The insurgency is taking their fight to a new level, probably sponsored in part by the Iranians who are trying to tie down GWBs swords in Iraq to stop the rattling. So, who's really making things worse over here? The people that want to get us out of here and back to the states, or the people that want to get us out of Iraq and move us straight to Iran?
This is the kind of brazen attack you see from well funded, well trained, clandestine miltary units, much like the US Special Forces. No, half-assed Al Qaeda insurgent could have pulled this off. They abducted 4 soldiers threw them in the back of a truck and drove off with them to execute them later. First of all these soldiers let their guard down and were caught by surprise, hopefully it's a lesson learned. I know, having done Personal Security, for the types of people who do these BILATs that this had to be a breakdown in military bearing and security. That said, it was a clever trick that could exploit even the smallest crack in a security detail like that. The fact that they did a tactical entry on a building, took prisoners, and killed 5 American soldiers, and spoke English, shows these guys were well trained. It would be hard to do dynamic entry into a building with Americans and be able to retreat alive, but to go in shoot them and come out, with prisoners shows they have training.
I recently saw a video captured from a bunch of dead insurgents that shows them assaulting an OP. Most of this video is a recording of the insurgents doing a rehearsal and a rock drill of the assault. Professional military training. Not to mention these guys conducting the assault, from what I could tell, were Persian not Arab. The video ends with them assaulting the OP, most of them dying and the rest being taken prisoner.
This professional military assault is probably why they gave us permission to shoot Iranians. This proclamation is completely bullshit, and is nothing but a political/foreign relations proclamation. First, we don't stop to ask the people that are exhibiting hostile intent towards us or other Coalition forces, whether it be planting IEDs or busting into buildings where we are having meetings and shooting us, whether they're Persian or Arab, Iraqi or Iranian, Sunni or Shia. We just shoot them. Second, we've been killing or taking prisoner anyone who is or might be actively plotting against our efforts here in Iraq. Nothing new. It's sort of the same mission we've had for 4 and half years.
Just having Army uniforms shouldn't have gotten that far anyways. Maybe past an IP checkpoint, but through American security that should have been on the outside of that building no fucking way. There is something wrong here. The unit conducting this meeting would have been here long enough to know who operates in their AO especially concerning the mission at a JCC. This just shouldn't have happened. And the more I think about the more impossible I think it would be.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
"We step forward...
...because the US Army never steps back." That's what my Drill Sergeant told me in basic training during our bayonet assault course. I believed it too.
Last week a group of US Army National Guard soldiers were engaged with small arms fire by international felons illegally invading our country. Before I get too deep into this let me just say I am by no means a racist, a xenophobe, or isolationist. There are legal means to enter our country and if you wish to be here you may do so. So, you would think that after they got shot at they would return fire. Nope. They're not allowed to. Wait a second even a private citizen has the right to defend themselves when being shot at.
Let's say you are in your house, some people jump over your fence come into your yard and start shooting at you. If you are a gun owner, experienced marksman, like myself, you shoot back, and you have every right to. You have every right to defend yourself, your property, and your family. It's the same prinicple with the member of the US Army on the border. They are sent there to defend their home, people are jumping over the fence illegally and then shooting at them, how can they not have the right to shoot back? How can they not have the right and the means to defend not only themselves but the sovereignty of the US from these attacks?
This was an attack on our nation, and an assault on our military by invaders, and people just brush it off. Did you know that three times last year that armed Mexican military units clandestinely crossed over the border into the US?
What's it going to take for us to use our military, political, and economic might to secure our border, or just annex Mexico?
Last week a group of US Army National Guard soldiers were engaged with small arms fire by international felons illegally invading our country. Before I get too deep into this let me just say I am by no means a racist, a xenophobe, or isolationist. There are legal means to enter our country and if you wish to be here you may do so. So, you would think that after they got shot at they would return fire. Nope. They're not allowed to. Wait a second even a private citizen has the right to defend themselves when being shot at.
Let's say you are in your house, some people jump over your fence come into your yard and start shooting at you. If you are a gun owner, experienced marksman, like myself, you shoot back, and you have every right to. You have every right to defend yourself, your property, and your family. It's the same prinicple with the member of the US Army on the border. They are sent there to defend their home, people are jumping over the fence illegally and then shooting at them, how can they not have the right to shoot back? How can they not have the right and the means to defend not only themselves but the sovereignty of the US from these attacks?
This was an attack on our nation, and an assault on our military by invaders, and people just brush it off. Did you know that three times last year that armed Mexican military units clandestinely crossed over the border into the US?
What's it going to take for us to use our military, political, and economic might to secure our border, or just annex Mexico?
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Sacrifice???
When the military does your evaluation reports they like things quantifiable. They like numbers here are the numbers on my sacrifice, thus far...
My wife and I have been married for 46 months and have spent 17 of those living together.
We had a child in May 2005 and had to ship him off from Germany where we are stationed to live with his grandmother for three months from the time he was 4 months until the time he was 7 months old. We then had to fly him from Germany back to the US two months later as we deployed to Iraq on a 12 month...no wait, 14 month...what could become a 16 month tour of Iraq because we have to sacrifice. And by the way the Army doesnt pay for him and my mother-in-law to fly back and forth so we were also out almost $6,000 on plane tickets in 2005.
So let's do the math on that one: my son is now almost 21 months old and has spent 15 months living with his grandmother, which is going to be at least 17 out of 23, and could possibly become 19 out of 25 of the most precious first two years of his life.
We're out all the money out of pocket we've had to spend to ensure he didnt get third rate healthcare because my mother-in-law doesnt live near a military base so she cant get a good pediatrician, or use our healthcare at most offices.
So my wife and I have sacrificed being parents to our child whom we love more than anything in the world. And we have sacrificed being companions to one another so we could fight this damned war neither one of us has believed in from the beginning.
We're both hollow shells now. All you have left to take is our physical life, because it doesnt seem that we are ever going to leave this place. We are never going to escape death's shadow. Because you can just keep extending our unit with disregard for the lives that are destroyed by the haplessness of your mistake.
I guess a man who sacrificed the first 40 years of his life to beer and blow, got his cushy assignment in a champagne unit in the Air Guard during VietNam, got his legacy scholarships to Yale and Harvard, got bailed out of failed business after failed business by his dad, and spent 60% of his first 4 years in the oval office on vacation knows all too much about sacrifice though.
I know I signed up for this. No I didnt. I didnt sign up to protect and defend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iraq, my oath clearly states, "support and defend the Constitution of the United States." And on top of that we have done our time. We did our year plus some. We did our tour of sacrifice, now it is our turn to go home. Let's not have to have one more memorial ceremony for my Brigade. Or any other for that matter. We've done all we can here. It's up to the Iraqi's to sacrifice now, not America. It's up to the Iraqis to defend Iraq, not America.
My wife and I have been married for 46 months and have spent 17 of those living together.
We had a child in May 2005 and had to ship him off from Germany where we are stationed to live with his grandmother for three months from the time he was 4 months until the time he was 7 months old. We then had to fly him from Germany back to the US two months later as we deployed to Iraq on a 12 month...no wait, 14 month...what could become a 16 month tour of Iraq because we have to sacrifice. And by the way the Army doesnt pay for him and my mother-in-law to fly back and forth so we were also out almost $6,000 on plane tickets in 2005.
So let's do the math on that one: my son is now almost 21 months old and has spent 15 months living with his grandmother, which is going to be at least 17 out of 23, and could possibly become 19 out of 25 of the most precious first two years of his life.
We're out all the money out of pocket we've had to spend to ensure he didnt get third rate healthcare because my mother-in-law doesnt live near a military base so she cant get a good pediatrician, or use our healthcare at most offices.
So my wife and I have sacrificed being parents to our child whom we love more than anything in the world. And we have sacrificed being companions to one another so we could fight this damned war neither one of us has believed in from the beginning.
We're both hollow shells now. All you have left to take is our physical life, because it doesnt seem that we are ever going to leave this place. We are never going to escape death's shadow. Because you can just keep extending our unit with disregard for the lives that are destroyed by the haplessness of your mistake.
I guess a man who sacrificed the first 40 years of his life to beer and blow, got his cushy assignment in a champagne unit in the Air Guard during VietNam, got his legacy scholarships to Yale and Harvard, got bailed out of failed business after failed business by his dad, and spent 60% of his first 4 years in the oval office on vacation knows all too much about sacrifice though.
I know I signed up for this. No I didnt. I didnt sign up to protect and defend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iraq, my oath clearly states, "support and defend the Constitution of the United States." And on top of that we have done our time. We did our year plus some. We did our tour of sacrifice, now it is our turn to go home. Let's not have to have one more memorial ceremony for my Brigade. Or any other for that matter. We've done all we can here. It's up to the Iraqi's to sacrifice now, not America. It's up to the Iraqis to defend Iraq, not America.
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