Oerdin's Iraq thread - Continued

[Last Conformist]

One province with 40% of the area? Does it, by any chance, contain alot of practically empty desert?

[Dinner]

Huge amounts of empty desert. Nearly all of western Iraq is in Al Anbar.

[johnj92131]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I can't find a link to the story on the net, but the story said that the U.S. has left the patroling of Anbar to the Iraqis, and the Iraqis aren't doing the patroling.

:
Here is a link to the story: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/9201838.htm

Her is a link to another story about Samarra and Anbar casualties this week: http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=2015

[chequita guevara]

That's it.

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
---
BG and I spent the rest of the eveneing hunched down on the couch.

A BG 2 to be expected...?

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Oerdin
but when it's 135 degrees outside eight hours can seem like a very long time.

Aarrgghh!! I suppose that's Fahrenheit? Here it's the coldest summer in 70 years. Not a single day above 20 C so far.

And the only sunny day since May, I had to work. Guess why I sing the blues?

[Ollie, why are you drunk on a Wednesday?]

[Because it's HOLIDAY!!!]

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
A BG 2 to be expected...?

Uhm, no comment.

[Ted Striker]

Great stories Oerdin.

Now I'm freakin' hungry!

[Dinner]

The article does say that Al Anbar covers about 40% of Iraq's territory but it says Iraqi Security Forces are now responsible for the area. I don't have high expectations for the performance of Iraq Security Forces.

Today my old team chief hopped on a chopper and headed south to Samarra so I am now officially head of the team in Tikrit. We went out with CA today in order to inspect the retrofiting of a sewage processing plant in Tikrit and then we stopped by the new Census department in the provencial government building. The Iraqi plans call for the national census to begin on 12 October and to end on the 22nd of October, data entry of the census responses is supposed to be completed by 22 December, with data analysis completed by 22 May. Personally, I think that is a very optimistic plan since Iraqis never seem to be able to do anything on a deadline. Still it is the first attempt at an honest census in 35 years plus people will be registered to vote at the same time when they complete the census so that should encourage people to take part.

We we got back to post I had to break up a "religious discusion" between a Chinese Atheist and a Latino Catholic which was about to degenerate into a brawl. It is amazing how religion and politics can make generally friendly people turn into raving lunitics.

[Dinner]

I have noticed that some units do a much better job then other units at pacifying the populace and gaining their trust. In general the gun-ho units fair the worst. They're the ones who shoot at everything that looks suspicious or sometimes even hose a general area without seeing a specific target. These units tend to ignore Psyop and CA because "they aren't real infantry soldiers" and as a result they never get key communicators in the city to start seeing things their way, they don't bother setting up media assets because they see the locals as their enemies, and they tend to break down doors and treat detainees roughly.

To compare areas like Tikrit, Al Kut, and Kirkuk (all of which I've spent extensive time in) units tend to fire only at targets they can clearly identify as hostile (this is Army policy BTW), knock on doors when conducting searches instead of simply breaking them down, are slow to arrest people unless they are armed and clearly up to no good, and the leadership tries very hard to reach out to locals in order to win their trust. Most Iraqs, and Arabs in General, read extreamly biased media which blames the US and Israel for everything bad in the world. The smart leaders understand this and try to over come it by making human connections with local leaders.

I'm happy to say there are more good commanders then the shoot first and let god sort them out type. The Marines, sadly, seem to be the worst and their leadership doesn't seem to understand the difference between all out war and a low intensity conflict. There are clear psyochological reasons for why people who are attacked daily tend to lump all of "them" together as being bad guys but it is the leadership's job to keep their units focused and achieving the government's objectives. A significant minority of commanders have not been making the grade.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Anyway, question. How close does a bullet half to be before you hear it? Bunnygrrl and I were sitting on the couch at her gandma's when I heard pop-zip-pop. Firecrackers are more echoy, so I'm pretty sure I heard a handgun. The zip was new though, and BG and I spent the rest of the eveneing hunched down on the couch.

Handguns always sounded like kids 'cap guns' to me. First time I was shot at I thought it was a big bee. I couldnt say how close you'd have to be to hear it like that though.

Oerdin

Very interesting stuff. A unique perspective I think.

[Dinner]

I remember talking to a COL who, when a young 2LT in the 1980s, was stationed in Central America. He said the first time he was shot at he couldn't figure out what those sounds were. He said he didn't figure it out until the third shot and it only missed him because a SGT grabbed his ass and pulled him under cover.

So typical. The clueless LT getting saved by his NCO.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I have noticed that some units do a much better job then other units at pacify the populace and gaining their trust. In general the gun-ho units fair the worst. They are the ones who shot at everything that looks suspicious or sometimes even hose a general area without seeing a specific target. These units tend to ignore Psyop and CA because "they aren't real infantry soldiers" and as a result they never get key communicators in the city to start seeing things their way, they don't bother setting up media assets because the see the locals as their enemies, and they tend to break down doors and treat detainees roughly.

I've seen that before too, its a different mentality. The best combat units can be the worst 'peacekeepers'. In fact, once the novelty wears off and boredom sets in, the soldiers in those units tend to cause as much trouble as they prevent.

[Dinner]

I find that most of these problems stem from a failure of leadership in properly controlling their forces and not providing them with a clear understanding of what their mission is and how one goes about winning a low intensity conflict.

Hint: It's not by hosing an entire block when one knucklehead shoots at you nor is it by intentionally causing damage during searches.

[SpencerH]

Spoils of war are every soldiers right. If a few things get damaged while searching for spoils, well who can blame em. They're just high spirited