First Post
Alllllllrighty then, let us begin.
I'm in Iraq, in an undisclosed location (Opsec). Havent been here long, but long enough for a routine to set in. Its dirty, colder than
a cold hell and very, very quiet. Growing up, I read a lot about combat growing up, and plenty of cold weather battlefields, from Fredericksburg to Trenton to Stalingrad to Hurtgen Forest. And theres what I do, which more resembles being security for a large social security office than anything else. No sustained field operations, no sleeping outdoors, no enemy action worthy of the name.
Instead there is the odd IED or IRL attempt, maintaining and repairing equipment, busy work, sleeping and trying to stay entertained.We have movies, internet, phones and I have some books. Occasionally, we get some crisis, but often enough its some
thing that somebody wants done now without a warning order or anything and people get pissed on down the line as the request takes time to complete.
As the for the War, the eye level view here is that it is just about over. There's security and development to do but actual fighting is very rare. They know we are going and everybody is scrambling around to be in the best position they can when we leave. Whether or not it was worth it will depend a great deal on how you measure the success of the operation and who is doing the measuring. Of course, all we have is our little piece of the war, and my piece is even smaller than that. I will say the term war in this area is stretching the term a bit here. Civil unrest and political vacuum are probably closer to the mark.
I'm in Iraq, in an undisclosed location (Opsec). Havent been here long, but long enough for a routine to set in. Its dirty, colder than
a cold hell and very, very quiet. Growing up, I read a lot about combat growing up, and plenty of cold weather battlefields, from Fredericksburg to Trenton to Stalingrad to Hurtgen Forest. And theres what I do, which more resembles being security for a large social security office than anything else. No sustained field operations, no sleeping outdoors, no enemy action worthy of the name.
Instead there is the odd IED or IRL attempt, maintaining and repairing equipment, busy work, sleeping and trying to stay entertained.We have movies, internet, phones and I have some books. Occasionally, we get some crisis, but often enough its some
thing that somebody wants done now without a warning order or anything and people get pissed on down the line as the request takes time to complete.
As the for the War, the eye level view here is that it is just about over. There's security and development to do but actual fighting is very rare. They know we are going and everybody is scrambling around to be in the best position they can when we leave. Whether or not it was worth it will depend a great deal on how you measure the success of the operation and who is doing the measuring. Of course, all we have is our little piece of the war, and my piece is even smaller than that. I will say the term war in this area is stretching the term a bit here. Civil unrest and political vacuum are probably closer to the mark.