RED 2

Patience and Power: How we will Lose the Long War

2008-06-18T15:01:00.001-07:00

Patience and Power
By David Mamet, Best Life

Each culture has its own particular brand of approved or semi-approved combat. Ours in America has long been boxing.
Here is the difference between boxing and wrestling: Boxers stand off. Their aim is to contact the other fellow's body only briefly, only with the fists, and with the fists covered with a bunch of leather.
Wrestlers spend all their time hugging.
Now, each country has its own particular brand of permitted confusion. The British are confused about the nature of food. The French are confused about morality and literature. We Americans couldn't care less. We are confused about sex, race, and the topic of this essay: violence.
The desire to imagine a world in which "we all want the same things," and in which aggression can be obliterated by a more correct statement of the person aggrieved's position, invites increased aggression. It took the first attack on the World Trade Center, the U.S.S. Cole, the Marine barracks in Beirut, the kidnapping of the Iran hostages, and so on, before the jihadists finally got the idea that, odd as it seemed, the greatest power in the world, the United States, would put up with anything (anything here being the bombing of New York).
Strength deters aggression. Strength must be cultivated. One method of cultivating strength is through the cultural endorsement and display of nonlethal combat.
There is a fairly regular outcry against the bloodiness of boxing, because boxing is licensed aggression, and, so, awakens in some the aforementioned confusion about violence--that, the world being a fine place full of right-meaning individuals, violence is error.
In a perfect world, perhaps, but the world right now is as perfect as it's ever going to get; and, every viable civilization, knowing that to be so, has wisely endorsed the notion of preparing for the worst.
Boxing has had it.
There's too little of it, it has been in the hands of a small, closed corporation of promoters for too many years. These promoters control not only the matchups, but also, many might say, their results. Well, everything grows old, and, growing old, changes in essence.
Prizefights were, from the 1700s, staged in England as illegal, highly popular events. In this country, immigrant kids (starting with the Irish and Jews) in the 1920s took to the professional ring as a ticket out. And instruction in boxing was a matter-of-fact part of growing up in America until the 1960s. Much of the populace that watched the hugely popular Gillette Friday Night Fights on TV understood the tactics and strategy of the fighters, and appreciated the rigor with which they trained, and the strength, stamina, and will necessary for an amateur three-round fight, let alone a professional 12- or 15-round fight.
In the '60s, boxing became less popular (reawakened briefly by the comet, Muhammad Ali). The Club fight and the Smoker disappeared from the American scene. TV viewers saw fewer fights, understood them less, and so the sport was prone to exploitation by promoters through phony matchups, thrown fights, skewed decisions, and so on.
Enter the dragon.
Canny promoters, perceiving the national ossification and corruption of boxing, began to stage a different contest. This contest is called, generically, mixed martial arts.
The idea was and is to let each fighter bring whatever skills he could into the arena--striking, kicking, grappling--and let the best man win.
The fighters here are allowed not only to hit, but to hug. Un-American, you say? Yes, but no, as 95 percent of all street fights go to the ground. That is, in an ungoverned confrontation, it's odds-on that the combatants aren't going to simply trade punches. One will take the other guy down and attempt to merge him with the supporting earth. (This seems to be a primordial instinct, dating back, perhaps, even to the days before men had tools. For, with the empty hand, it's difficult to throw a punch that is going to do any sort of damage. Cavemen wrestled.)
And mixed martial arts calls upon a more populist understanding of combat. The two guys in the alley were not going to inquire under which rules the thing was being staged, but, like the cavemen, "wade right in." Its appeal recapitulates the understanding of any who have ever been in or have witnessed a true fight.
Go into any town in the United States and you will find a martial arts academy. Go into any city and you will find one within a half mile.
You will be hard-pressed to find a boxing gym.
In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway creates a scene between a young lieutenant and an old European count. They are discussing the great war the lieutenant has been fighting. The count assures the young man that the Allies will win. How does he know? It is always the young nations that win the wars. But, the lieutenant says, will they, then, become powerful forever? No, the count says, they will become the old nations.
Writers from Edward Gibbon (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776) through Oswald Spengler (The Decline of the West, 1918-1922) to Samuel Huntington (The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of World Order, 1996) have documented the progression. Power attracts sycophants, and worth attracts predators. The sycophants spawn bureaucracy, the predators scheme to overcome might with cunning, and find, as Frederick the Great taught, that he who defends everything defends nothing.
The -underdog, on the other hand, must pick his shots--when and how he means to fight--and he must have a defined objective. (The notion of an "exit strategy" indicates an absence of such. "Exit strategy" means the physical implementation of an excuse for abandonment of a failed enterprise.) In a contemporary war--a war between the weak and the strong--fast, audacious, and unconventional are not merely "better," that's all there is. Three murderers in caves could plan and successfully execute a devastating attack on the United States, while Jimmy Carter, executive of the greatest concentration of power in history, could not extract the Iran hostages.
The hostage rescue failed because its coalescent motive was political (to please all the services) rather than tactical (to extract the Americans).
Here the political solution replaces the martial, and the body politic suffers. The country, as Hemingway's count predicted, grows old, and growing old, grows weak, which is to say, begins to lack in resolve.
Jujitsu is known as "the old man's sport." Why is this? At its essence is conservation of strength.
The operative notion is this: The most important precept on the road to victory is don't lose. For if one is still in the fight and is husbanding one's resources (time, strength, resolve, money), the opponent eventually will make a mistake that one may exploit. If, however, one is exhausted, broke, tapped out, or dead, the fight is over.
So, in jujitsu one trains to be conservative. To seek a position where one is safe and let the opponent tire himself trying to get free.
Should the opponent be forced to expend his strength, he may, later in the fight, weakened and perhaps angered or confused, commit an exploitable error, offer an undefended neck or arm or foot.
The wise jujitsu fighter, thus, learns to control not only his strength, but also his emotions, for in a fight or transgression they will be proved to be the same. Expense of strength weakens the body, which can induce pain and confusion; expense of emotion releases adrenaline, which, too, weakens the body.
In the jujitsu academy, one learns patience, because without it one ends up unconscious. One also learns self-confidence, as the size of an opponent means nothing should he be ignorant of technique. Without technique, he'll be unable to progress toward an opponent's submission, and without patience, his bulk will tire him out.
Jujitsu, the old man's sport, then, may be likened to the new understanding of geopolitics: The specter of massive force not only need be no deterrent, but may, in fact, inspire the weaker but perceptive fighter who sees in these displays inherent weaknesses (stupidity, slowness, necessity of bureaucratic and political oversight).
Note that the Bush administration's responses to September 11 were bureaucracy (the creation of the Homeland Security agency) and blunt massive force (the Iraq War). The terrorists, thus, had made a démarche that invited their opponent to exhaust itself (in politics, bureaucracy, human lives, and treasure), an invitation that was accepted.
Jujitsu teaches that one must conserve strength because one does not know how long the fight will last. A true fight, an alley fight, will continue until one side's will is broken and it surrenders. In the academy, one is taught, "It's one thing to be told 'tread water for an hour' and another 'tread water till a ship comes.'" And any true fight must be the second.
Applying the principles of jujitsu, a more patient country (less oil-dependent, more resolved) might have declared September 11 the act of criminals and employed its treasure and lives judiciously, conserving its strength and committing its resources more effectively as opportunities presented themselves.
But the United States, in this instance, has acquired some of the debility of age with little of its wisdom. It is still boxing while its opponents are engaged in mixed martial arts.
I've spent the past five years and change studying Brazilian jujitsu.
My teacher, Renato Magno, came from Brazil with his masters and friends, the Gracies and the Machados.
The lads lived in mat-lined garages in Torrance, California, went out to challenge any fighter of any tradition, and whomped them. This garage challenge was -elaborated by Rorion Gracie into today's phenomenon of mixed martial arts.
The Brazilians dominated mixed martial arts, using jujitsu to subdue boxing, kick boxing, and practitioners of karate, savote, muy Thai, et cetera, until these chaps started to learn and integrate jujitsu into their games.
What is the lesson? Just as one doesn't have to be Jewish to love Levy's rye, one doesn't have to be Brazilian to learn Brazilian jujitsu. And one doesn't have to be poor, angry, or demented to learn how to prevail militarily in today's world.
One, just as in the academy, need only be patient, committed to learning, and frank about one's goals.
All fights are viewed, after the fact, as the trial of a philosophical proposition. "Democracy must triumph over dictatorship," "Speed must defeat bulk," "Mobility will always overcome power," et cetera.
We will note that the nature of the polemic is available only after the fact, and is, thus, a tautology reducible to "the winning side must always emerge victorious."
These philosophical precepts, however, may also be employed prophylactically, that is, before the fact, but must, then, be coupled with prescription. Understanding may defeat strength, given patience; age may defeat youth, given knowledge.
The martial arts, at their best, teach this stoical philosophy, preceding, not through an appeal to intellect, but by a habituation of the body such that, in combat, the philosophic truths are incontestably revealed.
And there is something satisfying in watching two guys in the ring attempt to get each other to cry "uncle," which, and here I will close, is a difference between mixed martial arts and boxing.
The preferred aim of the boxer is to knock the other fellow out; the preferred aim of the jujitsuan is to have the other fellow tap, which is to say, surrender.
The purpose of war is, ultimately, neither to destroy nor kill, but to break the opponent's will.

Disclosure on MARSOC in Afghanistan: "Levels of Untruthfulness"

2008-01-29T18:45:00.000-08:00

Special Ops Fighting Each Other in the Sandbox?
By James Gordon Meek
Do America’s secret soldiers play well together? There is fresh evidence that the post-9/11 military still is plagued by inter-service rivalries that may be impacting critical counterterrorism operations. The revelations have come out in the extraordinary case unfolding in a tiny makeshift courtroom at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where a Marine “court of inquiry” - the first convened in a half-century - is probing the killings of at least 19 Afghan civilians the morning of March 4, 2007, by a company from the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.
On Sunday, I reported in the New York Daily News that at the time of the alleged shooting spree, the unit’s commander, Maj. Fred Galvin, was trying to offer up his small force of specially trained Marines to the CIA for secret counterterrorism missions along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The unit was neither trained for, nor permitted to engage in, covert CIA operations, sources have told me. But the inquiry has also revealed how units primarily engaged in classified missions against Osama Bin Laden’s allies have clashed with each other.
Witnesses in this fascinating case have included Marines, soldiers and Afghan victims of the March 4 shootings, including one man who provided security for CIA operatives as a mujahideen commander during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Their testimony has described not only the complex command structure that governs sensitive military operations along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan (Regional Command-East), but the fact that the Marine special ops Company Foxtrot - called MARSOC-F - was treated like an ugly stepsister by just about everybody after they arrived at Jalalabad Airfield three weeks before their convoy opened up on civilians.
Here’s how it worked in Nangarhar province, home to the Tora Bora mountains where Bin Laden made his last stand in December 2001 and what remains a hotbed of infiltration by Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hizb-I Islami-Gulbuddin (HIG) and other militias. The “landowner” in March 2007 was Task Force Spartan, commanded by a conventional infantry unit: a brigade from the Fort Drum-based 10th Mountain Division. Spartan had the power to “veto” any covert mission in their area of operations by Navy SEALs, Delta Force operators, Green Berets or Marines, because of the cultural and political sensitivities of combat in the Pashtun tribal lands.
So what did the Marines do? They submitted mission proposals (“con ops” or “concept of operations”) to their bosses at Bagram Airfield north of Kabul, the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan (CJSOTF-A). But they concealed their con-ops from Spartan, which was a violation of chain of command, witnesses testified. To further complicate things, in early 2007 Spartan was in the process of transitioning from a U.S. military force to a NATO/ISAF component. “So officially, we couldn’t coordinate with CJSOTF,” Spartan’s operations officer Army Maj. Thomas Gukeisen testified last week, when I covered two days of the proceedings.
Gukeisen said he took Maj. Galvin on a four-day tour of remote U.S. outposts to meet 10th Mountain company commanders. But Gukeisen had reservations about Galvin’s men. “Operating in Nangarhar with such a large force,” he testified, “could be detrimental for counterinsurgency purposes.”
Later, when he learned Galvin was meeting with Special Forces operators and “OGAs” - a military euphemism for the CIA that means “Other Government Agency” - in another area of operations to the south, he began to think the Marines were “hiding something from us.”
“I thought there was a level of untruthfulness, or not sharing information between organizations,” Gukeisen told the court of inquiry. “I became, in my mind, suspect of what they were doing.”
This is not to suggest that CJSOTF had much affection for the Marine special ops unit, either. Witnesses last week testified that the MARSOC unit was deployed without any support and had to scrounge at Jalalabad for food and potable water, according to the Jacksonville Daily News’ court of inquiry blog. Marine Capt. Robert Olson, the unit’s intelligence officer and executive officer, recounted on the witness stand (under a grant of immunity from prosecution) that CJSOTF regarded him as “a bit of a nuisance” when he embedded with them at Bagram prior to MARSOC’s arrival.
After the March 4 killings on Highway 1, Galvin was relieved of command and MARSOC-F was kicked out of Afghanistan.

Stolen from Jack Burton's "Csquare.blogspot": Low-Tech vs. Hi-Tech-"How to spend 250 million" and "You Sunk my Battleships!"

2008-01-24T17:40:00.000-08:00

The recent game of chicken, initiated by Iran launching speed boats against U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, is replaying an old tune written by Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper.In Millennium Challenge 2002, DOD wrote out a check for a $250 million war game to test the new "data-linked U.S. forces" aka network-centric warfare— Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper, was the CG of the bad guys aka the non-data linked troops. In the first days of the game battle, the Riper smoked the good guys and the "superior" tech got a new bunghole using off the shelf "unconventional" methods that sank 16 good guy ships. In any other field, these results would have the pause to consider the implications for the future. In our military, these results only get in the ways of facts aka the good guys-U.S. must, by definition--Win. So what happened? Why did tech lose? Why did robust creative,unappreciated, thinking win?Critiquing a war game NOVA INTERVIEW pbs
NOVA: The U.S. military has learned some of its techniques in war games like Millennium Challenge 2002. What is the overall purpose of a war game?
Van Riper: War games are to learn a number of different things. Depending how they're designed, you could learn about a particular piece of equipment. You could learn about a new type of doctrine, the style that you want to incorporate some tactic or technique or procedure. Or you could have a new operating concept, a brand new idea of how you wanted to fight in the future. So war games can be for experimenting with new ideas, or they can be practicing current ideas to become more proficient or to gain greater insight into those ideas.
NOVA: What was your experience with Millennium Challenge?
Van Riper: I had a great deal of concern about the ideas that they were experimenting with in this particular exercise. I say that because I didn't think the ideas were intellectually worthy of being tested for that sort of money. Unfortunately, from where I sat, and I think I had a pretty good view, these ideas were never truly tested. Yet the conclusion drawn at the end of the exercise was that they had been and that they were worthy of adoption by our operating forces. I think they're very shallow. They are fundamentally flawed. They have no true intellectual content. And yet they're being, in my view, foisted on our operational commanders.
I believe there were lessons that could have been learned from Millennium Challenge and applied in Iraq that weren't. Some of them were lessons that in the actual fighting might not have been lessons we needed; we learned them but didn't need to use them. Others we could have used, particularly, for example, in what would be called the low-intensity phase. That's the phase of insurgency that we found ourselves in after the supposed end of major combat operations. There were some things we saw but not in finite detail in Millennium Challenge that might have helped if we'd have thought a little bit more about them before Operation Iraqi Freedom.
NOVA: Was the game rigged?
Van Riper: There were accusations that Millennium Challenge was rigged. I can tell you it was not. It started out as a free-play exercise, in which both Red and Blue had the opportunity to win the game. However, about the third or fourth day, when the concepts that the command was testing failed to live up to their expectations, the command then began to script the exercise in order to prove these concepts.
This was my critical complaint. You might say, "Well, why didn't these concepts live up to the expectations?" I think they were fundamentally flawed in that they leaned heavily on technology. They leaned heavily on systems analysis of decision-making.
NOVA: So do you think Millennium Challenge 2002 was a waste?
Van Riper: I'm angered that, in a sense, $250 million was wasted. But I'm even more angry that an idea that has never been truly validated, that never really went through the crucible of a real experiment, is being exported to our operational forces to use.
What I saw in this particular exercise and the results from it were very similar to what I saw as a young second lieutenant back in the 1960s, when we were taught the systems engineering techniques that Mr. [Robert] McNamara [Secretary of Defense under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson] had implemented in the American military. We took those systems, which had good if not great utility in the acquisition of weapon systems, to the battlefield, where they were totally inappropriate. The computers in Saigon said we were winning the war, while out there in the rice paddies we knew damn well we weren't winning the war. That's where we went astray, and I see these new concepts potentially being equally as ill-informed and equally dangerous.
NOVA: Part of your victory in Millennium Challenge was based on your knowledge that the U.S. had a preemptive doctrine. How did you take advantage of that?
Van Riper: My belief at the outset of Millennium Challenge was that Blue believed it had a monopoly on preemption, and it would strike first. And, of course, in any war game I was familiar with up to that point, that had never been the case. The U.S. had only gone to war as a result of some aggression by an enemy, and so always had to react. Now that it was announced policy that we reserved the right to do that, the Blue force was going to take full advantage of it and plan to strike first.
“If it was going to be a fight, I was going to get in the first blow.”
So I simply stepped back and said, "What advantage is there for Red to wait for Blue to strike?" There was none. And that lead to the natural conclusion that if they're coming, and we can't persuade them not to diplomatically, then we will strike.
As I looked at an ultimatum that gave me less than 24 hours to respond to what literally was a surrender document, it was clear to me that there was no advantage in any of this diplomacy. I was very surprised that the Joint Forces Command personnel who had argued for using all of the elements of national power—the economic, the diplomatic, the political information—in some sort of coherent fashion, really came at Red with a blunt military instrument. So it was clear to me that this was not going to be negotiated, this was going to be a fight. And if it was going to be a fight, I was going to get in the first blow.
No surrender
NOVA: How could the military have planned for Operation Iraqi Freedom differently?
Van Riper: I have not been surprised by the things that have occurred since late spring, early summer in Iraq. It's not because I have any unique insights or had a premonition or understood it better. But I think I'm an astute student of history, and if you look at history and understand how people resist, how wars play out, this is not an unusual occurrence.
If you have a war that doesn't come to a very definitive conclusion, there are people who don't believe they've been defeated. One thing that we saw in this war, there was no surrender. There was no point in time where someone in authority said, "The government of Iraq surrenders to the Coalition forces."
NOVA: There is the famous question of "boots on the ground"—the size of the force that captured Baghdad. Was the small force size a vindication of transformational concepts?
Van Riper: There were sufficient forces to capture Baghdad. But what we call follow-up forces—exploitation forces and reserves—were not available. Imagine on the day that we seized Baghdad, if we had follow-up armed forces, exploitation forces, continue up into what we now know as the Sunni Triangle, go into Tikrit, instead of having that long lag time. If there had been a lot of so-called boots on the ground at the beginning, you might have convinced a lot of people that the war was over at that time. If you'd have thought about how you surrounded Baghdad, perhaps you could have caught some of these officials and had somebody who could surrender to you. Other than the actual attack on Baghdad, it was not very well thought through.

Holy Crap....

2008-01-16T13:09:00.000-08:00

RAMADI, Iraq - In perhaps the most tangible recognition of the improving security here, top Marine commanders are on the verge of allowing grunts in the field to pare down their body armor, giving on-the-ground commanders new authority to strip certain components from the ever-increasing protective equipment load.
Speaking to Military.com in the crew compartment of a heavily armored, six-wheeled Cougar Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle on his way to a meeting with an influential sheik, the deputy commander for Marine forces in Iraq, Maj. Gen. John Allen, said the sharp decrease in attacks on U.S. forces, the increased security provided by local police and the positive influence of tribal leaders who now shun al-Qaida malcontents has lead his command to devise the latest equipment policy.
Allen would not say when the new rule would be implemented, but he hinted that it could be put in place before I Marine Expeditionary Force takes over command of forces in the region from II MEF in March.
Read more from our man in Iraq at his blog, From the Front
The increasing suite of body armor and other equipment designed to protect troops from sniper fire and roadside bombs has prompted ever increasing grumbling from grunts in the field over its immobilizing load and back-breaking weight.
"I think it would be better if we could ditch all this stuff and just use plates and soft carriers," said Hospitalman 3rd Class Drew Duffin, a corpsman with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines and a San Antonio, Texas, native.
Marine leaders aren't quite ready to go that far, though.
Under the new policy, commanders will be given the option of allowing their Marines to go on patrol without wearing ballistic throat guards, neck guards, groin protectors or side-mounted Small Arms Protective Insert plates. More dramatically, Allen said Marines will be allowed to leave their helmets on their rack, donning soft covers in place of the burdensome Kevlar lids.
"We're going to leave it up to the local commanders on the ground," Allen said. "But this is really an indication of the changing security environment in this region.
The streets of Ramadi -- once strewn with roadside bombs and crisscrossed with sniper fire -- are now teeming with locals buttressed by blue-shirted police. Camouflage-clad Iraqi security forces zoom down the main street here imposing order on a city that had been the center of the al-Qaida-influenced insurgency for nearly two years. Since the surge, however, attacks on coalition forces and other "significant events" had plummeted from nearly 200 in one week of February 2007 to three in the last week of the year.
Allen said convoy tactics will change soon as well. No longer will Iraqi vehicles be required to give way to American trucks passing through -- a policy intended to keep suicide vehicle bombs away from troops on the move.
Instead, Iraqi traffic will soon be allowed to flow past military traffic, lifting an annoyance that reinforced the locals' sense of occupation.
"We want to be increasingly less burdensome on the local population," Allen said, adding that U.S. troops in Anbar intend to take on less of a security role and more of an advisory one as the months progress.
"We want to become tactically invisible over the next year," he said, buttressing comments made by his boss, Maj. Gen. Walter Gaskin, in earlier news reports that the Marines are on track to hand over security control of al Anbar to the Iraqi government by March.
Though the brass sees it clearly from on high, grunts on the ground are having a hard time reconciling the new, less "kinetic" reality with their training and expectations for a knock-down fight in a province that in 2006 was written off as lost by Marine intelligence analysts.
"I had a car coming right at me the other day and I totally freaked out," said Lance Cpl. Parker Winnett, a radio operator with Lima Co., 3/3, during a patrol in Karmah on Dec 11. "I had to remind myself that I can just let this guy go by. I didn't have to shoot at him to warn him off."

Navy Rivron noticably absent on their own River.

2008-01-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

As Rivron is too busy killing mice DSU 3 left behind, 1st CEB makes use of rubber rafts to sweep islands on the Euphrates. (picture from www.strategypage.com)

Anbar Handover in March 2008: (Thanks Sheik Sitar)

2008-01-12T06:04:00.001-08:00

Iraq 2005, Al Qaeda had been on the locals " s**t list "for several years,but no one had the ganas to do anything. Blood lust filled travesties of AQ killing sunnis and blaming Shias, started to wear down on the people.

Ramadi Summer 2006. Al Qaeda operators are turning up dead throughout the city.No one knows who is killing them including the Americans. The whacking of the orcs continues til fall. 1/6 Marines are able to control more of the city.

Nov 2006, Thanksgiving. A turning point. Al Qaeda and a local Sheik have a knock down drag out fight at the "Shark's Fin", ten klicks outside downtown Ramadi in Sofia. (This fight lasted several days and as far as I heard when we returned from Haditha the Sheik and his militia were able to fight off the orcs successfully without any help from Coalition troops.)

Fast forward to Jan 10 2007. A conference of Sheiks from Anbar province was organized by Ramadi local, Sheik Sitar. The objective was to get the tribes in line with what everyone was thinking ,but not saying. "Join the Americans, destroy Al Qaeda". The logic was that the Americans would eventually leave whereas AQ orcs would set up a chlorine bomb manufacturing franchise. In their minds the lesser of the two was preferable. Thus began "The Awakening" process and it's inevitable handover in March.

Jan 10 2007. (around 11 am) While doing security for the conference along the Euphrates river, Red2 and his crew were ambushed by Sofia orcs. No one was hurt and no BDA was obtained. Upon the Marines return to the FOB, several pairs of trousers had to be changed.

Gen.: Iraqis will take over Anbar in March By Robert Burns - The Associated Press Posted : Thursday Jan 10, 2008 17:22:51 EST WASHINGTON — Iraq's western province of Anbar, origin of the Sunni Arab insurgency that arose in the early months of U.S. occupation, will be returned to Iraqi control in March, a senior U.S. general said Thursday. Thus far, nine Iraqi provinces have reverted to Iraqi control, most recently the southern province of Basra in December. The process has gone substantially more slowly than the Bush administration once hoped, mainly because of obstacles to developing sufficient Iraqi police and army forces. Marine Maj. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin, commander of the roughly 35,000 Marine and Army forces in Anbar, said levels of violence have dropped so significantly — coupled with the growth and development of Iraqi security forces in the province — that Anbar is ready to be handed back to the Iraqis. He said in a telephone interview that a provincial security committee under Anbar's governor has been established and has rehearsed procedures for handling any security crisis that might develop. Under a plan accepted by the Iraqi government as well as the top two American authorities in Iraq — Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus — the U.S. military will transfer control of Anbar to provincial authorities in March, followed by a ceremony in April, Gaskin said. "We all agree that, based on the requirements, Anbar will be ready by that time," Gaskin said, speaking from his Multi-National Force-West headquarters in Fallujah, about 25 west of Baghdad. As recently as 18 months ago Anbar was the central stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq, the shadowy insurgent group that U.S. officials say is largely led by foreign terrorists but populated mainly by Iraqis. What recently has developed into a broad-based backlash against al-Qaida among Iraq's Sunni Arab community began in Anbar in late 2006. Americans recruited Sunni sheiks to help oust al-Qaida from their home turf, and the movement spread to former militants who once fought U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.

Sheik Sitar was killed last fall by an IED.

Bomb Sick Kitties in Pakistan let one through.

2007-12-28T19:14:00.000-08:00

Bhutto former PM of Pakistan and enemy #1 for the Calphite, Taliban, Al qaeda, Mahdi army, Right wing woman hate mongers and Pres. Mush was assasinated on Thursday by either a sniper or shrapnel or the latest..she smacked her head on the vehicle as she tried to get out of the way of the incoming rounds...

The River

2007-10-23T18:51:00.001-07:00

The palm leaves along the river look like an inviting park ground or a cool place to have a fair. “A house would look great right there” The camels are no where like the scenes in your mind almost like epcot of Iraq that you’ll visit 20 years the future, with your kids who are not born yet and where the pump houses are really restrooms and beer gardens with cheap golden exlire waiting for you once you get off the boat, visit the local sheiks and farmers who still, after four years play the part so well -staring at you like they did many years ago- when you we re a culture was an highly alien organism conducting wave running ops under the light of the morning sun, yet the songs, the descriptions are different from what you remembered. There is less trash and dogs. The stares you never forget. Unforgiving, stupid and unremarkable gazes. No sign of even a twitch of reason behind their eyes. You stare back for a moment and then look away as if you would any animal you’d see in its native environment. Grazing Buffalo have more personality than these humans with their hands on their hips. They won’t go back to work, even after a few minutes. They’ll just continue the staring contest. They are waiting for you to do something, without you knowing- otherwise there is little human contact without the initial wave ops. In years to come the people will talk about the boats and they will speak of the engagements like great battles by the gods. They will point to the damages still evident in the pump houses and trees; “Here we met the enemy –I shot many rounds and they shot back many rounds and with their guns that streamed out bullets, like spraying of a hose with water, they missed us, and we hid in the bushes while they snaked away –Away ,away far away back to their techno world of big breasted shiny woman and they’re insistent preoccupation at being gods in everything they do”. Who will remember us?

"Kurds upsetting the Turks at their breakfast"

2007-07-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

“Turkey's Evolving Anti-Terrorism Measures on the Iraqi Border”
Excerpt(s): “Along the Turkish-Iraqi border, the struggle between Turkish security forces
and Kurdish militants is escalating. The Turkish press has released testimonies from
captured Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants who claim to have witnessed U.S.
armored vehicles supplying weapons to a PKK base on Mount Qandil (The New
Anatolian, July 2). Regardless of its ultimate veracity, this news is being widely reported
in the Turkish press and is inflaming the already slowly deteriorating relations between
Turkey and the United States. There has been talk for months regarding an expected
Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, but preparations along the border indicate that the
Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) are also intent on developing a permanent security zone in
the Iraqi border region.”
Context/Analysis: In a separate story, The Christian Science Monitor examines the role
of the Kurdish minority in Turkey and argues that not all Turkish Kurds support PKK aims.
For more on this story, see the second link.
http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373517
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0706/p06s02-wosc.html

Csquare blogspot's JAke Burton describes news of the Yom Kipper war while in Vietnam:

2007-06-07T13:42:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Forty years ago today, Jack Burton and the Six Day War
Forty years ago this week, Jack Burton was totally oblivious to the threat Israel faced against a war against, Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. During the entire 96 hour war, Jack and his Marine mates were "in transit"-AKA- military jargon for "waiting for the plane to DaNang". Jack and company were held in temporary cold storage in a deserted Marine transit barracks bereft of all the ordinary amenities as bunks, mattresses, blankets or pillows, towels or hot water for the six day war.The first day we learned the Arab/Israeli War had started and the lucky few Marines with transistor radios were glued to the tiny speakers. The war news seemed stunningly unbelievable. It was l all what the hell?!! type news that makes sense now only because we know the war lasted six days. Back then, nobody knew that the war could last Six days. Nobody. We just thought the war would go on for years. Like our war. The Vietnam war. On the second day, a rumor started that our orders were being changed. We were no longer going to Vietnam. We were going to help Israel. Israel needed us. Even at that point, the second day, the sitrep seemed to me that Israel didn't really sound like it needed help. More ammo. Maybe. More tanks. Sure. But Marines? The idea that a tiny country like Israel could face off against Egypt's 100,000 troops and 1,000 tanks with 45,000 men and 650 tanks and still have enough balls to carry the fight against two more countries-Jordan and Syria-- still seemed entirely plausible to me. Why. Don't ask for explanations. Just did. It's part of the air only twenty-somethings can breathe.However, the rumor that our orders were being changed seemed to grow in strength and now the ink was somewhere slowly drying on our orders awaiting our receipt. I began to wonder if, in fact, the PFC who knew somebody, who worked with somebody who typed for the general's office had actually seen the manifest. After 96 hours the war ended. Just in time, our civilian plane was found and escorted to MCAS El Toro airfield. Qantas. As we boarded the flight and said hi to the smiling stewardess, I wondered if Israel couldn't come give us a hand. Shorten the War.
Posted by jack burton at Wednesday

"Dude,Where's my Arty round Dude?"

2007-05-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hunting for caches reminded me a lot of hunting for fossils as a kid. You pick an area and then keep an eye out for certain details that trigger a gut response that says"yup". Or another recipe entails milling about in a suspected area and if someone driving by took a shot at you, that was the evidence you needed to keep looking. A few minutes later you would hear"hey we got something...".

Myself, having been raised to fight Vietnamese, I often gave the enemy too much credit and was often surprised at how creatively lazy they could be. They behaved like stoners hiding the good pot in their moms kitchen. They thought they were pretty sneaky and they were, but when someone sees you in the spice rack everyday, once a day and you don't do any cooking..."Yup"Eventually someone 's gonna make that phone call.

The feeling of finding a cache is amazing. I can't describe the high you get finding one. It's euphoric. Marines get giddy sometimes forgeting to do some of the basic SSE procedures.The most satisfying find are the large munitions types like this one above. Those rounds are heavy. At least 100 pounds and combined with your body armor an additional 60 lbs , it's a bitch. Its heavy enough that after this picture was taken someone shot a single round at us from the city and I didn't bother to drop it to get cover because I didn't want to pick it up again. Sounds stupid? It made perfect sense to me at the time. "These guys cant shoot". Of coarse by breaking personal rule #1 10 minutes later I found out exactly how wrong I was. One of the Marine's took a single round in the sapi plate. He lived.His ears were ringing and it knocked him on his ass, but he was alright. So much for stereotyping insurgent marksman skills.

I think the guy who shot at us earlier was firing from a passing car. We believe that later the car dropped him off and he "enveloped" us from a different direction than the earlier threat . He took one single well aimed shot and ran.

Ancient Ruins on the Euphrates

2007-05-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

These ruins were north of where we lived. I counted 50 before I got bored. They are spaced out by about 500meters + or - a few meters. If I had to guess Id say that there is 70 of them evenly spaced out with their remains on both sides of the river. One of the pictures is what looks like the remains of a castle in the middle of the river.It almost looks like a watch tower with either tiny window or holes in it.

If they are aquaducts someone was serious about moving some water around in the area.Although you could hardly tell now. (The Roman aquaducts reportedly move about 40 million gallons a day). None of the Iraqis I spoke to knew who built them. I found a short blurb about the Assryians building aquaducts several thousand years ago, but it was stated that they were constructed on the northern portions of the Tigris.I saw no sign of where the stone was obtained. Not all are exactly like the other. Some seem to have steps to the water,but then again theyre all in a different state of disaray.

I saw no other ruins besides these.

2007-04-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

Me, Jan 29th 2007. Operation "New Day".

2007-03-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

We are flying on another unnamed Air force prop plane. Uncomfortable. I keep shifting my ass on the seat. There is no one on my left, no seat, just a big empty space. The Marine on my right is pushing me off my seat bc of G-forces. Can't sleep. In and out. I see a Marine in front of me bobbing his head. Something wet falls from above and hits us both. I can see that it hits him on his face. Another drop hits my hand. I look at it to see if Hydraulic fluid. It looks like water. The Marine wipes it from his face and puts his hand under his nose to smell it. It passes the smell test. He does this without opening his eyes.
We land without any kind of heads up. The plane doesnt seem to slow down at all. There is no turning,other than the stuttered bump, it stills feels like we are flying. After awhile we feel the plane turn. We slow down and then after a minute we stop. We sit in the dark and look at each other. Finally the back hatch opens. I think to myself, "I would never jump out of one of these things, maybe my testostorone has now achieved normal levels". They move our stuff out of the way and we try and get up smoothly, picking up our carry ons and weapons all at once and step off the ramp. Right away the air smells different. There is more wind here.
We file into a waiting bus. It is all very undramtic. The bus is full. A civilian on the plane bitches at the bus driver about the next bus. There is another unit of Marines there. They look tired. Some are females. They don't talk to one another. They look wierd and unimpressed. There is about 20 of them. The irrate civilian, turns out was working as a dj in Iraq begins to harass our bus driver again as well wait for the second bus. He tries to make our driver feel like he's keeping the other Marines from going home. "Theyve been getting shot at". The guy is an asshole. Pretty soon he will be home with all the other assholes.

"Cool headed Marines Prevail to the very End" ;"I was There" Challenge coins for sale; "The GreatCabernet soaked Red Sauce Feast" "Ho Chi Minh's dog"

2007-03-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

It's getting towards the end. You'll know it when you start buying postcards and T-shirts. I have about 4 shirts and 2 caps along with a couple of shemaughs. Still have to buy a coin for one of the nieces. (Your uncle deployed-you get a coin . He gets deployed again..You get another perfunctory coin. That's they way it goes in 2007). Sorry no war trophies.
So Ive watched a ton of Star Wars episodes. The last time (2003)we had a Soprano marathon that lasted about 48 hours straight. Everybody was acting like they were from North Jersey for a week.
Bought some near beer to get me excited about pounding a few when I return, but got nothing. I don't miss the beer and its pretty weird not wanting it. I have had a hankering for some good wine and brie cheese, baguette bread,movie theatres, Italian food-good seafood that's not suspect. I may hit Maria's when I get back. Clams on a half shell -good red sauce with opera in the background and me dunking my face in a glass fishbowl of Cabernet. YAHHHH. (Right now my wife is wondering why I'm not writing nice things about her)
This time I'm making more plans. I finished a resume and while I got this down time Ill be sending it out. Still need to thank everyone that was so nice to me these past few months. I hope you didn't worry too much but, if you did-thank you. I really do appreciate every kind thought and positive waves you sent. Everything counts.

SitRep on the Iraq war: I still think we are winning. I still believe that the media is as bad as the terrorists and are partially responsible for their ability to continue. I learned some things that did surprise me. There are many good Americans out here fighting the good fight both civilian and military think of Iraq 2nd. Meaning no one is here for the Iraqis first . Its more for the adventure and cool stories or just a disdain for the garrison world that Marines keep coming back again and again. I guess I would too if I didn't have such a beautiful awesome wife at home waiting for me. Why go home when you can make such a huge difference here every day? (Like I said before this is all just gang warfare being publicized globally). The pictures of you here are cooler than Friday night at the Manhole back home, and if your lucky you may even participate in some local in fighting.
America is a great strong country. I could sit here and make a list of shit we suck at ,but to make it quick, I'll say that we are stronger in many ways than just about every nation out there. Americans are total workaholics and their incredible work ethics blow the rest of the world away.They also have an ability to organize even the most absolute useless shit you could possibly imagine.Ho Chi Minh, despite his weakness for eating dogs once said we were stronger than the French . Forty years and three major land invasions later, I think it still applies. We are not a warrior culture, but we are much stronger than the rest of the west.

Ill write more AARs when I get back.

Most of the Marines are not overt about their excitement to go home. I would say the majority were extremely happy with the mission and felt a great deal of satisfaction conducting it. That's a big change from what I saw before. Last time no one was eager to leave the wire, now guys volunteer for every chance they get to do something different or unique. I think most know how lucky they were to do something as cool as this mission turned out to be.Or how cool they themselves turned out to be doing it.

Every once in awhile, "Oh Yea",The Cresent Moon and the MSM love for the Orcs.

2007-02-23T12:38:00.000-08:00

New Army guys are different, more emotional and obnoxious. I see and hear more soldiers on the phones either arguing or crying. Yuk. Consensus says they will "learn the hard way" . That's a quote from the old Army guys.

You can understand the significance of the crescent moon here. You've seen it on TV representing Islam or a nation, but you never think why. Maybe they just ran out of symbols? "The cross and the star were taken so we didn't have much to choose from" A few days ago I saw a scary looking crescent moon like I have not seen since I was a kid. Venus was to the left. The moon itself was a silver crack of a smile in the dark.When I saw it I had the same reaction Arabs did in 600 A.D. That it was something meaningful.Weird. Every once in a while you get one of those "oh yea".

The TV is back on at the chowhall and the news is filled with bullshit about Anna Nicole and Scooter Libby's diarrhea mouth. I honestly said to myself today -"Wow, I'm glad I'm not home watching this smack".It doesn't look like we are missing out on too much. I've completely turned 100% on the MSM-Main Stream Media. They are about as evil as terrorist cheerleaders can get and as guilty. They are helping the enemies self esteem. He is weak. His work ethic sucks. He is too lazy to fight toe to toe and killing women and children is easier.When these Orcs watch themselves on TV the portrayal they receive is not who they really are, but they still believe it. It is what gives them more power.

"Petting the Kitty","Don Corleone" and "Whacking the Orcs"

2007-01-19T13:38:00.000-08:00

So the steu unit left finally. Not before pissing off just about everyone even civilian contractors. The internet services are the most butt hurt and are kinda "smarvy" when my kind walk in the door. Gny Gunslinger has done a good job "petting the kitty" as it were. Its still a pain in the ass though.

Froze my ass off. Neck is sore from shivering. I got footwarmers on my neck to help.

Some of you were asking about the execution. HOw are things diferent etc. The answer is nothing. The Iraqis moved past Saddam Hussein a long time a go.
Sure they have sual memorials, but none of the gunfire insanity that the uday/Qusay bros brought.
Some good things have happened and from what I can piece together, we are winning in the area Im in. CF didnt do it by themselves. There is a Sheik here who the U.S Military treats like Don Coreleone. As they should, he has people wacked just like any other godfather and he can find out just about anything. The Thugs hate him and try and kill him as much as possible. We protect him and he helps us destroy the orcs.He is also the reason why we have so many IP recruits here. Im pretty certain he wll be known to the mainstream pop in the U.S in the next few years.

2007-01-04T12:44:00.000-08:00

Just spent the last 45 mins trying to get to one of my email account. Nothing. I thought Ill just get a msg out this way to pass that conductivity is bad today for whatever reason before I smash this computer and say gnite. The phones are being a pain in the ass as well. I keep hearing Army guys behind me saying "hello? HELLO?" Over and over again.
Everything is good. K, I have the info for S.D. Ill send it whenever email works. (Keeps saying no server) Im about to get kicked outta here.
Also Iraqi Police want to know what the people in the states think. I told them that most of you are ignorant and afraid of Arabs. I also told them that when Americans hear the call to prayer, deep down inside they think its "The call to kill Americans!" They thought that was funny.
If you want to send more stuff, send socks and flashlights for the IPs.
Everyone is starting to get sick. Dont use my name on this site. Weather is not as wet. The mud is drying finally. Im getting fat from all the chow you sent.
Ugh what else..3mins left. I feel like Im trying to thank everyone for winning an oscar. Damn, I got nothing. Got Uncle L pkg. Tell BB I got his msg and tell my brother no one plays dominos anymore-everyone has a laptop- its the Marine corps 2007.

2006-12-27T00:37:00.000-08:00

Been awhile.

Christmas was good. No one had the stereotype homesickness trauma that is so often portrayed by writers.
Again, there is really not much to compare this deployment to 2003. They are alike only in what country they were in and that country of 2003 no longer exists except in the minds of Marines who haven't been back. The longer Im here the more I have noticed that I rarely reflect or am reminded of the last deployment. Once in a while I will smell garbage being burned . I have not smelled death once since weve been here. Or that nasty burnt oil smell, dirty ass Marines, the LAV smell when you first crack open the hatch or even shit.
Even though I havent put up a post in a month and a half , Ive still maintained something on the laptop I recieved in the mail. So, whenever I get the chance maybe Ill update the days I missed. Most likely after we get back.
Myself and 3 other Marines had the privledge of having lunch with the Commandant and some of his staff just recently. Although I didnt sit with him, I was across the table from Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps and next to Major General Glueck. I thought the decision to have me at the lunch was made mainly b/c I guess they knew I would hit them up for information or I would question them til they were sick of me. Either way there would be no uncomfortable pauses during the meal. Sgt. Coondog was also with me. I figured he was there for comic relief in case I make a total ass out of us. At least they could leave laughing. Sgt Major Estrada was a lot more interested in us and available than I thought he would be. When you see pictures of him in the paper you can definately tell he was a hard ass drill instructor. The best way to describe him is to look at the photo of him and think of him as your DI when hes older and now he wants to shake your hand and put his arm around you. Weird at first ,but then cool.
Major General Glueck was unfortanate enough to sit next to me. Where upon I hit him up on his his personal opinion on the war,where it was going,the American public frame of mind, and the decision for the Marine corps to get out of the boat biz. He answered most of my questions at length, only dodging the question about the possibility of the war on terror not being in a definable state to really understand all the different levels at whats really at stake. (Bit my lip after asking that one) A MSgt from CAG began to chime in here and there thoughout the lunch, but for the most part it was just me talking to the General. He asked me if the Transition from our original plateform to the new one was difficult. I replied that our crews are organized similar to the XXXX so that it makes perfect sense we are better fitted for the mission than amtrackers who had the job originally. He was throughout our talk attentive. At times he brought the talk of the war to the big picture version and I sensed he fights it daily in his mind. He talked of the President and the decisions that may be coming. A few times he looked at me like a rich uncle meeting a long lost nephew for the first time. Happy to see me ,but I wasnt the first to come knocking at his door. I liked him. Afterwards he gave me the yearbook goodbye-"Take care . Keep your head down. Thank you for your service", etc. We sat there waiting for what to happen next. He seemed like it was new to him also. I asked him where he was off to after this visit. He pulled out a piece of paper,
"1/6 Hurricaine Point, Lt Col XXXX... you know him?"

"No sir, I havent run into any 1/6 Marines here."
The Msgt from CAG jumped in again, saying something about where 1-6 operates how far away H Point was etc. We continued to sit there, Marines were getting up to have there pics taken with the Sgt. Major. A Marine came up to me and shoved a business card in my face. "CMC Photographer" what the hell is this???
"Go to that website" the General said (Huh?) "You can find any photos taken of you on that site and you can download them." wow ok thats nice...

And that was it. I jumped up to get my picture taken with the CMC whereupon I shook his hand and......
To be continued

Coolness Factor, This is whats its like to be a hot women and Cpl N's PTSD from 03 is a 06 faceplant...

2006-11-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

Empty here right now.
Had time to organize some of the armory items while most are out. It sucks somewhat not being able to get into details of what goes on here. there are some things that wouldnt seem like such a big deal ,but b/c Im not sure I wont write about it. Another thing I was amazed about today was the level of power/ respondsibility you have here is friggen incredible. I went to an office on base to cooridinate w/ specific individuals who's equivelant in the civilian world would most likely consider me a slack jawed troglodyte with a perchant for trailer women and cheap beer. However, in this world, b/c of the mission, everyone wants to work with us. Its great. Its like being the hot chick at a party and everyone is trying to take a picture of you. Im seriously loving it. At ifrst I noticed it right away I thought perhaps it was b/c of my schmooze ability, but after some quick analysis I figured out it really wasnt completely me but'other things". The sexiness factor of our platform in a road war with under paid FF looking for highway destruction jobs makes me coming for help like some damn interesting work. Anyways, not to get full of it,but- you know. Its pretty damn cool and Im thankful for the opportunity to be a part of it.
I was watching an old war movie classic "Kelly's Hero's " starring CLint EastWood and Telly Savales. A FW came in screaming above w/out making a boom. There is this guy, Cpl N who was a PFC in OIF 1 who was at one of the camps that got hit during a scud attack. Well he heard thye sound and I knew any sec he'd hit the deck. Sure enough -he goas SPLAT right on the floor next to me. The sight was so funny, I did feel bad ,but the idea of getting cover by anything that was going to hit us at that point would ve been useless. Might as well continue watching the movie and save face just in case its not a resurected SCUD from the bad ol days of 2003 still trying to find you...

Going back to the H.S girlfriend analogy

2006-10-29T14:32:00.001-08:00

I spent awhile back home thinking how I would describe Iraq again after being gone for so long. It was going to go something like: "Remember that old girlfriend from highschool? She was a bitch when you were 17 ?Even though your now older and wiser youre still stupid enough to go back out with her and to your surprise, even though she is a little more "experienced" and wears different clothes and listens to different music, she is still that same f@#$king bitch" ..or something to that effect. I thought the ex girlfriend analogy wouldve fit well,but- It is different here, I cant really put my finger on it. I over heard some cpls a few nights ago talking to themselves comparing this deployment with the last. The main idea they were hashing out was why the last time seemed to have sucked so much more than this go around. (Knock on wood) . I really cant explain it either. Experience? Nope, dont think so. My theroy- or at least part of it is that in 03 we never had time to recover from the invasion. We never ramped down so to speak, we were stilll in invasion mode 4 months later. That is at least one of my theories. I was friggen burnt by May. Done. and I think a lot of the guys were as well.

Conditions are good here. The city doesnt have the amount of gunfire that Diwaniya. No where near. Civilian contractors are everywhere .but they are not as prevelent as I wouldve imagined reading the papers 3 months ago. Tonight I had a large salad with rice and chili while watching the Rams and Chargers play. My contacty with the locals has been minimal. I will say that the people unlike last time, do not mess around with us as far as taking chances getting shot. I flagged an Iraqi Police car down thinking it was a civilian vehicle and he smashed his brakes down and backed up in a heart beat. I was quite pleased by the reaction. I think the idea of getting shot is very real. I yelled at a kid who was trying to pick up trash near the river(who the hell police calls in Iraq?) and he looked at me once. Pointed to the river and then walked away. He waited nearby til we left. and didnt seem to upset by the whole thing. In 2003, the people were more brazen or stupid I guess. It took them forever to react to us and most of the time they wouldnt listen unless you yelled loud enough.

Mcdonalds, Kimchee,m and the dream of you never leaving ....

2006-10-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

Weird.

Its like you left ,but then you didnt leave. Its really odd. Like a dream you have after youve been back for a awhile its over ,but the dream keeps going. There is a sense of relief over the familarity of things here and not too mention that the machine has really gotten the rotation down to a science. There is even strategically placed water all over the camp that as far as I can tell is for you to take as much as you need. No over flowing shitters and plenty of anticeptic moisturizer nearby. The last time however we had more of a sense of what we were doing was making history. This time its not as much. There is quite a few more things that have changed ,but since this is the internet I ll have to post it at a much later date. I think it would be considered opsec violation. All the workers are pakistanis and it is Ramadan.So if you want to eat at the subway here dont go when the sun is setting otherwise they will scream"Go away we are eating!" according to one Marine earlier in the evening. Apparently they cannot drink water as well during the day. It seems dangerous, but they mustve been doing it long enough to know it can be done.
I made the unfortunate mistake of eating at the Mcdonald s and no shit I felt something stab in the gut about thirty mins later Ugh! Nasty. I ussually dont eat the trash ,but since its right here I figured what the hell. I felt like I was having somekind of a crash with metamorphic gut pains the started dull and then got sharp. I decided the only way to stop it was to dilute the power of the Mcdonalds and eat some chow. Lots of lettuce tomatoes and mash potatoes with a little bit of Kim chee to give me extra Korean power. (There are south Koreans here...) Afterwards I felt better.

Next: "Enter Ur"
out yo

RTB

2006-09-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

2 weeks :and we're now waiting on word on what going to happen for the remainder of our time in CLNC. The Marines came to the barracks rested and looking like they,d been eating and sleeping like it was summer vacation and today was the first day of school.Youre happy to see your friends ,but your dragging ass cuz you know you gotta get back to work soon. Most of the post leave stories have been the same-some drama here and there and at least one big shopping spree followed by a drunken frenzy of football fueled angst caused by administrative pay issues that nobody was ready for.(docked)

I didnt take any pictures. Not even on my phone . Which was stupid on my part b/c I complained to my wife how I didnt have any photos of her and here I had a camera in my pocket.

The new house is great. New BBQ as well that I did make some use of. I shouldve talked to the neighbors more and try to get them to mow my dam lawn while Im gone. The grass ninja next door cut his in the middle of the night right on our property line.

Hardcore Navy Riverines coming to Anbar to save your son's ass!!!

2006-09-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

Marines of DSU! Your late night prayers have been answered. Hardcore Navy Riverines like our salty friend on the right will be coming to replace you with their obvious lack a S.A and security. YAR for the Blue and Gold!
Marine Corps News
Sailors to take over Marine Corps’ riverine operations next year
Sept. 6, 2006; Submitted on: 09/11/2006 01:51:24 PM ; Story ID#: 2006911135124 By Lance Cpl. Brandon R. Holgersen, MCB Camp Lejeune
MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyrone Cole, student participating in the culminating exercise of the Riverine Coxswain’s and Boat Captain’s Course, casually scans the vegetation as his riverine assault craft makes its way along the Cape Fear River Sept. 6. Sixty sailors from various active duty units participated in the final exercise conducted by the Marines with Special Missions Training Center here Sept. 6-14 in preparation for the Navy’s take over of Marine Corps river operations in Iraq next year. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Brandon R. Holgersen)(released)MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Sept. 6, 2006) -- Navy sailors are taking back riverine operations from the Marine Corps. 60 sailors from various active duty units participated in the Riverine Coxswain and Boat Captain’s Course’s final exercise conducted by the Marines with Special Missions Training Center here, Sept. 6. The final exercise was the culminating test for these sailors, which allowed them to take everything they had learned and put it together in simulated missions, said Staff Sgt. Erick J. Hodge, a boat team instructor with SMTC. The sailors will be the first of this new Navy unit to be deployed to Iraq. Marine instructors trained the Navy personnel because the Navy does not have formal schools or experienced sailors in riverine operations. Marines trained the sailors effectively to take over the job of ensuring Iraq’s water ways stay in friendly hands, said Senior Chief Bruce Diette, senior sailor participating in the course. “The Navy doesn’t have a school that teaches boat tactics or boat handling as well as the Marines here,” said Diette. “This is the best group of Marines I have ever worked with.”Not only were the sailors tested on their riverine assault craft boat handling and tactics, they were also evaluated on their use of Marine Corps infantry tactics and weapon systems, which they learned at the School of Infantry (East), said Petty Officer 3rd Class David Kopp, a former quarter master and student enrolled in the course. “They taught me a lot about combat and working as a team,” said Kopp. “It’s going to be nice to build our own training around these courses.” The missions were all created by the Marine instructors who used their experiences from conducting river operations in Iraq to simulate realistic scenarios for the sailors, according to Hodge. Missions included combat patrols, dam security and reconnaissance patrols and began with a four hour convoy on the Cape Fear River to the exercise base of operations.Over the course of the exercise, the sailors conducted back-to-back missions split up between three teams, according to Hodge. They then received a warning order, created terrain models, ran rehearsals of missions and executed the missions given within a 12-hour time period. “If they are not on a mission they are planning for one or rehearsing for one,” said Hodge. Sailors volunteered and were selected from a variety of backgrounds in the Navy including quarter masters, boatswain’s mates and engineers to form the new Navy riverine unit, according to Diette. “The training has been awesome. This is what I came here to do,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Joshua Holder, a boatswains mate and student going through the course.

Pics of Euphrates

2006-08-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

Notice the Palm Grove in the background. Plus the high vegetaion along the riverbank.
The 1st pic on the left is Barawana.Some of the houses look like theyre right on the water.

Mission #4: Alligator ghost

2006-08-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

Mission #4 of continous Ops week here. It took several hours to do the insertion. Waiting in the river I couldve sworn that I saw several alligators nearby, but after I checked it out with binos and saw nothing I chalked it up to fatigue.

More Photos...

2006-08-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

Photo taken at the last few hundred meters of a 6 mile hump after we had worked at Combat Town for 2 days. (See previous Post)

2006-08-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

2006-08-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

Recieved the grey belt.

2006-08-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

More continous ops. More sneaking cat naps in other Marines rooms. Too much traffic in mine and the roommate has a sleeping disability.

Trained on inserts for the Bt-crews. P.Grove sweepin. Early morning .

Tired, but getting use to 1 or 2 hour, even feel guilty for getting more than 3.

Everyone here is addicted to my space a ordering out pizza. There is not much extra time to eat at the chow hall b/c you dont to sacrifice you sleep time

2006-08-07T17:28:00.000-07:00

Marines of 1st Plt at range doing EMP Training

2006-08-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

1st Plt went to the skeet range to do some shooting. The training was emphasis on moving tgts. Learning occured.

Combat Town

2006-07-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

Hit Combat town.

Not more than a six mile hike from CHB. The training consisted of some round robin classes-Scaling walls using anything available in full gear -stepping on your buddies knee etc. MOUT, A.S.S a building using anything on the fly .
There was a patrol scenerio each plt was put through. For whatever reason the instructors didnt use the crawl walk run template when it was our turn. The Gny decided I would execute the first security patrol which turned into a Mogadishu nightmare at +10 minutes. The Marines did really well. We were taking fire from a notional Sniper who "Notional "killed 2 Marines and gave the 3rd a sucking chest wound. Concurrently we had unruly locals and a building next to us that we were making an attempt to clear. Two more Marines were notionally killed attempting to clear the building which basically left me the only one in the fire team left. The 2nd Fire team had 2 more . By this time, I had called the QRF ,but didnt give instructions in which direction to arrive from. Cpl Achilles and his Marines came running in without any regard of what was going on -just all asking "where do you want us"?(Next time in the opord-make certain to have a good plan for the QRF and its arrival). We ended up staying on the safe side of a 7 ton for too long until I told the Marines to start stealing the vehicles from the civilians to get the Medevac out since for whatever reason I couldnt get a hold of the COC. The locals started to get uppidity again. Myself and another Marine tackled one and threw his ass in another stolen green truck.
The Sniper still was in play. I told one of our drivers to take one of the 7 ton s nearby and use it as a block for Cpl Achillles as he moved in for the kill. At that point the RT operator reported that the COC said that we had 40 to 50 insurgants moving to our position. At that point I decided we should just get the hell out. The stolen 7 ton turned into our evac. We jumped on -got accountability and right about as we were leaving all the notional locals who were harassing us-throwing bikes in front of the medevac and generally being a pain in the ass were standing next to the observer/instructors,watching us-I shoved half my body out the window and pointed my middle finger in the air and said: "FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought I;d get dinged for being unprofessional,but the evaluators thought it was great. The sucking chest wound ended up arriving and lived. I did catch shit for breaking "the rules" ,but as one of the officers put it."His medevac is alive".

Yar.

A friendly reminder

2006-07-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

A friendly reminder

Why Riverine War is going Blue and Gold

2006-07-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

Navy responds to questions about new force By Roxana Tiron
The new Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC), after hitting some rough waters in Congress this year, is working to raise lawmakers’ awareness about its mission in an effort to gain more support in future defense bills.
The NECC unifies existing Navy functions, such as naval construction (better known as the Seabees), logistics, ordnance disposal, diving and salvage, as well as maritime protection.
But the program’s creation of a riverine force, capable of fighting on river waters, is stirring up controversy on the Hill.
Traditionally, the Marine Corps, the Navy’s land component, has provided the riverine forces, and several lawmakers are concerned that the Navy is trying to duplicate something the Marines specialize in.
“It made me question whether they are going to develop another Marine Corps,” Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, told The Hill.
Being a capable land force with ability to fight up rivers in inland areas “was the only historical reason for the Marine Corps,” Hefley said. “The Marine Corps is not a separate branch” of the Navy — it’s part of it, he added. “Just bring more people into the Marine Corps.”
Hefley said the Armed Services Committee needs more explanation about the new command before it authorizes it.
“While I applaud the Navy’s efforts to realign its brown-water force structure and develop greater means for adapting to irregular warfare, my colleagues and I are working to validate the requirements of the new command and understand fully the riverine mission,” said Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), chairman of the panel’s Projection Forces Subcommittee.
Rear Adm. Don Bullard, the NECC commander, is adamant in pointing out that his newly minted command is not duplicating Marine Corps capabilities but that it works in “close concert” with the Marines.
The NECC “is a high-end defensive force focused on anti-terrorism and force protection,” Bullard said in an interview. “The naval infantry is the Marine Corps, [but] they welcomed it.”
He said that the Navy and Marine Corps leadership had to educate sailors at the rank-and-file level about the role of the NECC and its riverine force.
One of the more prescient reasons for initiating the command was to oversee personnel with skills that could relieve the Army and Marine Corps for certain missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bullard said.
“We have spent a lot of time with congressional staff so that they understand that it is good for our sailors, that it is the Navy thinking how we can contribute to the joint force, how it uses its core capabilities in the maritime space and how it can focus on helping coalitions,” Bullard said.
The Navy specializes in areas that are desperately needed in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Tom Gordy, chief of staff to Rep. Thelma Drake (R-Va.), a member of the Armed Services Committee.
“If you look at Iraq, it has been more of a Marine Corps and Army war. The Navy has personnel to support much of what is going on in Iraq,” such as construction battalions and ordnance disposal for roadside bombs.
“The Navy had to reorganize itself in order to meet the needs in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Gordy, a supporter of the NECC.
Bullard said that the Navy has maintained those specialized forces for a long time but that since Sept. 11, those forces have been in higher and higher demand, although they have not had a command to guide them and take care of the training and personnel aspects.
“We looked at where we needed to be and [saw that] we needed to expand and bring new capabilities like the riverine force,” Bullard said.(bc the Marine corps already has something that doesnt need to be fixed-were not busy enough in the WOT lets screw with this a bit..)
But the House Armed Services Committee took a drastic approach toward the new command in the 2007 defense authorization bill. The authorizers stipulated that the Navy cannot spend any money from its operation and maintenance accounts for the NECC until the Navy meets 100 percent of its requirements for ship and air operations as well as maintenance.
The House also requires the secretary of the Navy to submit a report with the annual budget request certifying that the requirements are met.
“The committee is aware that the Department of Navy has funded ship and air operations and depot maintenance below the national requirements,” the House report said. That means that carrier-strike groups and expeditionary-strike groups will be unable to execute missions fully in their assigned area of responsibility,(Supporting Air ops in the gulf,Iran ,North Korea.). the report added.
“While the committee understands the Department of Navy’s desire to expand its role from the sea to the river and land, we have concerns that the traditional role and mission of the Navy is not being adequately funded,” the report said.(your future blue water war..)
The NECC was established in January through an internal reallocation of funds, said John Scofield, spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee.
“Most of the money for NECC procurement, including the riverine units, was initially proposed in the FY ’06 [global war on terrorism] supplemental,” Scofield said.
However, the NECC did not fare well in the supplemental. Because of President Bush’s immigration initiative, deploying National Guard members to the Southwest border, the funding for the NECC was taken out as an offset.
“The House and Senate followed the amended [budget] request and deleted these funds,” Scofield said.
In the 2007 defense budget, there is funding for the NECC but it is scattered across several procurement and operations and maintenance accounts, he explained. Most of the capabilities united in the new command existed previously across the Navy and therefore have been funded regularly.
Scofield pointed out that because money was scrapped from the war supplemental the Navy’s 2007 request for the command can’t be executed and “a revised plan will be needed.”
“Before conference action is complete for FY ’07 we will need to revisit the overall funding for NECC and the riverine units,” he said.
The House has passed the 2007 defense appropriations bill, but the Senate has yet to do so.
The NECC is designed to encompass up to 40,000 sailors, according to Bullard. Members of the Reserve will make up 45 percent of the force, he said.
“We have an NECC unit of some type in every state of the country,” said Bullard. “When you look at Congress, [lawmakers] have constituents in their state.”

My new House, The Navys Global Future and a little Army of Darkness

2006-07-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Checked out the new house.

Turns out that Cpl Bunn's Mother in Law owns it. So of coarse I hit the guy up for a good word on my behalf. He obliged of coarse, good man that he is. I walked through it today. It was interesting to see pictures of him on the walls of the house.The house itself is awesome. Its got a colonial theme to it with an edge of vineyards in the kitchen.

Day two of the 96...My feet still feel busted up from the obstacle coarse. Hopefully I'll be good for PT when we get back.Although I should do some running while Im home. Yesterday mostly consisted of trying to recover from the drive from hell Friday eve/Sat morn. I stayed in bed for a couple of hours after getting home with a cell phone on my chest waiting for Marines to check in.I had to hound a couple of them to call , but otherwise only one got the sandwich head award.

Had a good discussion about the Navy taking over the mission with the dude. I basically gave him my analysis of why it s going down the way it is (Politics dude, The Navy feels left out on the war, they want to be Marines...) His version of what is going to happen is that the Navy will be the center piece in the war againist Iran and they need to stop taking money from blue water and funneling it into Brown water when you have Marines who can do the job. They need to get ready for the next war....

I dont get into too much discussion about global future, the next war, etc. Mostly everyone is too busy dealing with the training in front of them.No one speculates anything except what is front of them. Iran is not even on the radar screen and talk about North Korea is considered Sci-Fi. Iraq is the end all be all and in my opinion the details of the insurgancy is not discussed enough. If it is - its not being conducted at my level. Most Marines are eager for the good parts "Skip to the end and tell me how to kill it" type attitude. Thats not neccesarily bad...

"Good, Bad-Im the guy with the Gun"- Dude from Army of Darkness

2006-06-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

The Cadre was told to post themselves.

Training today consisted of "in house" instructors. The following ad hoc classes were given:
Terrain Model, Converting Grid to Magnetic az, MG employment on the SURC, Cultural Awareness, Arabic, ROE's, Code of Conduct, Overview of the SURC at the ramp and IA drills.

Raining some more. My car smells like a jungle with the heat on. No GO on anyone , but E% getting cars. It appears to be a done issue or at least no one wants to discuss it further.

Plt pt tommorrow. Boots and Utes w/ the glow belts.

FINEX:

Consisted of 2 missions a day with 3 hours of sleep btwn each pair of missions. You generally had 10 hours to complete plan, task all the patrol members and complete the mission. Mine was an HVT that was to be done -everything in only 5 hours. It was dirty, not as smooth or practiced planning as I wouldve liked. Once we arrived on the objective all that was waiting was a bit or 4th of July pyro that went off as we closed. Nobody knew what to make of it. We ended up just shooting it up and leaving.

More rain set to come...

2006-06-25T16:18:00.000-07:00

Raining.

Ran into Lt Ankrum during the finex. He seemed exactly the same as back i n old Bravo days.

Got a nice burn in the back of my head. Massive disgusting peeling like a snake. I tried to scratch /brush it off but it ended up getting in another Marines mouth. He was highly digusted. and then also confessed his extreme aversion to feet.

Ran into Ssgt H one of the SMTC instructors while getting a haircut today.

More debrief on Finex later.

2006-06-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Finished th FinEx yesterday evening. After the 22 hour days for the last week. Nobody was overtly anxious or talking about getting a beer orwhatever. We just cleaned weapons and went back to the barracks. I went to the co office to see if my thunb drive showed up and foe whatever reaso ,I thought to myself that I couldn't remember anyone complaining. too tired to keep writing.

Capt/Coxswain Finex

2006-06-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday.

Boat Captains had the final today. The rest of the company had off. Most will have watch on the ramp etc throughout the weekend including Capts.

Finex for Capt/Coxswains begins Sunday, however it looks like the AO we were slated to work in is in bad condition due to the heavy rains we had recently. We may begin the finex here and do missions to the alt AO once its in a better conditon. I believe the area is several hours a way by boat and the scenery is littered with bikini clad hotties up and down the shore with a few on yauhts on the way.We'll see. I expect the whole event to be rough, unforgivable and extremely frustrating. So as you can imagine , my little 12 hour break is just me and my angst. Even though we have passed the course for the most part, I am in agreement only with myself that there is some more shit to come. Especiallycreation of the op order which we will be tasked to give to our boat crews -along wih terrain models. All this, the mission and op order brief all completed on the water and back in 8 hours for a week straight. These types of scenerios are often called" shit in a sandwich"or anything known more for being inedible. Maybe I am wrapped a little too tight, but I think that the more you keep that shitty taste in your mouth -the easier it is to eat more.So stay in the uncomfortable angst mode. None of this talking out the side of your mouth,relaxed ,eating chicken and storming the beach like some Leeroy Jenkins wanna be. If your feeling good -your probley not doing your job.

Sit Rep DSU

2006-06-10T23:04:00.000-07:00

Yar.The lazy days of active duty life. Standing in lines and wasting the afternoon playing video games...(Not so much).

Its our first Saturday of the mobilization and the highlight just for the day was the mile run in full gear back to the barracks after our 3 mile hump. My initial reaction wasn't "aw shit", but ok,ok you can do it. Shit ! OK....leave your body -Leave your body now. AUTO PILOT! AUTO PILOT! SCURVY BASTARDS!
Not much in the Yar mode. As they say "good training" nonetheless. Even though that catch all phrase is considered somwhat a bullshit catch all lazy answer. I'll use it for this only.

Slept for the rest of the evening and then woke up to drink a couple of beers and see whats going on. Marines on liberty mostly came back by midnight. Quiet.

One mor beer and Ill hit the sack Sgt.Coon dog was able to attain web access, so I am bro taxing him of not only his beverages but his internet as well. Which he has graciously deffered to me without any complaints

Next week, more PT, more class, more no sleep. Had a couple of those jumping out of the rack and start talking episode the last 2 nights. Dont know what the roommate thinks. So far he doesnt seem to mind.

Weve got tons of pics and photo so far. You can see up to three different Marines taking photos of the traing at one time,so lack of it is mostly due to whoever is running whatever specific site.

Tired. Out.

Sit-Rep DSU-3, Welcome to Your Personal Jungle.

2006-06-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

The Big Picture:The vomit reflex adapter I installed in my guts after the parental units got divorced back in 1982 was thought to have a gotten a good work out on Saturday ...However, I will have to say the C.O did a good job withFamily day.

Deployment Support:There was an assortment of the usual array of deployment self help desks. The wife and I hit up USAA for Homeowners insurance from a retired female officer who acted like she had spent too much time in the Navy around Alpha Males.

Food: compliments of Merril Lynch.(Thanks to Capt S) I couldve done without the obnoxious lcpl cursing behind me in the chowline talking about what a badass he was driving 7 tons this summer in Michigan er Wisconsin, (whatever midwestern cornfed shithole you went. Next time please uncross your eyes and take in regard those who have family members that didnt sleep with their cousins may be trying to eat near your foul mouth yapping.)

DSU-III: Welcome to the island of Hurt...
Training begins this week. The 1st sgts intent is to whoop our asses into better than average shape. Prepare yourself for PT five days a week. I intend to take naps after COB. Hopefully this will off set the muscle fatigue.Maybe a beer or two will cut the edge off.For the most part I would expect workdays to begin at 5 and end at 5 at the latest. Word on the street says that the other DSU's made serious attempts to do 5 days a week PT - both failed to keep the momentum. I believe b/c we are not attempting to do it in the late afternoon that we may be more successful. Practice you cadence....

more bull.shit you'll have to face.

2006-06-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

"We love death. The U.S. loves life. That is the big difference between us." --Osama bin Laden
Many anticipate - some eagerly - that the Haditha incident will enrage the people of Iraq, perhaps even stir the rage of the oft noted and much broader "Arab street".
Many are wrong. There are numerous reasons for this misjudgment, not the least of which is the inability to comprehend a culture that seemingly places more value on the physical incarnation of it's scriptures than it does on human life, that will rise up over cartoons of the prophet but accept the will of Allah when children are gunned down.
And in Iraq above all live a people who interact with American soldiers on a daily basis, and long ago made up their minds whether they were angels or demons, or merely fellow human beings. To assume they will consider a few individuals as representative of the whole is to assign an undeserved ignorance to the mass of humanity, the equivalent of saying they aren't ready for the benefits of free society, or other arguments made all too often by those quite wrongly confident in their personal superiority to members of a lesser race, to children of a lesser god.
But Osama was wrong too. They don't love death. But thanks to him they know it's face quite well - Baghdad's civilian death toll in the past three months is roughly 3,000, more than the US loses during three years of war.
Not from attacks by US Soldiers and Marines, but in attacks by Osama's own:
Harith says the insurgents began arriving in Amariyah after the deadly US assault on Fallujah in April 2004. The first jihadis sought haven with relatives, many of them former senior officers in Saddam Hussein's Army.
The new neighbors roamed the streets at night with rifles and heavy machine guns, planting bombs targeting US patrols. "We'd peer through the blinds and watch them firing mortars at the Americans from my street,'' recalls Harith, a Shiite Arab from Amariyah who asked that his full name not be used. "We decided it was safest to ignore them. They were leaving us alone."
But that didn't last. Not content with having found a haven, the militants set about transforming the demographics and social mores of the area.
"At first it was just the outsiders, but some of the young men - surrounded by these people telling stories about what the Americans did in Fallujah and these preachers telling them it was their duty to fight - joined up,'' says Aqeel, a former resident of Amariyah who fled in February.
Soon, graffiti praising Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and promising death to traitors proliferated; new prayer leaders took over mosques, issuing strident demands for jihad over their loudspeakers every Friday; leaflets were distributed warning women not to work and to cover their hair, men not to trim their beards or wear shorts; then bodies started to appear on street corners.<...>But residents say hundreds have been killed here this year by Sunni extremists aligned with Al Qaeda. Shiites mostly, but Sunni shopkeepers, bus drivers, and former Baathists, too. For a while, bound and mutilated corpses were dumped frequently outside the popular Honey Sweets Shop on once-bustling Public Works Street. Most of the shops there are now closed.
Amariyah's pain demonstrates the evolution of Iraq's war, from one in which faceless Sunni Arab insurgents targeted mostly US and Iraqi forces with roadside bombs and suicide attacks to one in which killing squads - both Shiite and Sunni - are focused on unarmed fellow citizens. And they are seeking to transform neighborhoods into enclaves of fear. Baghdad's civilian death toll in the past three months is roughly 3,000, more than the US loses during three years of war.""We decided it was safest to ignore them. They were leaving us alone."
But that didn't last. "
It rarely does.
0ne Sunni Arab neighbor had joined the insurgents, and explained their choices of targets, he says. "This guy told me that 'if we focus on the Americans they grind us into dust,' " says Aqeel. "So they prefer to hit the Iraqi police, Shiites, translators, people they think are too secular. That's easy for them."But Americans have moved back in, and according to the story, "Over the past few weeks, however, conditions in the area have improved."
So perhaps there is yet hope for Amariyah.
In America we will wring our collective hands in horror as we await further word on whether our boys killed two dozen innocents in Haditha. And that is right and good, and a luxury reserved for we who don't live in a cold world beneath a burning desert sun.

Prepare for Deployment:

2006-05-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

Family Readiness: 1.0

The Car-

Vehicle Information - While deployed it is recommended that you make storage arrangements for your vehicle(s). You should check your vehicle registration expiration date. If your registration will expire while you are deployed, you should renew your registration prior to deployment or make arrangements for someone with your power of attorney to take care of it for you. Also, some insurance companies offer reduced rates to service members who are deployed if their vehicle will not be in use. Contact your insurance agency to see if this is an option for you.

Carry on with you bad selves..Stay tuned for sit rep from DSU 1

MAR SOC -0 DSU3- 2

2006-04-29T22:38:00.000-07:00

"SSGT HOOD! Youve been kicking our ass through tape houses all week, now Im gonna kick you the fuck off your range"!!!!!!! -Ssgt Gunfighter

The week of EMP training started off innocent enough. It ended with B co. schooling the instructors.

"we get stronger closer to the weekend".... Sgt Jesus

Drinking my wine and eating my cheese while blaming the U.S for the Worlds ills are Hazardous to Europe's Future.

2006-04-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

Except from "The Futurist" blogspot: Europe is Giving Up on the Future

Two events on April 10, 2006 pushed continental Europe closer to the irreversible extinction of their civilization.
In France, a very modest law to let employers terminate underperforming employees before the age of 26 was scrapped after socialists rioted in protest. This could have been the first step in halting France's slide down the economic and demographic slippery slope they are on, but rioting socialists proved they can intimidate the government. No business started in France in the last 40 years is among France's 25 largest corporations Merde!. A culture of low birth rates, aspirations of mediocrity,(Leave the French male ambition alone.They just want to eat cheese and wear the women's underwear.)and segregation of angry Islamic immigrants spells disaster for France before 2020.
In Italy, one of the last staunchly pro-US leaders in Europe, Silvio Berlusconi, may lose his bid for re-election. Italy, like France, also has a sluggish economy and birth rates far below replacement levels. His opponent, Romano Prodi, is bound to continue and even increase socialist practices such as 4-day workweeks.
The leftward shifts follow in the footsteps of Spain, which, in reaction to the March 11, 2004 Madrid Train Bombings, chose appeasement over counterattack, and voted out a pro-American government in favor of an anti-American socialist government. Predictably, Spain also has a sluggish economy, anti-business labor laws, and a severe shortage of new children being produced.
There are still small pockets of hope in Europe. Germany voted out anti-American Gerhard Schroeder and voted in pro-American reformist Angela Merkel. Denmark stood firm in the cartoon controversy. But these events, unless they cascade into much larger movements, are not enough to shift the center of gravity of European culture away from the path to demise. The hope some had for Europe to fight for their future fell into the abyss on April 10, 2006.
Remarkably, for the high opinions that many Europeans have of their culture, they have little interest in continuing that culture through producing new Europeans. When many Europeans are asked about this, they don't even want to think about it. Try a small experiment the next time you get a chance to ask this of anyone from continental Western Europe.
"In Europe, far fewer children are being produced to replace the existing population of Europeans, even while immigrant Muslims have many children. How can European civilization continue, under these circumstances?" (Blame the U.S)
Try it, and see what happens. Notice how their answer will avoid the question posed and somehow deviate into a criticism of America. Anti-Americanism is not merely their fashion, but now a drug that they use to distract them from their self-inflicted troubles. The European Union, formed to be an economic couterweight to the US, still produces just half of the new wealth that the US produces, and has a growth rate much lower than the world average. By 2020, the EU will not even be a counterweight to China or India, let alone the US. (I spit on you!)

Don't throw out your old skivvie shirts just yet....

2006-04-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

I had to laugh at this. Nobody bothered to check what the matieral was made out of in case you catch on fire. We were all just too interested in looking cool and not being too sweaty.

Marines conducting operations outside forward operating bases and camps in Iraq can no longer wear synthetic athletic clothing containing polyester and nylon, Marine Corps commanders have ordered.
The ban on popular clothing from companies like Under Armour, CoolMax and Nike comes in the wake of concerns that a substantial burn risk is associated with wearing clothing made with these synthetic materials, officials said.
When exposed to extreme heat and flames, clothing containing some synthetic materials like polyester will melt and can fuse to the skin. This essentially creates a second skin and can lead to horrific, disfiguring burns, said Navy Capt. Lynn E. Welling, the 1st Marine Logistics Group head surgeon.
Whether on foot patrol or conducting a supply convoy while riding in an armored truck, everyone is at risk to such injuries while outside the wire. It may be a good personal policy to try and keep in mind that you and all your equipment may at some point be engulfed in a flash of fire for a second or two. Keep the WD40 cans back in the rear.
[...]
According to Tension Technology International, a company that specializes in synthetic fibers, most man-made fabrics such as nylon, acrylic or polyester will melt when ignited and produce a hot, sticky, melted substance. This can cause extremely severe burns.
For these reasons, Marines have been limited to wearing clothing made with these materials only while on the relatively safe forward operating bases and camps where encounters with fires and explosions are relatively low, officials said.
These products have risen in popularity in the past few years and are now sold at military clothing stores. Some companies have come out with product lines specifically catering to military needs.
[...]
"We had a Marine with significant burn injuries covering around 70 percent of his body,"pull out the NPA and measure it on his face before lubing) said Navy Cmdr. Joseph F. Rappold, the officer in charge of the medical unit at the base.
The Marine was injured when the armored vehicle he was riding in struck an improvised explosive device, causing his polyester shirt to melt to his skin. Even though he was wearing his protective vest, Navy doctors still had to cut the melted undergarment from his torso. His injuries would not have been as severe had he not been wearing a polyester shirt, said Rappold.
[...] What else are you wearing that may go up in smoke if there was a flash explosion nearby?
For years, servicemembers with jobs that put then at a high risk of flame exposure, such as pilots and explosive ordnance disposal personnel, were kept from wearing polyester materials because of the extra burn threat. Now, with so many encounters with IED explosions, the Marines are extending this ban to everyone going outside the wire, officials said.
[...]
Even Marines who never venture off base should be aware of the risks associated with wearing the wicking fabrics, officials said.
For example, a Marine's high-performance undershirt recently started smoking when an electrical current shocked him. Fortunately, it didn't catch on fire or melt, but the potential was there, said Welling. It may actually be a good idea to look online for clothes/gear that is fire retardant.Write back with any links.

From: "Strategypage.com"

2006-04-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

"Some troops also buy high tech electronic sights, when the army or marines has not gotten enough good stuff to equip everyone. Combat troops have also found it useful to learn how to use the AK-47, whose larger bullet has more punch at close range, and is more useful when firing through ceilings and interior walls. Some units collect captured AK-47s, select the ones in the best shape, clean them up and keep them handy for some types of operations. But just knowing the basics of operating an AK-47 is useful knowledge, which you’ll never know when you’ll need".

We Reserve the Right to Kill Assholes Like You!!! -The Sunnis...

2006-04-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press Writer March 9, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq --Residents reported curious declarations hanging from mosque walls and market stalls recently in Ramadi, the Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The fliers said Iraqi militants had turned on and were killing foreign al-Qaida fighters, their one-time allies.
A local tribal leader and Iraq's Defense Ministry have said followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, have begun fleeing Anbar province and Ramadi, its capital, to cities and mountain ranges near the Iranian border.
"So far we have cleared 75 percent of the province and forced al-Qaida terrorists to flee to nearby areas," said Osama al-Jadaan, a leader of the Karabila tribe, which has thousands of members living along the border with Syria.
He claimed his people have captured hundreds of foreigner fighters and handed them to authorities. The drive, dubbed Operation Tribal Chivalry, is designed to secure the country's borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to prevent foreign fighters from crossing in.
After the U.S. invasion in March 2003, residents of the province -- which also includes cities like Fallujah, Haditha and Qaim -- became known for their violent anti-American sentiments. The province is still the most dangerous in Iraq for U.S. troops. In the past two days alone, two U.S. Marines were killed by hostile fire there.
Relations between residents and the foreign fighters started to sour, however, when the foreigners started killing Iraqis suspected of having links to the Americans or even for holding a government job.
The rift became an outright split four months ago, with a wave of assassinations and bombings that killed scores of Anbar residents. The attacks were blamed on al-Qaida.
"We were fed up with the situation," said one Ramadi resident, complaining about closed roads, unemployment and a lack of security. The resident spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his life.
In late November, tribal and religious leaders, former army officers and hundreds of ordinary Iraqis met in Ramadi with U.S. military commanders for a first-ever comprehensive dialogue on what could be done to speed a U.S. withdrawal.
Afterward, gunmen began killing some of those who had met with the Americans or who had urged Sunnis in the region to vote in the U.S.-backed parliamentary elections on Dec. 15. Several top clerics and a tribal leader were killed.
The deadliest attack -- a suicide bombing Jan. 5 among a line of police recruits in Ramadi -- killed at least 58, including U.S. troops.
Stunned city residents turned on al-Qaida, and al-Jadaan, of the Karabila tribe, announced an agreement with the U.S.-backed Iraqi government to help with security.
The moves by al-Jadaan's men and Iraqi army units against al-Qaida forced many of the foreign fighters to flee to central and eastern areas of Iraq -- some to the mountains near Iran -- that have large Sunni populations, al-Jadaan said.
That prompted tribes in the central city of Hawija, where some al-Qaida fighters sought refuge, to issue a statement earlier this week openly declaring war on foreign al-Qaida members.
The declaration was prompted by the killing a week ago of tribal leader Suhaib Abdullah al-Obeidi. Al-Qaida also killed three Shiites -- a father and his two sons -- and a Communist Party boss.
"We are against the killing of civilians for sectarian or ethnic reasons. That's why we are shedding the blood of Muslim extremists, especially al-Qaida," said Abul-Rahman Mansheed, a top Sunni politician in Hawija.
Army Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin, in the nearby city of Kirkuk, said the military soon would launch a major attack, with help from the local tribesmen, to clear that region of al-Qaida as well.
Claims such as those issued by the tribesmen and local military officers are nearly impossible to confirm, but the considerable drop in suicide bombings throughout the country recently indicates operations by al-Qaida foreigners have been hampered.
Al-Jadaan, the Anbar tribal leader, looked confidently to the future and -- if his prediction comes true -- what likely will be a hero's role in the eyes of the U.S. military.
"Under my leadership and that of our brothers in other tribes, we are getting close to the shelter of this terrorist," al-Jadaan said of al-Zarqawi. "We will capture him soon."

Got Cash?

2006-03-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

U.S. Naval Institute to hold conference on riverine warfare.

There is a big hoedown in Annapolis about Riverine Warfare. The conferance begins April 6. Cost is $215 dollars. I think there is some free food involved. If anyone is willing to go, Id be willing to throw in some cash. If we pool enough money together maybe one of us to go and he can brief us at drill.Yarrr!!!!!

2006-03-22T17:47:00.000-08:00

Commentary by The Csquare blogspot

2006-03-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

The Third Anniversary of the "War On Thugs" is upon us as Marines Saddle Up and out head out to the sand box. As you leave, the cry babies of democracy and the MSM thug enabler media hurriedly press upon you the idea that your contribution is wasted. They whine your life and our tax dollars are better used at home. What rot! Nothing could be further from the truth. You leave careers on standby and will maintain relationships by overstuffed packages, email, snailmail, rushed static filled phone calls and at this moment begin your seemingly endless litany of all things tedious that-must-be-done before you are allowed to disengage your life here to begin your extremely valuable contribution to the birth of a new society. Marines are now tasked w/midwife duties to the birth of a new society in Iraq obiedient to the rule of law-not the cult of dictator personalty. A down payment on the road to a thousand years of peace. But read what Mohammed at Iraq the Model has to say on your contribution. He lives there, in the sand box, in Iraq, in the struggling new democracy that is to be brought forth by the sweat of your brow, your sacrifice, your civilian career on standby, and your absence from your family:

IRAQ THE MODEL: .....…the truth is that virtually no one wants Saddam back.... ignore the weepers, whiners, teenagers and half educated naïve people and their silly rallies as I don't want to waste time on people who can do nothing but blindly oppose everything without thinking.
I will ignore them and focus on the more important goals we want to reach here…
.....The democracy we're practicing today in Iraq is the exact opposite of what we had for decades and until three years ago. This democracy carries the essence of life, the differences, the dynamics and yes, the failures but also the seed of a better future.
Before the liberation we were suffering and we had no hope, now we are also suffering but we have hope and I see this hope even in the words of those that are cynical about the outcome of the political process; who say they hope things will be better in four years or eight years…
When Saddam was here we didn't have any hope and we could expect nothing good from a dead regime that cared only about its absolute existence.Yes. We are facing enormous and dangerous challenges and this is not unexpected because the old will not easily step down and accept the loss; the old will fight back fiercely and the old here is not only Saddam and the Ba'ath, the old can be found among many of our current leaders and the mentality they carry that belong to the same generation that bred Saddam but I believe they will melt away as well because no one can go against the direction of time and the clock cannot be forced backwards.The green bud looks weak and is buried in the dirt and surrounded by a tough shell but it will break through this covering, pierce the dirt and stand on its feet to announce a new era.We will not be defeated and orphans of the dark past will get what they deserve and our sacrifices and the sacrifices of those who stand with us shall not go in vain, our sacrifices will pave an easier road for those want to follow us when they decide it's time for them to change.And yes…Iraq will be the model."

More Dam Data...

2006-03-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

Engineer brings power, jobs to Iraqis December 27, 2005
Chester Lowery, right, with Hasan Yahya Hasan, facility Plant Manager stand in front of Iraq's second largest hydro electric facility, Haditha Dam. Norris Jones
Chester Lowery believes in harmony.That philosophy is clear in the way he’s been helping U.S. Marines and Iraqi engineers work together to maximize the output of one of Iraq’s largest electric generating facilities.Lowery, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) employee for 27 years, volunteered in September to fill the billet as Power Project Manager at Haditha Dam, in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He’s the only USACE representative there.“We funded this position to bring in someone who could interface between our security force at the dam and the Iraqi engineers operating the facility,” said Marine Capt. James Haynie, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. “The Iraqis would seek access to certain parts of the facility, would suggest certain actions, and we had no idea whether it made any sense or not. Mr. Lowery filled that void.”He also brought a depth of experience and has helped the Iraqis institute a preventive maintenance program, Haynie said. “He worked with them in writing a 90-page maintenance manual that calls for certain daily, weekly, monthly and annual inspections covering every aspect of the plant. Prior to this the Iraqis’ main focus was fixing problems as they occurred.”“Lowery was instrumental in getting the Iraqi staff increased from 20 employees to 165 workers,” said Hasan Yahya Hasan, the facility’s Plant Manager. “It’s great to talk to somebody who understands what we’re trying to do.” Lowery says he gets great satisfaction in seeing the smiles on Iraqi faces as they solve problems together and work as a team. In addition, he doesn’t spend much time at his desk, preferring instead to roll up his sleeves and help with jobs like replacing broken valves and snapped pipes.Lowery said the biggest challenge when he started was the language barrier. “None of the Iraqi engineers would speak English,” said Lowery. ”However, after we worked together and they built up their confidence in me, I discovered 90 percent of them understood what I was saying. Communication is no longer an issue.” Whether it’s watching him in 2-4 time hike up some of the 290 stairs at Haditha Dam’s 18-story structure (elevators are non-operational), or hear his southern accent in a much slower cadence, you experience some of the rhythms in Lowery’s life. Timing is everything – and Lowery’s bottom line on this assignment is getting those six hydroelectric turbines singing in unison as they provide power for Iraq.Haditha is Iraq’s second-largest hydroelectric facility, and is located on the Euphrates River. It has a reservoir capacity of 8.2 billion cubic meters (compared to Mosul Dam on the Tigris River that has a 12.5 billion cubic meter capacity).Haditha Dam is capable of producing 660 megawatts of power from its six units. Because of low water, the facility is currently producing about 150 megawatts daily.
(Editor’s note; Norris Jones serves with the Gulf Region Central District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

YAARRR!!!!!!!!!! Just like My T-16 Back Home.....

2006-02-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

Navy Riverines are in demand in Iraq to deny insurgents’ use of rivers as transport routes, avenues of escape
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which cut through the Iraqi heartland, are vital avenues of escape for insurgents who strike in urban areas and slither away to avoid counterattacking American units.
The only maritime capability now addressing the river-borne insurgents comprises little more than 100 Marine Corps reservists they make it sound so bad.and fewer than 20 boats, according to Navy and Marine Corps officials. And those units are being disbanded.
“Every commander that has rivers in their area of operation wants to have this capability,” said Marine Col. Ronald J. Johnson, commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) that returned from Iraq last February. “There is never enough. It’s a valuable resource.”
Johnson, whose area of responsibility south of Baghdad included a stretch of the Euphrates River, used Riverine Assault Craft (RAC) to thwart terrorist use of Iraq’s shallow waterways as critical lines of communication. He said the small river craft were in great demand by both Marine and Army troops.
“The Army units that operated on my flank, that had the Tigris, also requested this capability,” Johnson said.
The boats and their crew were assigned to Small Craft Company, part of the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune and attached to the 24th at various times during the unit’s seven months in Iraq.
“Insurgents move things up and down the rivers, go back and forth, because it’s more convenient,” said Johnson, who used six RAC at a time for raids and quick surprise attacks on insurgents hiding among the local population along the river’s shore.
Coalition efforts to drive insurgent cells out of Iraq’s cities in 2004 led them to seek shelter in towns on the Euphrates along the route from the Syrian border to Baghdad, according to defense analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Insurgents also took refuge in the largely Sunni towns and cities along the Tigris from Mosul to Baghdad, he noted in a December 2005 working draft report dubbed “Iraq’s Evolving Insurgency.”
“There are a lot of houses on the banks of the Euphrates, and on the Tigris,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of like a premier residential area with a lot of population there.”
Marine Riverines attached to the 24th MEU conducted a river raid in late November near the village of Hard Duwaish, about 20 miles upriver from Fallujah, according to a Nov. 28 report in The New York Times. The Marine units were deployed earlier in November during the battle of Fallujah to cut off a possible escape route for insurgents after U.S. troops had encircled the city.
Though the need for fast-moving Riverines continues in Iraq, the Marines’ Small Craft Company was disbanded as a result of “resource constraints” since Johnson’s last tour, he said.
Navy Riverine units played a large role in the Vietnam War. The Navy’s nascent effort to re-create a Riverine capability remains in the concept and development phase, but it plans a force far larger than the 100 Marines deployed to Iraq. The Navy’s initial plan is to build three 12-boat squadrons with a total of about 700 sailors. A portion of that force will patrol the Euphrates and Tigris corridors.
These high-profile units will be part of the new Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) that will include the Seabees, explosive ordnance demolition units, the Naval Expeditionary Logistics Support Force and Navy prison guards at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Vice Adm. Albert T. Church, then-director of the Navy Staff, said in July that the Riverines are part of a larger Navy effort to take some of the strain off heavily taxed Marine and Army expeditionary forces. The Navy will take over some transport duties in Iraq, for example, and relieve Marines stationed in Djibouti and Cuba.
Rear Adm. Donald K. Bullard, commander of the NECC, said that while the Riverines will prove critical to coalition control of Iraq’s waterways, they will be in demand in other theaters as well. In places such as Africa and South America — as well as Iraq — the Riverines will be a tool for helping partners in the war on terrorism, he said, exercising with and learning from many nations that do not have, or want, a blue-water navy.
“Many other countries only have a very small navy that is coastal,” Bullard said. “For us to get in and train in areas of security interdiction, customs and law enforcement means we increase their efforts in the war on terrorism.”
Although the idea of sailors guiding small river patrol craft in the shallows harks back to Vietnam, the concept is actually much older, dating to the ironclad monitors of the Civil War. Bullard noted that while there are some tactical lessons to be learned from the swift boats of the Mekong Delta, the battlespace has changed dramatically in terms of technology.
“Vietnam was more of a force-on-force type war,” he said. But in the war on terror, today’s Riverines will have not only an offensive capability but will be trained for interdiction, customs and law enforcement, boarding, search and seizure, and more.
“As we reviewed the war on terrorism and the lines of communications around the world, we realized there are areas where there is potential for terrorist movement of weapons, people and arms, and other things on the rivers, because in many areas there may not be land lines of communication,” Bullard said. “We’ve got to make an impact and perform maritime security ops in that environment.”
Navy river patrols are a logical extension of the service’s maritime domain between blue and brown water, Bullard said.
“We’re working very closely with the Marine Corps, working the concept of operations for how they would train with us,” he said.
The first squadron training will begin in June, with full operational capability sometime in the first half of 2007, Bullard said.
“Once we get the first squadron it will evolve as we work the [concept of operations],” he added.
Another Navy official noted that Marines would be on some Navy Riverine boats “to pursue objectives.”
Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations, told an audience at the Naval War College in August that the Navy “is missing a great opportunity to influence events by not having a Riverine force” that can push the front lines of battle as far forward as possible.
“A naval force floating off the continental shelf with no impact onshore is not decisive,” he said. “Think of the vast areas of the world covered by shallow water — those connected to the oceans by rivers and harbors and rugged shorelines. These are the decisive strips of sea that make all the difference, and we need to be there,” Mullen said, noting that nearly 30 percent of the North Persian Gulf is inaccessible by ships with drafts of more than 20 feet.

Who are Those Guys?

2006-02-19T13:30:00.000-08:00

Someone else had the same idea as me almost 100 years ago. Why cant we put 81's on the boats? Or at least something like it. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the picture is of English River op guys dealing with another insurgancy. Free beer to anyone who knows who these guys are and what they were doing there.

War on Al queda Sit-Rep

2006-02-14T18:02:00.000-08:00

Middle East
Counterterrorism/Intelligence
· “Al Qaeda Increases Presence in Lebanon”
Excerpt(s): “Al Qaeda is trying to increase its presence in Lebanon and create a foothold in the country, the country’s acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat told Asharq al Awsat Saturday. In recent weeks, the Lebanese authorities have uncovered two al Qaeda groups and detained several foreigners, including Syrians, Palestinians and a Saudi.’ We do not know the size of this activity but the issue is worrying us. I have the impression [al Qaeda] is trying to establish bases in Lebanon’…The Interior Minister hinted Syria was allowing al Qaeda members to infiltrate into Lebanon and indicated Osama bin Laden’s group was coordinating its activity with the Palestinian pro- Syrian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- General Command. He revealed the PFLP-GC had fired rockets at Israel, under orders from al Qaeda and noted ‘there are several trends within al Qaeda,’ one of which would be cooperating with the Syrian security services.”
http://www.jihadunspun.com/index-side_external.php?article=106230&list=/home.php&

North and East Africa
Counterterrorism
"U.S. worried about terrorism risk in Sahara: Rumsfeld"
Excerpt(s): "The United States is concerned about the risk of terrorist activities by Al-Qaeda in the Sahara region, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview with a Moroccan newspaper to appear Monday."
Context/Analysis: Traveling in North Africa, Secretary Rumsfeld has continued the Department of Defense (DoD) refrain regarding the potential threat of al-Qaida and Affiliated Movement (AQAM, yet another DoD acronym) exploiting "ungoverned spaces" in Africa. While there is indeed much ungoverned space throughout the continent,, AQAM's creation of a Taliban-like Afghanistan in an area of Africa is highly unlikely.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=2/14/2006&Cat=4&Num=19

"Somalia's New Security Threat: Improvised Explosive Devices"
Excerpt(s): "Since the fall of Somalia's last functioning government in 1991, Somalis have become used to the warring factions fighting each other with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. But, the use of homemade bombs the U.S. military calls "improvised explosive devices" is steadily increasing in Somalia, raising fears that a new, far more deadly phase of insecurity has begun in the lawless Horn of African country."
Context/Analysis: It should come as no surprise that the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) has migrated from Iraq and Afghanistan to Somalia, particularly given the prevalence of unexploded ordnance throughout the Horn of Africa region.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-02-13-voa53.cfm

"UN Counter-Terrorism Experts Head to Tanzania in Ongoing Bid to Fight Scourge"
Excerpt(s): "Nearly a dozen experts, led by the main United Nations counter-terrorism body, are headed to Tanzania for a weeklong visit to continue the Security Council's practical, technical assistance work to strengthen the ability of countries to fight terrorism."
Context/Analysis: In many African nations, the United Nations (U.N.) and its numerous associated bodies are well received (contrary to American skepticism). The United States and other Western nations have the opportunity to use U.N. mechanisms to strengthen international counterterrorism cooperation throughout Africa.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200602130279.html

South Asia
Counterterrorism/Intelligence
“US agents hunt for Al Qaeda in India”
Excerpt(s): “Clandestine American intelligence operatives have been working in deep cover within the Indian territory to help track down al Qaeda operatives and other terrorist groups…these operatives work with paid agents and also seek to infiltrate militant groups in various parts of India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir. The United States believes that some at least of these groups may have been co-opted by al Qaeda to launch attacks inside and outside India against both Indian and US interests. ’They are no more simply the run-of-the mill indigenous militant groups they always would claim they were," one source told rediff-India Abroad. "Not only have they been infiltrated by Pakistani militant groups like Lashkar-e-Tayeba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, but these groups themselves are now under the sway of al Qaeda and way beyond the control of the ISI (Pakistan's intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence) as they once were.’”
Context/Analysis: We know that there has been past al-Qaida-Kashmiri/Pakistani network collaboration; if this reporting is accurate, that collaboration has moved militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir toward targets of the “far enemy,” the United States.
http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/feb/14hunt.htm?q=tp&file=.htm

2006-02-11T14:17:00.000-08:00

Attacks/Investigations & Counterterrorism/Intelligence
"Hambali ‘Leader of Planned U.S. Attack"
Excerpt(s): “US President George Bush has said the US-led global war on terror has "weakened and fractured" al Qaeda and allied groups… He was outlining as proof new details about the multi-national co-operation that foiled terrorist plans to fly a commercial aircraft into the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast of the US in 2002… Instead of recruiting Arab hijackers, Hambali found Southeast Asian men who would be less likely to arouse suspicion and who were sent to meet with Osama bin Laden, Bush said.” yup.

Context/Analysis: Please refer to the article analysis in the “Asia Pacific” section below.
http://www.blogger.com/

Attacks/Investigations
“Terrorism Expert Doubts JI Link to West Coast Plot”
Excerpt(s): “He says he has doubts about JI involvement in the West Coast plot, including leading JI figure Hambali, who is now in US custody… “We know that there was a plot by Khaled Sheik Mohammed that he approached the al-Qaeda top leadership and proposed an attack from Asia on the Western Coast of the United States, but that the al-Qaeda leadership said no, focus on the Washington and New York attacks. There were other operational problems, that there's simply no known JI members who are trained pilots. Operationally it just doesn't make sense.”It makes more sense to Al queda to kill sandwich obsssed sports fanatics who think Miller lite is real beer then killing people from California. Where is the operational sense here? Obviously Al queda operatives are only on the East Coast! (Damn Eagles fans....)

Context/Analysis: The President’s remarks are clearly opportunistic and meant to demonstrate the utility of his domestic terrorism surveillance program. (duh) Nevertheless, Zach Abuza, Abuza? Sounds like a spa in Philly.the expert quoted in the article, is correct in his assessment that the remarks were exaggerated. Al-Qaida has attempted to initiate airborne attacks from the Asia-Pacific region, with clear evidence coming from the 1995 Oplan Bojinka masterminded by Ramzi Yousef. However, JI involvement in that plot was equally exaggerated by pundits and media figures.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1566993.htm

2006-02-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

Counterterrorism/Intelligence
“U.S. Officials Meet Iraqi Insurgents”
Excerpt(s): “U.S. officials have met figures from some Sunni Arab insurgent groups but have so far not received any commitment for them to lay down their arms… The meetings, described as being in the initial stage, have not included members of al-Qaida in Iraq or like-minded religious extremists… U.S. officials have said establishing a dialogue with the insurgents was difficult because of the lack of a unified command structure among the various groups and the absence of a leadership capable of speaking for most of them.” duh, cmon...terrorist? Organized leadership? What's that?
Context/Analysis: Such meetings have been occurring for quite some time with little to no visible results. The reason for this is two-fold. First, as described in this article, the lack of a traditional “command structure” with which to negotiate is challenging for U.S. officials. After deals are made with the supposed leaders of a group in a particular area, there are new attacks that are attributed to the same group. When those “leaders” are questioned, they either deny their group’s involvement in the attack or claim that the cell that carried out the attack acted independent of orders or authorization. The second reason for the failure of such talks is insurgent leaders’ loss of command and control if their cadres perceive cooperation as a sign of weakness. They can claim that they are practicing takiyya and kitman (deception techniques historically used by Islamists) for only so long before losing the faith of their followers and risking removal or death.
http://www.blogger.com/

2006-02-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

Media/Propaganda
"Iran to publish Holocaust cartoons"
Excerpt(s): "It will be an international cartoon contest about the Holocaust," said Farid Mortazavi, the graphics editor for Hamshahri newspaper - which is published by Teheran's conservative municipality. He said the plan was to turn the tables on the assertion that newspapers can print offensive material in the name of freedom of expression."

Context/Analysis: Through this action, Iran is not testing free speech (a freedom not exercised in the Shia state;) rather, it is attempting to push the limits of Israeli and (to a lesser extent) Western tolerance while furthering its role as the vanguard of the Islamic resistance to Western oppression. It is likely that Ahmedinijad’s call for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and earlier mockeries of the holocaust were more energizing than the publishing of these cartoons.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18066746-1702,00.html?from=rss

2006-01-31T18:16:00.000-08:00

Weapons"
"Iraqi General: Syria Gave Al-Qaida Saddam's WMDs"
Excerpt(s): "Last week, Gen. Sada generated headlines when he told the New York Sun that Saddam had shipped his biological and chemical weapons stockpiles to Syria in the weeks before the U.S. attacked in March 2003. But until yesterday, the former top Iraqi official had said nothing about al-Qaida gaining access to those same weapons."

Context/Analysis: The threat that such weapons have been held by neighboring countries sympathetic to terrorist causes has left would-be targets with an uneasy feeling for the past three years. As more information from Gen. Sada comes to light, we will be able to draw a clearer picture of the threat of chemical warfare in the hands of Zarqawi and al-Qaida-linked organizations.
http://www.blogger.com/

Apoligiezes...

2006-01-28T04:44:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason. Blogger.com changed the settings on the site so that commentary would only show up with the permission of the "blog owner". So, anyways, I just figured that out. If you left a message in the last 2 months and it never showed up thats why. By now Lt. Ankrum is the bottom of a ship in the @#$%! thinking that I must hate his guts. I'll try and find a way to disable the editor option.

The B4Lar website was taken down mostly because it was too difficult to update and the idea of leaving it to someone's mother while we went on deployment (while she tried to figure out HTML) seemed cruel. It is 2006 not 1999, so we should have some options on a site that will-

1.) Be cheaper

2.) Easier to update. There will be family members who will live off of the daily/weekly updates on the site. If it's a bitch to change like the last site, someone's wife may have a meltdown. As Gunner Salmons once said to me: "If momma's not happy-no one' s happy."

3.) I figured out an easier way to put up pics on this blog. If there is anything you want up, send me the link via "comments" or if you know who I am, then just email it to me.

-END

Now We'll soon see the end of the Insurgant Alliance.

2006-01-26T17:51:00.000-08:00

Counterterrorism:
"Iraq: Sunni Insurgents Turning Against Al-Zarqawi" ie: "Ram This Down Your Throat Zarqawi non paying bitch"!

Excerpt(s):
"On 23 January, tribal and nationalist insurgent leaders in Samarra announced that they would send armed groups to hunt down Al-Qaeda members in the city in a campaign similar to one launched last month following the assassination of Albu-Baz tribal leader Hikmat Mumtaz, London's "Al-Hayat" reported on 24 January. Hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated in Samarra against Al-Qaeda on 24 January, and reports indicated that many Al-Qaeda loyalists had fled to nearby Diyala Governorate.where? Never heard of it. "Al-Hayat" also reported on 25 January that six insurgent groups have reached a tentative agreement with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani for their participation in national reconciliation talks."wow
Context/Analysis: It seems that Zarqawi has bitten the hand that feeds him much to hard, so to speak, in the past month through his targeting of Sunni Arabs justified by takfir. The Sunni insurgents, while still opposed to the U.S. occupation, are recognizing that the immediate threat to their welfare is the Salafist groups in their locales. Zarqawi’s chance for survival in Iraq now depends on the media and the U.S. military. If the United States falters again in its targeting and kills a significant number of Sunni civilians, Zarqawi will likely gain more support (though not at the same level he previously enjoyed) for his fighters’ abilities to efficaciously attack the United States.
http://www.blogger.com/

2006-01-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

Pentagon Readies Riverine Force for Iraq:

InsideDefense.com January 25, 2006

The Navy this month officially stood up its new Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, which will be responsible for fielding a riverine force and getting it ready for a deployment to Iraq by early 2007.
The Marine Corps currently has a riverine force protecting a dam in Iraq, but the service is eliminating its river component as part of a force structure reorganization. The Navy's new river force will take over the Iraq dam protection mission from the Marine Corps starting in March 2007, said Rear Adm. John Bowling, deputy director of the expeditionary warfare division.
Training for the first riverine force sailors is scheduled to begin in June, and the Navy plans to brief a riverine force concept of operations to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Mullen next month, Bowling said Jan. 11 at the Surface Navy Association's annual conference in Arlington, VA. U.S. Special Operations Command also plans to help in training the sailors, he said.
The Navy expects to stand up three riverine squads, consisting of 12 boats each, he said. The Navy has not yet decided what kind of boats to use, though the Marine Corps' Small Unit Riverine Craft and SOCOM's river craft are candidates, Bowling said. Both craft cost more than $500,000 each, he added. Missions envisioned for the riverine force include surveillance, barrier operations, patrol, interdiction, and delivery of land forces from a river, he said.
“The riverine crew's mission includes stemming the flow of illegal drugs, cutting lines of communication for terrorists, stopping pirates and basically making the ports more secure and safe,” said NECC chief Rear Adm. Donald Bullard in a Navy statement. huh? Pirates? What war is he fighting?
The river craft could be transportable by air on C-17 and C-130s, or by sea on a large-deck amphibious ship with a well deck, Bowling said. As part of the CONOPS generation process, the Navy is looking at supporting the river force 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he said. Air support could come from aircraft carriers or amphibious assault ships, he noted.

“If it's required, we'll have it there,” he said. “I don't see us putting these units anywhere where we are not able to support them.”

The Navy officially stood up NECC at a ceremony Jan. 13 at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, VA, according to the Navy statement. In addition to the river force, NECC will be responsible for naval anti-terrorism and force protection, shore-based logistical support, and construction missions, it states.

NECC will consolidate the current missions and functions of the 1st Naval Construction Division, Naval Expeditionary Logistics Support Force and Maritime Force Protection Command, according to the Navy. About 40,000 to 50,000 sailors will join the command in phases over the next two years. NECC will oversee units ranging from bomb-disposal crews, expeditionary logistics specialists, the naval coastal warfare groups, and the master-at-arms forces.
Navy officials have stressed that the new naval combat troops will not compete with the Marine Corps but instead will support and augment Marines.

“The NECC has an ongoing discussion with the Marines,” Bullard said in the statement. “Our procedures must be in sync with Marines in order for this to work.”

Buy Body Armor: Get Paid-

2006-01-24T18:39:00.000-08:00

Army Protective Gear Reimbursement
Soldiers may now file claims and receive reimbursement for protective equipment privately purchased between September 11, 2001, and July 31, 2004. The reimbursement is for servicemembers who weren't issued equivalent equipment prior to deployment in Operations Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom. The Army began reimbursing Soldiers Nov. 21 up to $1,100 for any single item such as protective body armor, combat helmets, ballistic eye protection, hydration systems, summer weight gloves, and knee and elbow pads. A Soldier may be reimbursed for the purchase of a complete outer tactical vest, or for the separately purchased components of an OTV, to include Small Arms Protective Insert plates, according to the U.S. Army Claims Service. Claimants can download a printable DD Form 2902 at http://www.jagcnet.army.mil under "Client Services and Links," or call (301) 677-7009 ext. 431 for additional information. All claims must be filed by 3 October 2006. For more information, read Soldiers May Be Reimbursed for Protective Gear.

Son of a bitch must pay

2006-01-11T17:09:00.000-08:00

Politics
"Syria 'tried to fuel holy war in Iraq against US and Britain'"
Excerpt(s): "President Bashar al-Assad of Syria secretly incited Iraq's top Shia leader to declare holy war against US and British forces, according to Washington's former administrator in the country. In his new book, My Year in Iraq, Paul Bremer said he heard the explosive intelligence in October 2003 as sectarian tensions soared across the country following the fall of Saddam Hussein."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/11/wbrem11.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/11/ixworld.html

Young Iraqis Recruited for Indoctrination in Iran

2006-01-10T17:06:00.000-08:00

Middle East
Training
· “Iraqis receive training in Iran”

Excerpt(s): “Shi'ite clerics are recruiting young Iraqis to go to neighboring Iran for political indoctrination and militia training, said the uncle of one young man who recently returned from a one-month session. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) -- an exiled opposition group -- also charges that Tehran has been training Iraqi and other nationals in intelligence gathering and terrorist operations at garrisons across Iran.”
http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060109-122835-1470r

Mom Buys Body Armor for Son:

2006-01-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

United Press International

January 09, 2006NEW YORK - A New York City mother says she spent about $3,000 for body armor -- a Christmas gift for her son in the U.S. Marines who is deployed to Iraq.
Elaine Brower said her son, James Brower, gave her a list of items Marine buddies gave him, to buy body armor online.

James Brower had been deployed to Afghanistan, but when he returned he became a New York City police officer. Now, he has been redeployed as a reserve to Iraq and when his mom asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said "body armor."
Elaine Brower made the purchases online for $2,200. Then she spent $800 for armor for her son's legs, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.

James Brower had assisted Marines and Soldiers who had lost limbs in Iraq at the New York City Marathon and they suggested leg armor -- especially to protect the femoral artery.
The son says everything fits and is comfortable and mom is set to make an Internal Revenue Service claim of up to $1,100 -- thanks to a recently enacted: "Claim for Reimbursement and Payment Voucher for Privately Purchased Protective, Safety or Health Equipment Used in Combat."

Next Stop:CONUS?

2006-01-09T16:33:00.000-08:00

" al-Qaeda Warning Cycle Completion for CONUS"
Excerpt(s): “The 29 Oct. 2004 video Address to Americans from Osama bin Laden may mark the completion of al -Qaeda’s warning cycle to the US before it executes a mass casualty attack in CONUS. Taking into consideration al -Qaeda’s sense of time and that we are now 13 months past the 29 Oct. address, we are currently in a high threat period for an attack in CONUS based on analysis of al -Qaeda’s messaging and its correlation to targeting. The heightened threat period began in Oct. 2005, roughly 12 months alter the close of the warning cycle, and will continue for the foreseeable future. The completion of the warning cycle opens the door to execution. Operational factors will ultimately decide the execution time of the attack.”
Context/Analysis: This document provides an interesting look at several statements issued by top al-Qaida leaders.
http://www.intelcenter.com/QWCCACONUS-PUB-v1-1.pdf

Four Outcomes of the War:

2006-01-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

From the csquare blogspot:

Waiting for enlightment to strike the rest of Hafiz Barghouti's cousins is about as likely as my hitting the million dollar power ball lottery. As a possible avenue to ending the war the idea is a deadend. However, Donald Sensing has explored alternative outcomes to WOT. The amazing aspect of this is that these outcomes have to be printed and discussed at all. I mean can you imagine anyone during WW II doing the "on the one hand if the Nazi's win we'll all have to speak German and the Jews will have to be cremated". Unless you were an alien visiting from the planet Zoom, the understanding was clear: Nazi's were against life, liberty, truth, justice and the American way and therefore bad. OK? Clear? Copy? Now, for gripes sake, you have to drag some of our fellow Americans down to the bottom line and rub their noses in the mess just so they get an inkling of what the @#$! is at stake:

The four basic outcomes of this war:
"1. Over time, the United States engenders deep-rooted reformist impulses in the Islamic lands, leading their societies away from the self- and other-destructive patterns they now exhibit. It is almost certainly too much to ask that the societies become principally democratic as we conceive democracy (at least not for a very long time), but we can (and must) work to help them remit radical Islamofascism from their cultures so that terrorism does not threaten.

2. The Islamofascists achieve their goals of Islamicization of the entire Middle East (at the minimum), the ejection of all non-Muslims from Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Persian Gulf, the destruction of Israel, and the deaths of countless numbers of Americans.

3. Absent achieving the goals stated just above, al Qaeda successfully unleashes a mass-destructive, mass-casualty attack against the United States and total war erupts between the US and several Islamic countries.

4. None of the above happen, so the conflict sputters along for decades more with no real changes: we send our troops into combat intermittently, suffer non-catastrophic attacks intermittently, and neither side possesses all of the will, the means and the opportunity to achieve decisive victory. The war becomes the Forever War.(this is what I think will happen)-b4Perhaps you can think of another, different outcome, but I think these pretty much cover them.So the question for us commentati, whether based on the web or in traditional media, is simply: which of these outcomes is best? Which will be most favorable to human flourishing?As for me, I choose the first, and have no qualms admitting I am heavily biased in favor thereof. And that bias certainly shapes my blogging!The basic issue for news media :For the news media, I ask you: which outcome do you want? It is not possible to pretend neutrality here, for the power of the media to frame the public's debate is too great to claim you are merely being "fair and balanced." There literally is no neutral ground here, no "God's eye view" of events, and hence no possibility of not taking sides. One way or another, what you print or broadcast, what stories you cover and how you cover them, what attention you pay to what issues and how you describe them - all these things mean that you will support one outcome over another. Which will you choose? How will you support it? These are the most important questions of your vocation today. But you are not facing them at all.
Roger Simon is right: this war is war at its most basic: "It's about civilization versus a death cult. Make a choice!"One Hand Clapping

LAV Accident in SoCal: Two Marines Dead

2006-01-06T17:19:00.000-08:00

LAR Marines from 29 Palms were in an accident Wednesday night while towing a disabled LAV that swung around the front of the tow vehicle:

"The camouflaged vehicles - one designed to transport troops and supplies and the other equipped with a 25 mm cannon and turret - were headed from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms to the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
One vehicle was ferrying eight Marines and towing a second without personnel when they crossed a bridge in Rancho Bernardo, a hilly suburb about 30 miles north of downtown San Diego and several miles east of Miramar.
The towed vehicle somehow swung around in front of the first and both careened into a guard rail, coming to rest on the edge of a bridge spanning a canyon, authorities said."AP Wire 01/05/2006 Two dead, two injured in San Diego military vehicle accident

Modern Marine Reservist parallel to Ancient Hoplites

2005-12-31T08:36:00.000-08:00

Hoplites

Hoplites were the heavily armed infantry. They wore helmets, breastplates, and leg armor made of bronze. In addition, they possessed a swords and spears. Their armor allowed them to withstand attack by arrows. On the negative side, though, they were much slower moving than the lightly armed infantry, which posed a major problem if required to make a hasty retreat or assault.
Athenian citizens who were not able to maintain horses but could afford their own armor were required to be hoplites. That's right, unlike today's army you had to buy your own equipment! The fact, then, that Socrates was a hoplite suggests he wasn't always poor. Apparently, his dedication to philosophy over and above material concerns gradually led to his impoverishment.

Access to the National Repository of Military Records

2005-12-15T16:16:00.000-08:00

Military Archives: See how well your old man did on the range.

"If I had known my MPR's included a recruit mug shot, I would not have waited so long to order them from St. Louis, Mo. After 40 years, I am still sporting the same Hair -do. The entire process is simple and painless. Took about 45 days. A bit late for that Christmas gift. But hey, look for Father's Day. You'll be ready."-D.Vader

"Surprisingly my father got better pro and con marks than me."- B4-jedi

The National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records (NPRC-MPR) is the repository of millions of military personnel, health, and medical records of discharged and deceased veterans of all services during the 20th century. (Records prior to WWI are in Washington, DC.) NPRC (MPR) also stores medical treatment records of retirees from all services, as well as records for dependent and other persons treated at naval medical facilities. Information from the records is made available upon written request (with signature and date) to the extent allowed by law.

This site is provided for those seeking information regarding military personnel, health and medical records stored at NPRC (MPR).

If you are a veteran or next-of-kin of a deceased veteran, you may now use vetrecs.archives.gov to order a copy of your military records. For all others, your request is best made using a Standard Form 180. It includes complete instructions for preparing and submitting requests. Please Note: All requests must be in writing, signed and mailed to us at the address shown below.
Address

National Personnel Records CenterMilitary Personnel Records9700 Page AvenueSt. Louis, MO 63132-5100

Buzz Kill: "Analysis"

2005-12-13T18:16:00.000-08:00

“Profile of a Killer”

Excerpt(s): “Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is the most wanted man in Iraq. How did this high school dropout tie the United States down in its deadliest conflict since the Vietnam War? From the slums of Jordan to the battle of Falluja, this is how it happened.”

Context/Analysis: This profile of Zarqawi details, mostly accurately, what we know of the Jordanian-born ringleader of the Iraqi Sunni terror network before his rise to his current status.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3264&page=3

FW: Gun Statistics

2005-12-13T17:43:00.000-08:00

If you consider that there have been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000.
The rate in Washington D.C. Is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in our Nation's Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington D.C

FW Recieved 12/12/05

2005-12-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

God Bless Elderly Women:

Here's a quote from a government employee who witnessed a recent interaction between an elderly woman and an antiwar protester in a Metro station in DC:

There were protesters on the train platform handing out pamphlets on the evils of America. I politely declined to take one. An elderly woman was behind me getting off the escalator and a young (twentyish) female protester offered her a pamphlet, which she politely declined.

The young protester put her hand on the old woman's shoulder as a gesture of friendship and in a very soft voice said, "Lady, don't you care about the children of Iraq?"

The old woman looked up at her and said, "Honey, my father died in France during World War II, I lost my husband in Korea, and a son in Vietnam. All three died so you could have the right to stand here and bad mouth our country. If you touch me again, I'll stick this umbrella up your ass and open it!"

~God Bless America~

"He who lives closer to the Edge Evolves Faster." -Buckminister Fuller

2005-12-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

Busy as hell?Holidays gritting your teeth? The civilian world doesnt get much credit for whooping your ass as much as the combat world. In a lot of ways in the combat world Marines take care of you, protect you and make sure you not falling asleep at the wheel. Operating in the Civilian world, yes the stakes are not life or death but the reacting over and over again to multiple demands can really grind a man down. Usually civilian leadership doesnt or wont take notice to demands until it's too late. It is operating off a cost effective approach towards making a decision. A process that has little to do with whatever goals you have except for staying above water money wise. Working in both worlds can at times "Suck Ass". Your job is to find ways to intergrate and succeed in both with minimal effort. No effort you make in this will be wasted.

2005-12-01T18:53:00.001-08:00

Marines,
All Marines need to bring all of their field gear in for drill.

Semper Fi, Sgt B

2005-12-01T18:53:00.000-08:00

Marines,
All Marines need to bring all of their field gear in for drill.

Semper Fi, Sgt Brangaccio

Operation Steel Curtain: Nov 15 Sit Rep

2005-11-27T05:54:00.000-08:00

By Bill Roggio this guy is embedded right now.
al Qaeda has taken heavy casualties in the western town of Ubaydi. Since the assault force of Operation Steel Curtain moved from Husaybah and Karabilah to Ubaydi early Monday, eighty insurgents and terrorists have been killed in the town, with thirty killed since just last evening. Over 150 insurgents are believed to have been captured since Steel Curtain began.
Multinational Forces - West reports "the majority of the city has been cleared, but there are pockets of resistance and improvised bombs that still pose a considerable risk to both military personnel and civilians." The bulk of the fighting occurred in the tight quarters of the housing complex in New Ubaydi. Five car bombs were destroyed inNew Ubaydi; one contained "approximately 20 large caliber artillery shells."
Operation Steel Curtain has had a noticeable impact on the terrorist’s supply chain. the supply chain is the Euphrates river from Syria.Remember that. That'll be on the test.Reports indicate 36 weapons caches, including “several that contained suicide vests and bomb making material”, along with 107 IEDs and multiple homes rigged as bombs have been discovered. These are weapons that will not be able to be used to disrupt the upcoming parliamentary election on December 15th.
Multinational Forces - West also states “Intelligence reports indicate that the strong resistance to the Iraqi and Coalition push into the city is due in large part to the fact that insurgents believe they are trapped and have nowhere else to go.” The high casualty counts in Ubaydi support this theory. doesnt specify high coalition casualities or high Insurgant casualties.
With Husaybah, Karabilah and Sa’dah hosting a strong Coalition contingent directly on the Syrian border, Coalition forces holding the bridges and roads eastward, and the borders essentially closed down at Tal Afar in the north and Rutbah in the south, the insurgents in the region may be finding it difficult to move around and reestablish a base of operations elsewhere. Jihadis attempting to flee the battlefield are resorting to humiliating tactics to evade capture; “Several detainees were captured trying to sneak out of the area by crawling among a flock of sheep.” Such is the state of the mighty warriors of Zarqawi. that might be something you want to keep in mind.Americans generally do not think like that. Hiding in a flock of sheep is not 21st centuary thinking. That is your weakness.
A look at the map will show there are still areas to be addressed along the border. I will refrain from further speculation as the pace of current combat operations is fast and operational security is more important than prognostication at this juncture.

"The biggest shortcoming of the young infantry leaders were their failure to be demanding and their reluctance to ensure that the men did the basics"

2005-11-25T18:43:00.000-08:00

-Dave Hackworth

A Non Debauch Ball,The Unsettled medals dispute and Accessing the Bubbles of Liberty through the Wall of Commitment:

2005-11-22T16:52:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly, few Marines got trashed at the Ball. I saw a couple of knuckle heads acting stupid ,but certainly nothing completely out of the ordinary hammered as I've seen in past Birthday Balls. Last year was a bit much on the blubbering and confessing of the sins.(Yes, I did appreciate you confessing your admiration of me ,but the Mrs never bought that hero bullshit you tried to impress upon her. Im just another dumb idiot male who opens Spaghetti jars at her every whim and emasculates himself all in the name of the building block of the Good Society, YOU guessed it,peanutbutter and jelly marital bliss....) Looks like those days of debauch and broken glass on the dance floor are over. Say goodbye to the Cpl Ferris rendition of "Dance of the Jackass" and Cpl Rigglemen dancing with the invisible woman. (He says he thinks its his Grandma.)
Not many of the old Viking heads showed up. Taborga and Lt Breville. It was good to see them both.
I did receive comments on certain individuals present who were wearing Medals and Ribbons they did not rate. Specifically "Reserve Mobilzation" and "Expeditionary" -no Combat Action fakies though. I guess that's too F'd up. I did recommend to the Marine who made the observation that he was welcomed to confront the said name offender. I never heard if he did or not.
I thought the Guest of Honor Col. T made some excellent commentary on today's world and your part in the War.("HEY! Where you going?" SIR, going next door to tell em to turn it down.")
The example he used of the music being played next door as America's "business as usual" stance on the WOT I thought was awesome. In my own mind I've thought that if the entire country really was at war(not just servicemen and their families) that Terrorism as it is now would've been over by Christmas. People forget how concentrated and focused this country was about winning WWII. The war on fascism nowadays is used only as a guideline of the threats we now face, not in the commitment every single person had in kicking the shit out of the Axis. It is difficult for those who live on the other side of the wall. Sometimes we hear the music and think"F**k This!" or worse, "F**k them". Especially when it gets in the way of routine or makes someone in our life uncomfortable. Generally our own people do not regard kindly when your commitment for their good is a pain in their ass.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

We can get very excited about covering ourselves with technology. But at the end of the day, you have to think like an insurgent,"

2005-11-18T14:46:00.000-08:00

See you at the Ball.

Sgt R Speaks:

2005-11-17T18:15:00.000-08:00

Weapons Platoon!

Following is a Q&A for the 2005 Bravo Company Marine Corps Ball:
(1) When is it?
The Bravo Co. Marine Corps Ball will be held Saturday, November 19.

(2) What time is it?
Cocktails usually begin at 1900, ceremony at 2000. Exact times should be available from GNY Hilton.

*Cpl Cunningham has invited everyone to join him for beer before the Ball. Um, bring your own beer. He plans to get to the Hotel after work- contact him for the time.
3) Where is it?
The location is Martin's West, near Security Blvd, off Rt. 695 on the West side of the Baltimore beltway. Directions at:http://www.martinscaterers.com/martins/west.htm
(4) Is participation in the Ball Mandatory?
This year there is a one point drill on Saturday Nov. 19. You are required to drill for one-half of the day on Nov 19. Drill is scheduled for the evening of Nov. 19, during the Ball. That means you get paid to attend. If you "cannot" drill on Nov 19, you need to have an RIDT form to be excused from drill. If you have not done this already, it is now a too late for an RIDT. Contact me if you think you do not have to be at the Ball.
(5) How much is it?
Most of you have tickets already, but if someone wants to attend, tickets are $60, payable in US funds via cash or check. No post dated third party checks from Tanzania. You may also pay via South African gold Krugerrand, but you will be watched suspiciously for many months. And I may ask to borrow money. Yes, I said the same thing last year.
(6) Where do I get tickets for my date or other people?
Contact Gunny Hilton. He is on your contact list.
(7) What if I can't afford it?
If you do not have the funds to purchase tickets, contact an NCO. We will not leave anyone behind.
(8) What does the ticket get me?
The Ball ticket price gets you a seat, a salad, dinner, water, coffee, dessert and the chance to ask Sgt. Martinez for war stories. No open bar this year.
(9) What is the hotel info?
Hotel rooms: Call 410-265-1400 and ask for the B Co 4th LAR Marine birthday ball rate.

(10) What should my guests and I wear?

Dress for Marines:(a) Dress Blue Alphas (with medals) is the optimal uniform. It is not required since it is no longer issued to you.(b) Service Alphas (with ribbons and shooting badges) is the most formal issued uniform and is fine for the ball.
(c) Dress Blue Bravos (with ribbons and shooting badges) is acceptable, but you should buy the medals and make it dress alphas.Dress for civilians: Formal evening dinner attire is appropriate for adult males, including jacket and tie. Dress Blues are roughly the equivalent of black tie, but civilians need not wear a tux. Women, apparently, can get away with anything more than clear saran wrap.

(11) Who should I bring, if anyone?Marines are welcome to purchase as many tickets as they like. Marines often invite friends or family who would like to see the Ball ceremony. You need not bring a date, but it is a good opportunity for wives / girlfriends / family to meet everyone. Dale Dye is not allowed to attend this year. Swift Boat Vets may attend for free.(12) When will it end?
Martin's West will probably kick us out of the ballroom as early as they can, but many Marines move the party to the hotel. Do NOT plan on drinking and then driving home. If you are elderly like me, you'll be asleep before dessert is served.

(13) How much money should I bring?
Bring enough cash for drinks, pictures (official Ball photos may be available), and various other crap to buy.

(14) Remember: I will only hound you for two things: First is your uniform, second is your behavior. Make sure your uniform is correct and presentable, and make sure that you maintain your bearing and monitor those around you. Have fun, enjoy an adult beverage or six, but do not embarrass the Company or Marine Corps with poor behavior.

(15) What should I do now?
Contact me or your NCOs with other questions info via email or phone:

(16) No, really. What should I do now?
Call and reserve a room. Get your uniform ready. Invite an intellectually hot date. Keep your blood clean, your body lean, and your mind sharp.

Gny H Speaks:

2005-11-17T18:02:00.000-08:00

Marines,
In case some of your Marines didn't pay attention during formation when I discussed the ball, here we go again.
1.) Date: 19 November 2005
2.) Location: Martin's West, 6817 Dogwood Road, Baltimore, MD 21244
3.) Directions: Take I-695 to Exit 17, Security Boulevard-West. Turn right onBelmont Avenue. Follow Belmont Avenue approximately 1/2 mile and Martin'sWest will be on your left, facing Baltimore Beltway. The building is located at the corner of Belmont Avenue and Dogwood Road. Parking is accessible from either Belmont Avenue or Dogwood Road.
4.) Cocktail hour: 1900-2000 5. Ceremony: 2000-2045 6. Dinner Service: 2045-2200 7. Rooms: Holiday Inn Baltimore West, 1800 Belmont Ave, Baltimore, MD 21244,1-410-265-1400.
Ball Practice: 1stSgt Jones has the cog on that.I shall be out of the office/email contact from 1700 on 17 November until 0800 on 21 November.
Regards,GySgt H

Your Class on Etiquette in Arab Lands:

2005-11-13T11:19:00.000-08:00

A Marine Corps primer on cultural sensitivity in Arab lands:
SEMPER SENSITIVE

"From a handout that accompanies a weeklong course on Iraq's customs and history given to U.S. Marines as part of their training. The course, devised by the Marine Corps Division Schools, was introduced last September 2004 with the intention of IMproving relations between Iraqis and U.S. forces."

GREETINGS:
Handshakes given at introduction and when leaving. Handshakes may be loose or limp wristed. California style handshake dude.Iraqis will hold the handshake for longer than U.S. Do not pull away. Females may just touch the fingertips, but generally no contact between men and women.
If Arabs do not touch someone they meet (pay attention here), they either do not like the person or are restraining themselves because they think the person is unaccustomed to being touched.To kiss the forehead, nose, or right hand of the person shows extreme respect.

Courtesy is valued and is not a weakness.

General rule: Treat every Iraqi as if he were a colonel.this is good advice. my contact with Iraqis suggest that all or most want to be Big shots. At least in the beginning of the war they seemed pleased with themselves when dealing and working with Americans. Unless they already had money.

PHYSICAL CONTACT:
Touching among same sex is not considered homosexual. Good friends often hold hands as a sign of friendship.this also was something no one told us. Guys as old as your Dad walking around holding Uncle Eddy's hand as they parade down the street. Many approached me as if they were flirting asking me if I would have dinner with them giggling like little Japanese girls waving as they walked by. There is nothing more disconcerting than being a Marine armed to the teeth in the middle of an Iraqi city and having a male walk up and say."HALO? MY Friend? He Says He Like you are you doing later you eat with us?" Uh,Im busy Dude...
They keep no distance between individuals, even when sitting.
If you move back they will just close the distance again.

GESTURES:
To signal a vehicle to stop, place arm in front of you, palm down, and then move entire arm up and down. If you simply face the palm toward a person, it means hello, not stop, as in America.
"
That's enough, thank you" Ã— patting heart a few times.

The thumbs-up used to be obscene, but children are accepting it and using it.

They also know the thumbs-down.

The okay sign that Americans make is considered bad. It is an evil eye.
HOSPITALITY:

Arabs are very generous and will do anything possible to be good hosts. You may be judged on how well you accept their hospitality.GO AHEAD AND TAKE THEIR CIGARETTES IF THEY WANT YOU TO HAVE THEM.

Gifts may be given when you arrive at a meeting, etc., but are not important. The host will not make a fuss over it and will never open it in front of you. A good gift has no practical value and little commercial value; a fancy gift is like saying to the recipient, "I knew you couldn't afford this, so I bought it for you."perhaps not relevant at our level. However the next one is.

Always accept beverages or anything offered to you.This happened to me where a bunch of kids were punching me in the nuts while a little girl in the neighborhood handed me an open bottle of pepsi/Soda. The entire street stood there and watched to see if I would drink it or not. The strategic Cpl drank it . "Sho-ko-ran". Tyson stayed in the Vehicle behind the 240, took pictures and laughed at me .

Food is given in large proportions.

Coffee being served means: meeting over.

"Imshee"

Happy Birthday

2005-11-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

Powered By Qumana

Samurai jack

2005-11-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

Powered By Qumana

Hot off the Conference Call: Item #1

2005-11-02T19:52:00.000-08:00

Item#1
Marines need to get on "mypay" ASAP. No bullshit, get a password, register, whatever. Nobody is going home Sunday without it being complete. Once registared you should recieve sometype of notice in the mail regarding your pin w/in 2 weeks. This will soon be the only way you will be able to obtain your W2. Welcome to the 21st century. Give up your luddite angst and save yourself some added pain to the myriad of trash to complete. Register now. http://mypay.dfas.mil Its easy.

Newsletter Notes:

2005-11-02T02:56:00.000-08:00

ALL MARINES NEED TO BRING OLD CAMMIES AND BOOTS FOR SWIMQUAL! If you don’t you will be expected to swimqual with whatever uniforms you have. Make sure you pack your gear appropriately (i.e. WATERPROOFED!) for the swimqual. Its going to be a busy drill so come in pumped and ready to work.
-Asst Training NCO

Go to your Marine On Line account and ensure that the Civilian Employment Information section in Reserve Duty On Line is updated BEFORE DRILL! Anyone with questions or problems, contact your chain of command.

Admin

Toys for Tots is an official mission of the Marine Forces Reserve. The only way that we will pull off a successful year is through doing what Marines are know around the world for, WORKING TOGETHER. I wholly expect that the number of Marines volunteering to work with me this year will take a sharp up turn. Thanks for your time and support.

-Armory

UNIFORMS: Any Marine that does not have at least one new set of both digital cammies will need to come into Supply Saturday at 1300. Supply will check for back order status and complete the 604 form for uniform replenishment if necessary.

-Supply

IED ALERT: New Tactic

2005-10-28T17:25:00.000-07:00

IEDs and VBIEDs have seen success throughout Iraq against the Americans and those viewed as supporters or cooperators. As the Coalition forces have armored their vehicles and personnel, the insurgents have improved and strengthened their IEDs. Insurgents evolved from simply burying wired artillery shells under the road to directional and shape charges and hiding explosives in trash bags or seemingly permanent fixtures such as roadside curbs. From a recent Washington Post Article:
"Now they get a hose and they lay it across the road, and when you drive across it, it ignites the IED," said Clinton, the Alpha Company sergeant in Kirkuk. "You know years ago, when you had service stations where you'd drive across the rubber hose and it would go, 'ding, ding, ding'? Here you drive across a little hose and it sends water back into a little bottle with wires sitting there. When water goes back into the bottle, it connects wires, and off goes the IED. It's just so simple and so stupid."[1]

Initially this tactic was used mostly by Sunni extremists either fighting the nationalist war to oust the American forces that disposed them from their seats of power during Saddam’s regime or those participating in the Global Salafist Jihad (GSJ) (i.e. AQI or other groups that have pledged bayat to bin Laden and AQ). Videos on making and emplacing IEDs are now readily available in bootleg DVD stands throughout Iraq (until the stand is visited by American forces when they are promptly hidden) along with anti-American propaganda. Recently American forces have seen the usage of VBIEDs and IEDs in common criminal acts against other Iraqis with the same proficiency as the insurgents. The abundant employment of 4th generation warfare in Iraq has made terrorism the most common crime and tactic for any type of illicit gains in the country.

This brings about the possibility of more standoff tactics involving IEDs and VBIEDs used in place of suicide bombings in areas outside of Iraq. The export of these tactics in lieu of their apparent success in fighting the U.S. military (often seen as the most powerful and advanced military in the world) by fighters leaving Iraq through its porous borders is becoming an increasingly real threat. While the love for martyrdom and glory through Jihad will remain an extremely important part of the GSJ culture touted openly by Muslim world leaders such as Iran’s president Ahmedinijad who said, "Is There Art that Is More Beautiful, More Divine, and More Eternal than the Art of Martyrdom?"[2], we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the painfully evident ability of jihadists to adapt techniques that make them more efficacious. Although the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri using a VBIED may have triggered counterproductive effects for its perpetrators, success was seen in the bomb’s results.

Coupling the commonness of the IED knowledge with the centrifugal nature of Iraq as the new “base” or “Qaeda” of the GSJ we may see more attacks using such methods spreading throughout the region (especially in countries viewed as having an apostate rule) and beyond. While these types of operations are on a much smaller scale than what we saw in 9/11, a campaign of smaller scale bombings that kill 20 to 100 civilians at a time could possibly bring the same type of fear and economic recession that is seen in single larger scale operations. Again, martyrdom operations will always be important to the GSJ community, but the recruitment and employment of IED makers and emplacers is a much simpler task than preparation for a suicide bombing and may be realized by the growing number of supporters of the Jihad.

Mobilization Tips to Live by:

2005-10-27T00:05:00.000-07:00

Keep in mind the "when" and "if" element in every deployment scenerio. It has been my experience that everything can change 10 or 15x before anything significant occurs. You need to be in a state of readiness to change with the flux.
This List may seem obvious, however:

1. Do not up and quit your job upon notice of a possible or impending deployment.
2. Do not quit school.
3. Do not quit school.
4. Do not quit school.
5. Dont leave your wife. This is not your "Big chance to get away from it all."
6. Do not play up the deployment as if you are going to the slaughter.You are not going to Gallipoli.Its bad for morale and it upsets the civilians at their breakfast.
7. Research and spread the knowledge, data and intel on all matters pertaining to the possible mission. We are all in this together.

Carry on with your bad selves.

Funeral Detail Needed:

2005-10-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

C.O has passed word to ask for a volunteer (one per Plt) to participate in a Funeral this Friday.

I dont have any details on who it is. The Church is in Pa. I will leave out the rest of the location information for privacy sake. You would report to the RTC and then be driven to the location of the ceremony. It will be a rifle detail, Dress Blue A's. "We will depart the RTC at 0730 in Dress Blue A's. Current requirement is 3 Marines to fill the rifle detail." There is a 50 dollar payment to those Marines who participate. Contact your Chain of Command.

The Wife is asleep, time for the AAR...

2005-10-24T19:25:00.000-07:00

Note to Self:
#1. Never step on those logs out in the parking area on a dewey Sunday morning...And if you fall flat on the side of you face, like I did-get up quickly and pretend nothing happened, then look for you cell phone in the grass...
#2. If later that same day a Lcpl claims to have seen you make a goon of yourself while lying on your back-just plead ignorance or claim you got tired looking for your cell phone in the grass.

Some sorry as pull up displays I witnessed. All the way up and all the way down, none of this half pump bullshit. I could barely count half the crap I witnesssed. Most of you fools think you are some kind of PT god when you are really just bullshitting yourself with balloon muscle strength.I think I got kicked in the face twice and told at least on Marine just to friggen stop and go to someone else's bar...Im certain he was pissed. Who could blame him. I could not give an accurate and fair count with cartoon displays of strength like his. Maybe we should just videotape the whole damn thing.
Also, too many Marines sitting down after the run. Bullshit. Walk around. Puking is permitting when one has pushed to his limits. However anything after 23:30 is considered unmanly and vomiting actions must be withheld Stopping is not cool .Ever. This is not supposed to whoop your ass completely. Damn corpsman are advised to take score on the other side of the van so as to not "F"up those incoming running. (buddyf`ers) Thanks Doc.

Gotta go

2005-10-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

All Weapons Platoon Marines:

(1) Formation for Saturday, Oct. 22: All weapons platoon Marines will be at Flair, on the ramp, ready for formation at 0715. There will be a Weapons Platoon formation at this time. Following will be the dental formation at 0730. Company formation, minus the scouts, will follow at 0800.

(2) Dental exams:

Drill newsletter: "There will be Dental Exams schedule on 22 OCT 05 at the Fort Detrick Dental Clinic. All personnel will muster at the Reserve Center at 0730, then bus over to the Dental Clinic. Please see attachment below for the list of names. Also, there are a few Marines that still are Dental Class 3 and will need to see their civilian dentist to take care of the issues noted on the last exam, and need 30 day monthly update. Lastly Marines that are TNPQ, or NOE are required to submit paperwork every 30 days or every drill, so if you are one of those people you need to come and see me every drill with that paperwork. Please see list below."

The following Marines are Dental Class 3:
LCPL G
LCPL H
CPL L

Dental Schedule:
0900-1000
LCPL LnS
SGT MC
1000-1100
SGT P
PFC SID

LINS: bring all your paperwork for aTNPQ injury.

(3) Uniform for Saturday formation is cammies. Do not wear PT gear.

(4) At formation, make sure you have military and civilian ID, dog tags, note taking gear, watch. A flashlight with red lense should be with your gear.

(5) Bring ALL your gear to drill, this time and every time. This includes all field gear and all unit issued gear. You do not need to bring all your service and dress uniforms.

(6) Ensure that all your gear is marked. Unit gear can be marked with green tape.

(7) Training: Prepare for MOS training w/o vehicles, as well as SASO and BUST training. Bring your PME (MCIs).

(8) PFT will go on Sunday. Bring all PT gear.

(9) This weekend we will also be checking MCI completion, completing personnel data sheets, fixing the PLT contact list, reviewing the drill schedule, reviewing the deployment checklist, and fixing our Platoon comm problems. You will need to have a PIN with Marine OnLine by drill. Mortars should bring their AARs / Lessons Learned for A.T.

(10) You will buy Ball tickets this drill. Bring your checkbook or cash.

(11) This is the hotel room list:

Cpl C
Gr
Han
Lin
Sgt Ma
Sgt Mc
Osul
Sgt P
Sgt R
Sha
Sid

(12) The TOW MOS is undergoing changes. For more info see the current MC Times (last week), or check the link:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1992/MDR.htm

(13) Pass this information on to other Marines in your section.

-SGT R

Weapons Platoon:

2005-10-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

(1) The October drill newsletter has been emailed to the Company. The first order on every drill newsletter is:

"You are instructed to call your Chain of Command (NCOIC/SNCOIC or Platoon Sergeant) within 24 hours of receiving this notice."

Despite the unfortunate mixing of bold and underline, any legal order, written or spoken, is to be followed. That means you should acknowledge receipt of the drill newsletter as follows: TOW Marines should contact CPL C via email or phone; MORTARS should contact ME via email or phone. Your message should be: "October drill newsletter received." In addition, you should actually READ the drill newsletter for pertinent information

(2) "I didn't receive the drill newsletter." Marines, it is NOT the responsibility of Bravo to track you down. It is YOUR responsibility to keep in contact with Bravo. IF you did not receive a drill newsletter you should be updating your email address on Marine Online and with the Admin and Training Marines at Bravo. IF you do not get a newsletter as the drill dates get close, you should be contacting your section leader for drill information.

(3) "My contact information has changed." Marines, on SEPT 28 an updated contact list was emailed to all WPNS PLT, with an order that a response was NECESSARY, and specific instructions as to what the response should be. If you did not receive the updated contact list, it is because YOU failed to update ME or your section leader with contact info. If your response was incorrect, it was because you FAILED to read the instructions. A Word version of the list is available for anyone who does not have Excel.

(4) Missing or lacking communication? ALL WPNS PLT Marines: should have the October contact list, should have the new FY 06 training schedule, should know the date of the next PFT, have completed at least one MCI over the two months of liberty, know if they have a dental, medical, or admin appointment pending, and have completed the required unit MCI's within 12-24 months of joining Bravo.

(5) ALL Mortars were ordered to do the following after AT: submit an AAR / LL Report (After Action Report / Lessons Learned), and submit a "classes needed" request. I have received some of these. If you have not followed this order, you should prepare these items for OCT drill.

(6) ALL WPNS PLT Marines will be completing a personnel info form this drill. Every Marine should visit Marine Online and establish a PIN, ASAP. You should review and know your information under "Personal Information" including BTR, BIR, Education, Contact Info, etc.

(7) It is still mandatory for ALL WPNS PLT Marines to contact SGT M on the Monday before drill via phone, voice mail, or email.

(8) If you have read this so quickly that you do not know what to do next, go back and read it again.

-A response to this email is necessary, see #1

-SGT R

-end-

Frost Call Weapons Plt.

2005-09-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

ALL WEAPONS PLATOON MARINES:

(1) The C.O. has begun a FROST call at 10am this morning, Friday, Sept. 30.

(2) You must contact your Section Leader ASAP. I am handling the FROST call today.

(3) Failure to respond to FROST calls or other unit communication on a repetitive basis is grounds for disciplinary action, including NJP. I should not have to tell you this.

(4) The FROST call ends tomorrow morning, Saturday, Oct. 1.

(5) SGT P and CPL C need to contact me ASAP.

(6) ALL WEAPONS Marines should look at the contact list, the email addresses and pass word along updated channels of communication.

-SGT. R

-end-

Iraqis debate Iraqis on Democracy and American Blood.

2005-09-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

American Casualties Are Martyrs Too
By Hussein Al-Zeyadi
I shall start by declaring myself an agent and lackey of the United States of America in order to spare others the effort of throwing these accusations. By others, I refer to Pan-Arabists, Nationalists and Islamists who use the above to describe anyone who expresses an equitable, objective opinion or rational thought which suggests that we are all on the same boat, that any violent tendencies would sink us all. Following Operation Iraqi Freedom which released millions of Iraqis from the huge prison run by a gang of mercenaries and hitmen for over three decades, following the liberation -described by a few as an occupation, we started hearing the strangest opinions from our officials and fellow countrymen.I wish to remind them that Iraqis inside used to cry in despair: "Let us be liberated, even if it be by Sharon." Months and years went by without us knowing anything about the cockfights going on between members of the Iraqi opposition abroad, the deals made on dividing the country's riches and on mapping a new Iraq. Everyone claimed to be struggling for Iraqis through releasing annual statements from the hotels of London, Teheran, Vienna, and recently Salah Al-Din.During the few months prior to the fall of the idol at Fardous square, we Iraqis inside used to writhe in pain upon hearing a few sentences from Hans Blix's investigation reports taking a flexible stance toward the former regime. We feared the US and Britain would fall back on their intentions. We only sighed relief when president George Bush announced a 48 hour ultimatum to Saddam and his sons to leave Iraq or face military action. It was war and the feeble fortresses of Baathists collapsed one after another at the speed of light, since they had already been eroded after Iraqis revolted in the 1991 blessed Intifada, which was a spontaneous revolt against injustice and oppression. A revolt which none of the newcomers had any role in, except perhaps their languishing cowardly stand when they left the rebels face Saddam's war machine alone, or their exploitation of the Intifada in the western media after thousands of innocent Iraqis were massacred. The true rebels were buried, along with their families, in the regime's massgraves. Those who had survived went into hiding awaiting the moment of salvation which God delivered by pushing president Bush to wage war against the tyrant. The regime collapsed and we remained without a state for days and weeks. We never saw any of the expatriate politicians until their appointment by Bremer as the new governors of Iraq, and everyone knows the rest of the story. We accepted and embraced them as brothers and fellow Iraqis, yet they underestimated us and treated us like fools. You have Muwafaq Al-Rubaie at a conference in Diwaniya saying: "We tricked the Americans into invading Iraq," as if the United States is a five year-old child. And you have another, appointed by Bremer to the Governing Council with a salary exceeding that of a whole town under Saddam, calling for an end to the occupation. While our foreign minister, Hoshiar Zebari, is asking the Security Council to extend the mission of multi-national forces in Iraq, we have Jawad Al-Maliki, second man after the prime minister in the Da'wa party leadership and a National Assembly member, demanding that occupying forces leave Iraq, as if we had nothing to say as a nation. And so all basic services broke down and everything was lost while our new leaders continued to blame the former regime. Both Iraqis and Americans continue to be puzzled with the warped ethics of Iraqi politicians. The United States expected gratitude from the Iraqi people, or at least from Iraqi politicians since they were made out of nothing. Here we have an accountant suddenly promoted to minister, and another who opposed the liberation suddenly becoming prime minister in a moment he would never imagine even in his wildest dreams. The problem now is with those who are lying to both Iraqis and America. Some followed Iran and started to repeat its empty slogans while others parrot similar ones from our Baathist neighbor in Syria, losing all touch with reality. A single world superpower with its own agenda of a greater Middle East is urging Iraqis to follow their own interests and to replace backwardness with freedom and modernity, with similar situations experienced in Japan, South Korea and Germany. The only difference between us is that these nations stage demonstrations when American bases are about to be removed and that they regard them as friendly forces protecting them from their evil neighbors. They think and speak clearly and they call a spade a spade, while we deny American money and blood shed on Iraqi soil as if we were some kind of science-fiction creature rising from a laboratory to destroy the world which liberated it. That was how we abused our freedom given to us for the first time in our lives, thanks to the boots of Marines which crushed Saddam's Fedayeen and Baathists. I truly believe that our salvation as a nation depends on our being completely honest with the United States; to prove to her that we are Iraqis first and that we do not conspire against her with Iran or Syria or anyone; to thank and to acknowledge her role in liberating us, otherwise we will be heading to disaster. The United States is the sole player in Iraq today. A new Marshall plan in Iraq would contribute greatly to our economic development. We should learn from the Japanese, the Koreans and the Germans. We should ask them how they dealt with America, how they reassured her that her interests were secure and how they were reconstructed by her to become among the world's greatest economic superpowers. Perhaps the secret is that none of these countries were neighboring Iran or Syria? Nevertheless, we should learn to overcome our geographical fate because, unfortunately, it can never be changed.

Word on the Street: Update

2005-09-07T18:13:00.000-07:00

News from the South concerning the Hurricane and Mobilizations to the AO.

Scuttlebutt says MFR units are already activated and en route. I have good information saying that other units in N.C are asking for volunteers to participate in relief ops. If this is the case stand by for possible FROST CALL -they are at this time short term mobilizations. Nothing halfway firm on how long yet. Possibly 60 days, but that is by "opinion" only. Our man at the Citadel reports Cadets will be doing 7- 10 day ops in LA/MS. More information will be passed as it becomes available.

Mortarmen Drill Scheduled for Oct 1st in Annapolis.

81s are hosting a drill in Annapolis. This is I believe the 6th annual Mortarmen weekend. Focus of effort will be Personal Affairs Readiness. A predeployment checklist will be handed out and looked over by the NCOs and recommendations will be made. Classes and PT will be conducted throughout the day. It is a one day event. All Bravo Marines are encouraged to participate. NCOs and above in attendance will present at least one class on any relevant material. Any Marine not interested in training can stay home and watch cartoons. Any OIF Marines interested in just visiting are welcome to show up with their spouse/girlfriend at the end of Training (late afternoon approximately). The Grommitt Council will then debrief events of the day and make polite commentary over fermented wheat beverages. More info will be available next Monday. Any questions can be directed to B4Jedi@hotmail.com

Excellent AAR Data from Unnamed officer,Compiled by "Winds of Change" blogger

2005-09-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

The Enemy:
The enemy is ANYTHING that prevents us from coming home on our own power and intact.
IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) are the #1 killer of troops.
IEDs are not "incidents", but the primary means of contact. It is an "ambush", and whether a "far ambush" (blow it from a distance and run) or a "near ambush" (blow the shot and have small arms fire with close-quarters marksmanship needed), regardless, it is not a random event. The enemy is patient, plans their attack, goes through all the recon and planning we do, and then targets who they hit.
The #2 killer is TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS!!! Everyone must keep this in mind. The up-armored HUMVEES turn and brake way differently, and are prone to tipping. "COMBAT DRIVING" means know your vehicle, use it as a weapons platform AND a weapon as needed, and be able move and communicate at all times... it does NOT mean "drive like the Dukes of Hazzard". As the CSM of the Army said, "Drive like NASCAR"... know you vehicle, keep the distances and speeds YOU need to be safe, and if needed, get under the opposition and put them into the wall. NOTE TO ALL: It is a * bad* idea to put your most junior people in as drivers and gunners, at least to do it all the time. Train them. We all need to be proficient with driving AND being a gunner AND using all the comms available AND navigating using * MAPS* and GPS
The #3 Killer: Failure to execute proper and FAST first responder duties. The difference between life and death is measured in seconds if someone is bleeding out. As just one example, if you get a tourniquet on someone in time, they live. If not, they die. Again, EVERYONE has to know this... .the designated "combat life saver" may be the one hit. It used to be they barred officers from CLS courses as "if the officer is busy doing this, they aren't doing their primary job". That has changed. Standardize where the vehicle response bag is. Have recovery drills, mounted and dismounted. Have MEDEVAC plans, to include if you have to lay people flat. The time to figure out how to change a tire, how to open a vehicle and clear the people AND sensitive items, how to cross load people is NOT while RPG are criss-crossing your area.
The AIF (Anti-Iraqi Forces) are adaptive, intelligent, and will kill any number of civilians, to include using kids as bait, in the hopes of getting just one Coalition troop. By the same token, they are being driven to these extreme means precisely because public support for AIF activities is dropping (the majority of of help, in fact, come from Iraqi civilians and Iraqi forces). The AIF will do anything to take away progress and betterment of the Iraqi people, because anything good is seen as supporting the legitmate government and makes the AIF look less powerful. From everything I've heard from those in country, things are getting better, and its has resulted in more foreign fighters coming in and less and less Iraqis supporting these attacks or the causes claimed.
Be aware, the PIRA (Provisional Irish Republic Army), FARC (the Columbian drug/leftist terrorists), and Chechnyans are many of the primary "expert" trainers for the AIF, and have been caught both in Iraq and neighboring countries teaching organization and tactical skills. There are others out there, too, that are not Arab and are actively supporting the AIF. Don't think someone is "OK" just because they aren't muslim. Do not fall into a trap thinking this is a religious or racial war - that is what the demagogues on both sides want to cloak this in. It is a struggle for power and money.
There are media, most notably Al Jazeera but also others, that are coordinated by the terrorists and are in place for attacks. Almost all attacks are videotaped. They do not air all of the many, many failed attacks or ones where the Coalition clearly dominates the battle, but they are filming and use them for training if they can't use it for propaganda. They don't have media that films all and airs the bad and the good... the only stuff the enemy-oriented media shows is what benefits them. They even film their training programs, such as mock-ups of raids and kidnappings. We saw lots of footage from captured videos at the conferences. Never assume anyone with a camera is friendly - this does NOT mean they are enemy and can be shot, but it DOES mean to be wary, to keep the security cordon so they cannot capture images of sensitive items or record voice traffic that they can use (such as getting current pro-words or the "handles" of units or individuals.) Be professional, but remember OPSEC at all times, as you are watched and recorded at all times.

Interrogation of Jihadist Asshole: This is who you will fight.Details compliments of a video from MEMRI TV

2005-08-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

Interrogation of a captured terrorist by an Iraqi security member, is a must read (ht: Austin Bay). Not only does the terrorist admit to assassinating Muhammed Al Bakr, but he details campaigns of targeted rape, the fact that the Fallujah assault scattered his coworkers, the fact that he was only paid $400, the fact that Ansar al Islam set up house quite comfortably in Halabja during the time of Saddam.
Interrogator: "Did you kidnap women?"

Abed: "Yes."
Interrogator: "There were operations of kidnapping and rape, carried out by the squad you belong to?"
Abed: "Yes."
Interrogator: "Tell me how many rape and kidnapping operations were carried out. My information says that the kidnapped women were university students or daughters of famous people. You raped them and got money for it, and if they were not slaughtered afterwards.... Did this really happen?"
Abed: "Yes, it did."
Interrogator: "Who would carry out these operations?"
Abed: "Abu Sajjad."
Interrogator: "Your superior?"
Abed: "Yes."
[...]
Interrogator: "Is this Jihad – raping women? Is this Jihad?"
Abed: "It is because they collaborated with the Americans."
Interrogator: "That's why they were raped?"
Abed: "Yes."
Interrogator: "A student who is simply going to her university is kidnapped, raped, and then slaughtered?! This was an American collaborator?!"
Abed: "Mullah Al-Raikan would give the names to the squad commander."
Interrogator: "My information says that they were kidnapped and brought to Mullah Al-Raikan's headquarters. True or false?"
Abed: "He would interrogate them."
Interrogator: "Were they raped after the interrogation?"
Abed: "Yes. He would give them to the squad, and they would kill them. Some would rape them."
Interrogator: "You bastards. This is Jihad? You call this Jihad? "
Interrogator 2: "What was your role in these operations?"
Abed: "I would stand at the entrance to the headquarters. It was a house, and they would bring them there."
Interrogator 2: "Did you participate in the rape and murder?"
Abed: "No. Just one who worked for the PUK. She was a Kurd."
Interrogator: "In the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan?"
Abed: "Yes. We brought her too."
Interrogator: "And you raped her?"
Abed: "Yes."
These videos should be aired in the United States.
UPDATE: Hello, Instapundit readers. My comments are currently disabled. Feel free to email me.
You may view a video of the interrogation as well, via MEMRI TV.