The speaker in this passage describes the poor living conditions of an American soldier in Iraq. The soldier writes this letter to his friends and family to describe his living space on the base. The author uses several rhetorical strategies such as using a step by step guide, short sentences, negative adjectives, and a nostalgic tone to explain how horrible it is to live on a base. The speaker gives a step by step guide on how to assimilate their living conditions. They start off by instructing you to spill dust all over yourself and your belongings, make a tent with an area as big as six feet by eight feet, and, if you really want to get as close as possible to the real thing, bring in a kennel full of pugs to make the smell accurate, because
