News and Personal dispatches from the front lines.
In their own words:
One Marine's View: Biggest Mistake - I heard on the radio the other day that morons are claiming that the Iraqi War was the biggest blunder of President Bush's presidency. Wow, are these guys the most ungrateful, unfocused, un-American people or what? It was a mistake, they say, to invade Iraq. Hell, let's wrap Afghanistan in that too then. It was a mistake to remove a dictator that kills off his own people to make a point. It was a mistake to stop the possible onslaught of T-72 tanks pushing into Saudi Arabia back in the Gulf War. Ok, all you cry baby bleeding hearts out there who are going to get on your soap box now and tell me we came "here", for oil and the Honorable President Bush is doing this for money and bla, blabla, bla. Save your breath. (READ MORE)
LTC Rich Phillips: The Redeployment Process - Ah, the redeployment process. Hours and hours of boredom punctuated by....hours and hours of boredom! But that is the price of freedom, enduring the redeployment process. I can't complain, I'm stuck at KAF with a nice room and a wireless internet cafe' close by. For most Soldiers they get stuck in big "Fest" tents, a silly name for a huge circus tent full of hundreds of Soldiers (no kidding and no exaggeration). There is nothing festive about the "Fest" tent! (READ MORE)
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: School books - School texts and record books are going hand-in-hand these days in Afghanistan. The nearly 7 million children enrolled in Afghanistan schools this year is an all-time high, according toe Khanif Atmar, Afghanistan's education minister. The new school years is just getting underway in most of the country. Children get the months of the harsh Afghan winters off because the snows and temperatures make it difficult to attend schools. Construction and equipment for many new schools has been made possible through international aid, including military-assisted projects. Here in Ghazni, the military-lead Provincial Reconstruction Team has built and opened a number of schools for this year alone. (READ MORE)
Iraq: The Purgatorium: Escalation Of Force - The kids in the school crowd in the doorways and peek out the windows at the foreigners clearing the area. Once we finish and take up positions inside the courtyard, the kids become more curious. "Hello Mista!" "Mista! Football!" "Mista! Pen!" "Mista! I love you!" "Mista! Give me!" The teachers were obviously annoyed by the distraction and the kids' unruly behavior. There was really only one way that I could ever respond to something like this. I gave the kids the thumbs up, which they returned, moderate cheering. (READ MORE)
LT Nixon: Iraq News (27 March) - The Good: Operations by the Iraqi Security Forces continue to target criminal militia groups in Basra (NY Times has a pretty good summary). Militia fighting has sprung up all over southern Iraq and Baghdad with the help of their Quds Force enablers. The Prime Minister has set a deadline of 72 hours for the enemy in Basra to lay down their arms. Here's to the courage and bravery of our coalition and Iraqi brothers and sisters to put down this lawlessness once and for all. People often opine about who's right and who's wrong in this complex environment, but in my case, I'm fully supporting the people going after the thugs that are shooting at me. Perhaps that constitutes a bias, but hey, what are you gonna do. Very decisive and tough times... (READ MORE)
ETT PA-C: Back - I've arrived home again and slept well last night for the first time in 4 days. The first thing I did was bust out some shorts and celebrate being away from the "Flag Pole." It's absolutely insane how uptight Camp Phoenix is. It has to be the salute capitol of the world. Way too much brass up there. You can't walk 5 feet without saluting to or back at someone. God forbid you make a no cover, no salute policy like the NATO commands do. Woops, don't want to set a bad example for the world. Ahh, the US military, we are so wound up we can't allow people to relax and just do their job. "Ah to be" as my mother would say. Anyway, I'm back in the South, thank God, and actually in the real war zone. Ironically it feels sooooo liberating! (READ MORE)
Fearless 1st Marines’ blog: Iraqi Police graduate weapons course in Habbaniyah - CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq (March 9, 2008) — Iraqi Policemen recently graduated from an Iraqi Highway Patrol Convoy and Street Survival Skills Course aboard Camp Habaniyah. Marines with 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, also participated in the course during which they learned different aspects of police work including various types of search techniques, ethics of police duty and basic weapons instruction. The group of 22 Iraqi Police and six Marines took the three-week course at the Iraqi Training Center compound here. (READ MORE)
Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghan Adventure: Semper Gumby - Well, we still don't know when we are flying out of Afghanistan, and we don't know for certain when we will be released from Ft Riley to go home; but that's par for the course, really. When things are constantly changing, as they have so many times during this deployment, there is a simple motto to keep us going; "Semper Gumby." Semper Gumby is Latin for "Always Flexible." The ancient Greeks, the same good people who invented Latin, also invented Gumby. This was proven by the recent finding of a several thousand year old Gumby at the site of the battle of Marathon. (READ MORE)
Paul McLeary: Iraqi Army gets stuck - As fighting rages for a third day in the Iraqi cities of Basra, Baghdad and elsewhere between government forces and Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, and perhaps more troubling, between the Mahdi Army and its rival Shiite group the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, we’re being given a glimpse into how the Iraqi army functions without the safety net of American or British military support. One aspect of the fight is how the IA is using its technically superior equipment to leverage some advantage over the militia groups. (READ MORE)
That Krazy Korean: Daylight Savings - Just the other day a command decision was made by the Government of Iraq NOT to observe daylight savings time on 30 March. This is significant for three reasons: 1.) Since the coalition works closely with Iraqis, we in turn will not adjust our clocks forward so that we may operate on common time with our Iraqi counterparts. 2.) It also means that we don’t get to go home an hour early since they made the important decided not to “spring forward” like other countries in the area. 3.) And finally, it's proof that the Government of Iraq (GoI) can take charge of their country (so all you skeptics out there who thought otherwise are proven wrong!). (READ MORE)
Back Stateside but still writing:
all expenses paid afghan vacation: welcome to America - I finally have my feet firmly planted on U.S. soil for the first time in over a year, and it feels comfortably familiar yet foreign all at the same time. My unit came in to FT Bragg for a week (plus or minus a few days) filled with lots of fun out-processing and demobilization activities. Most of this simply involves a lot of waiting, paperwork, and a lot of boring briefings. A few more days to go and I’ll be back at home in Arizona trying to make the big transition back to my old life. Thanks to everyone who has been following my blog over what has been quite a memorable year in the ‘Stan. (READ MORE)
News from the Front:
Iraq:
Father comes to Iraq to be closer to son - Silvestre Lopez, 46, of Ranger, TX won’t get to see his son, Silvestre Jr. while he’s in Iraq. But he got a job in a war zone for his son. I kept trying to keep up with him, Lopez said. He was going through a lot of hard stuff. Specialist Silvestre Jr. Lopez, 22, of the 3rd Infantry Division was stationed in Ramadi. Lopez said his son's unit faced 10-20 attacks a day in the early phases of his 15-month deployment. (READ MORE)
Even in War, Not All Is War - It is a warm morning in February 2004, before the uprisings, before the mosque bombings, before Abu Ghraib and beheading videos and sectarian cleansing. A man named Kadum Abdullah, his bent figure draped in a green robe, is poling me and my colleague Razzaq on a wooden skiff through the marshlands of southern Iraq. A decade earlier, Saddam Hussein had tried to drain these lush wetlands to crush the rebels who had made this their base. He sought to destroy a society that had taken root here 5,000 years ago, at the dawn of Sumerian civilization. He wanted to gaze across this land and see nothing but parched desert. (READ MORE)
Soldiers, Iraqi Community Leaders Discuss Rebuilding Effort - FOB HAMMER — A March 21 gathering in a small village east of Baghdad looked more like a friendly visit than a meeting on reconstruction. Army Lt. Col. John Kolasheski, from Loudon, Tenn., commander of 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, and Mahmud Jabllawe, leader of the Tuwaitha “Sons of Iraq” community security group, chatted like old friends. Kolasheski inquired about Jabllawe’s upcoming doctor’s appointment, as Jabllawe offered chairs and chai (tea) to him and Army Capt. Brian Gilbert, from Boise, Idaho, commander of Company D, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment. (READ MORE)
Schools Officially Open Doors in Ameriyah - BAGHDAD — Following months of renovations, two schools in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ameriyah officially opened their doors on March 16. With Dr. Nehad, the deputy minister of education, present, the Firdous and Al Rawadan schools held ceremonies to commemorate their openings. Laughter and excitement filled the air as children danced and sang to the beat of musical instruments. The boys – some dressed in soccer jerseys and dress shirt and tie – chanted in celebration and waved the Iraqi flag. The girls wore their best spring dresses, read poetry and danced throughout the day. (READ MORE)
Anbar Leaders Unite Aboard Camp Fallujah - CAMP FALLUJAH — Anbar provincial and tribal leadership assembled at Camp Fallujah, March 25, to discuss Iraqi issues and challenges. Multi-National Force – West Commanding General John F. Kelly and his staff coordinated the Anbar Provincial and coalition force Leadership Conference. More than 20 key Anbaris, including Governor Ma’amoon Sami Rashid Alwani, Provincial Committee Chairman Dr. Abd al Salam, Iraqi security force (ISF) leadership and tribal/political leaders... (READ MORE)
2 SOIs murdered; woman, child injured - TIKRIT, Iraq – Two Sons of Iraq were murdered, and a woman and child were injured in an attack by al Qaeda in Iraq in Salah ad Din March 26. The two men were father and son and confirmed members of the Sons of Iraq in Samarra. The woman and child were transported to a Coalition forces hospital for treatment. (READ MORE)
Local SOI leader attacked by IED blast - BAGHDAD – An Abna al-Iraq, or Sons of Iraq, leader and two personal guards were killed by an improvised-explosive device at approximately 7:30 p.m. March 25 near the town of Shii’aa, northwest of Baghdad. Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers from 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, were notified by local citizens in the area. (READ MORE)
ISF contain violence in Hillah - HILLAH, Iraq – A combined Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army force stopped an organized attack in Hillah March 25. A military-style force, armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, gathered in southern Hillah. As they attacked Coalition forces and ISF with RPGs and small arms fire, Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police forces counterattacked. (READ MORE)
Two weapons caches found in Shaka 3 area - FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq – Sons of Iraq members and an informant provided information to Coalition force Soldiers that led to two weapons caches March 24 and 25 in the Shaka 3 region of Iraq. SOI members led Soldiers with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division to the first cache March 24. The cache consisted of 38 rifle grenades, 64 OG-15P grenades, 27 OG-9 rockets, 21 PG-9 rockets, two OG-7 rockets and one anti-tank mine. (READ MORE)
Afghanistan:
Engineers focus on nation building in Afghanistan - FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA, Afghanistan – In January 2008, Task Force Pacemaker’s engineers conducted construction workshops throughout eastern Afghanistan to promote positive relationships with Afghans, while providing them with skills critical to rebuilding their nation and economy. January marked the beginning of four separate construction workshops that the units of TF Pacemaker conducted in Afghanistan for local Afghan men between the ages of 18 and 60. (READ MORE)
PSD Soldiers make a difference at FOB Sharana - FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA, Afghanistan -- “We are the best section in this company. My Soldiers think we are, I think we are,” said Staff Sgt. Ian Roberts, the noncommissioned officer in charge of Task Force Rugged’s commander and command sergeant major’s Personal Security Detachment. The 10-Soldier element in Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 36th Engineer Brigade out of Fort Hood, Texas, does far more than escort the senior leadership around the battlefield. “They are my go-to guys,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Frank C. Busch, of TF Rugged. (READ MORE)
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