I Can't Wait To Go To Iraq

[lord of the mark]

Heres a blog from Iraq

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/arch...51683594145261

Like most Iraqis, he has no use for the so-called "insurgents" who are actually counter-revolutionairies.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie

If the American mission is to liberate the Iraqi people, kicking their ass is directly counter-productive.

Not entirely clear that this is the case. You assume a homogeneous Iraqi people. Everything I have read indicates that the Kurds and Shiites are pissed that we havent kicked ENOUGH Sunni Arab ass.

And even the Sunni arab areas are divided by local interest and tribe, as well as by political loyalty. Saw article today on resentment of Samarrah against Tikrit. We're finally starting to play this up - Ramadi is quiet, we get out of Ramadi. Cant get out of Falujah till Fallujah is quiet.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
Safe AND sorry

I would have blown his ass away too - everyone KNOWS there are ****ing checkpoints, it's not like they showed up unannounced last night. Let's see, they tried warning him, he saw the checkpoint, he approached at high speed anyway, despite the warnings, then he ignored warning shots, and still kept coming at high speed, what the **** are you gonna let him do?

"Hey, it might not be a suicide bomber, it might just be a stupid, blind and deaf moron in a hurry, better run and let him go, and oh, hope he doesn't drive a carload of explosives into us or some building while we have our heads up our asses?"

There's no choice, except to willingly risk many more lives than the driver's, to accomodate the driver's non-compliance. Sucks to be him.

[Patroklos]

Chemical Ollie

Iraqs know what is going on, They know they shouldn't speed through ckeckpoints. I have no sympathy for those who try, and I blame no US soldier for reacting in the correct, yes correct, way by shooting violators of established rules that have been made more than adaquately public. If they are speeding through checkpoints at this point, they are doing something they shouldn't.

I would like to hear you exact procedures for conducting checkpoints that would lead to no US or Iraq casualties, but would still be effective. It should be very funny.

MrFun: I was equally dismayed at the lack of WMD, but that was just ONE (albiet the most hyped) of the reasons listed for going in, the rest are still valid. And while we may have been wrong about WMD, there was more than enough evidence to give someone the opposite idea. Can't be right all the time.

-Pat

[GePap]

Oh lord, at least we know Iraq will give us lots to talk about for decades to come..lets see it the issue outlives Poly (hope not..)

The admin. is caught in a very simple bind- for all our firepower we lack the intelliegence to battle the insurgency as is, and the more firepower we use, the worse this gets.

It's all a matter of percentages. Lets say the US comes into a town that is rebellious and says: you guys don;t cut it out, inform on all the rebels and end this insurgency, we will literally decimate the town! And we can! Well, that means there is a 10% chance of death if no one opens their yap.. and a 90% chance of survival. Now, the day before the rebels came and said to everyone..even if we are killed, we have secret informants who will tell those who come after us who spoke...and those people will die. That is much closer to 100% chance of death if you do speak, and a 2000 lb bomb and a knive both kill you equally as well. So even if they are immensely weaker, knowing more, the rebels have the ability to keep the people quiet. Now, if the governemnt starts saying the chance of non-complience is higher and higher, lest say not 10% die, but 80% will, well, then you get more people speaking.

Sadly, that road is NOT available to the US: the US can not put down revolts like, well, Saddam did. Not if we claim to be there for DemocracyTM. Which is were better services, more aid, and greater political autonomy come in..all the things this admin. seems horribly incapable of providing to the areas were it would make the biggest difference. And now the CIA is saying the average Iraqi is loosing faith in the ability of the US to get a handle on things..which bodes very badly for this whole operation.

This is what we get with a tainted operation, and why this admin. can not be allowed in power much longer..loosing the peace, much like they have allowed things to detriorate in Afghanistan.

[Tripledoc]

Anyone know the precise statistics for friendly fire incidents post-invasion? There has been a lot of incidents. See for yourself by searching google. However I have not been able to find the accumulated number.

[child of Thor]

I find it difficult to be too sympathetic to a soldier that dies in a war. After all i would hope that when you sign that line you should atleast expect that you may well die in a battle zone. Its what being a warrior is about.

On the other hand i have complete sympathy for a young child sliced in half while sleeping by a 1000lb bomb, that may or may not have gone astray.

So my thoughts will be with those soldiers families,and the family(if there are any left) of the civilian casualty.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Are you supposed to ever get your equipment issue situation squared away? i.e. ditching the M16's and getting your issue weapons? This is the Army, what what was I thinking?

The Issue situation is as follows. We will be getting IBA (Interceptor body armor; an improved version of Ranger Body Armor [RBA]), we will all recieve M-16 though these may or may not (stress not) be upgraded to M-4 assualt rifles when we are in country, we have requested M-9 (Berretta 9mm pistols) though it seems unlikely we will recieve these items, one man (in this case me) will be issued a Squad Assualt Weapon (S.A.W.) [a hand held fully automatic belt feed machine gun], and one man [the second in command of my three man team] will get an M-16 equiped with an M203 granade launcher. I really, really want to have each of my men issued a side arm as a back up weapon but my driver needs one more then anyone since it is not possible to fire an M-16 rifle and drive a humvee at the same time. If he had a M-9 he might at least be able to fire back while driving.

Another huge issue with me is that we will not be given an uparmored humvee. That means we will not be protected from any RPGs or I.E.D. (Improvized Explosive Devices) which are so common amoung the Ba'athist & Fundimentalist fighters in Iraq. The Army tells us this is no big deal but I find it to be a very big deal because it puts my life and the lives of the men under my command in danger. I will but sandbags on the floors and do what I can to improve the situation but the truth is most ambushes take vehicles from the side and I will have no protection from the sides. That pisses me off especislly bercause every vehicle in Bosnia & Kosovo is uparmored yet virtuallt none of the vehicles in Iraq are uparmored.

[child of Thor]

Oerdin, good luck mate - when you get back come visit the CPT2 forums - the game may be real cool by then

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
Here's the last checkpoint f*ckup, fresh from BBC today. If you shoot someone in this way, Oerdin, his ghost will come back to haunt you in your nightmares.

If i was Hungarian, i wouldnt be mad at the US for this persons irregard for safety and his own life. That could be a Darwin Award right there

[GePap]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
Heres a blog from Iraq

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/arch...51683594145261

Like most Iraqis, he has no use for the so-called "insurgents" who are actually counter-revolutionairies.

Hmm, I wonder what kind of iraqis make blogs?

Most Iraqis probalby do not have any use for the current bunch of rebels, but the more incapable the US shows itself to put an end to this, the more they will have no use for the US either.

[Kramerman]

Oerdin, what exactly is uparmored? Is it just added armor plating or kevlar 'padding'?

[Pekka]

I think he meant the humvee, not personal armor..

[GePap]

What Kramerman was asking was whether uparmoring means added meal armor, or putting Kevlar padding on the Humvee (not on Oerdin or any men)

[Saint Marcus]

(a) Grand Executioner is a much better title, and more fitting to the job. This isn't a hoity-toity private prep school debate club.

you've banned people for lesser offenses, so please.

(b) There's nothing quite as rude as being shot at. Been there. Have you? If people are eggshells about opinions on a screen not even directed at them, God help 'em when they encounter a real crisis.

They get what they signed up for.

(c) What's "appropriate?" - there's a ****ing war on, in case you hadn't noticed.

Your CiC told us the war was over. Also, since it's a war, would it be ok for me to glorify on Poly the sept 11th attacks and wishing for a second such attack without getting banned? Course not. Eventhough there's a war going on.

(d) All Somalis aren't skinnies, so I'm more "clannist" than racist. Only the Habr Gidr and allied *******s shooting at us (and stealing famine relief from starving Somalis who happened to not belong to the right clans) qualified as "skinnies"

Oh please! that's like saying that not all Japanese are Japs, just the bad ones in WW2. And not all Chinese are chinks, just the bad ones. And not all blacks are ******s, just the bad ones. It's racist wheter you like it or not! And as I recall, there were some issues in the first gulf war involving American GIs refering to Iraqis as Sand ******s, which led to protests from the African American GIs and community at large.

So please restrain yourself. Trolling is one thing, being overly offensive is quite another.