a country that raises many more questions than it answers, and nowhere is this more apparent than during a trip to any gas station. Lieutenant Michael Behenna and a squad from Delta Company set out to complete a status report on the gas stations of Asiriyah, a stone’s throw from FOB Summerall, and a short distance from the Bayji Oil Refinery. Where gas comes from.
Of the handful of stations we visited, only one was not out of gas, and the line of cars stretched down the road. Security is an issue whenever demand might exceed supply, so there were IPs and Iraqi soldiers managing the crowd. An individual approached Lieutenant Behenna and expressed his willingness to shoot Americans. He was quickly detained and searched, and then his car was located and searched, but he was released by the American soldiers because his only ammunition had been his words.
The gas station opened shortly after we arrived, and the line began to move. Why did this gas station have gas and not the others? Maybe the owner of the station knew the right people, or was one of the right people, or paid off the wrong people. And the stations without gas? What were they doing wrong? Or were they being punished for doing nothing wrong?
The industry is supposed to be government regulated. The price of gas is regulated, but Lieutenant Behenna found at least one station was charging more than the set price. When they had gas. Any of the stations could adjust their prices, and it would be very hard to catch them at it.
And then there is the black market gas. Trucks leave the Bayji Oil Refinery every day, and some of them disappear or are rerouted. Some of this gas appears in plastic jugs, sold on the side of the road in plain sight. Often the peddlers of this gas are just boys, and there are so many of them that it would be difficult to crack down on this part of the problem.
It is baffling that the one thing Iraqis have in abundance is the thing they have to wait in line for.