The Per Diems Will Last Longer If You Don’t Smoke in Iraq March 1, 2007March 5, 2017 PUFF, PUFF, QUIT, QUIT Tina Randler: ‘I was wondering if you wouldn’t consider suggesting a book that I found overwhelmingly helpful – Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking, or his website. I was an on again/off again smoker for years, and terribly ashamed of that fact – being led around like a pig with a ring in its snout! But now I’m confident I’ll never need another smoke again, effective September 3, 2006.’ MORE LIGHT! Daylight Savings starts March 11 this year (moved up from April 2) and runs all the way to November 4 (versus October 29). Goethe would have been so pleased. THE LAST WORD ON PER DIEMS Doug Kretzmann: ‘I am surprised no one’s mentioned the simple per-diem solution that my company uses: a per-diem set low, with exceptions allowed. So on most trips (even a recent trip to Germany), I come out ahead on the per-diem by being frugal. But when going to let us say New York, I can still expense those NYC-priced dinners.’ IRAQ Howard Reubenstein: ‘Here is an interesting account of what went wrong in Iraq from the professional military point of view (and why the surge is doomed). One of my Army friends sent this to me and the military folks I know all seem to agree with this. The article is from an officer who spent a lot of time on the ground and with the people in Iraq. I guess it is hard to make up an alternate reality when you are actually in country. It appears to have been all too easy to make up what the reality in Iraq should have been from DC.’