Its All Fun And Games....
Our predecessor unit didn't get shot at as much as we have. Especially lately. We've gotten rocketed more over the last week than they did over their last 6 months. And all that fire means that even people as incompetent as the Islamic yahoos shooting at us around here will eventually hit something.
They did on Saturday.
A 107mm rocket, probably manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran, smuggled across the border by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps - Qods Force, and placed in the hands of Iranian-trained Iraqi insurgents, was fired at our base that night, and slammed into a concrete T-wall near the housing units belonging to my old battalion. There were three people near the point of impact.
One was only mildly hurt, a walking-wounded returned to duty the next day. The two others were more badly hurt, especially SPC M, a guy I knew a little from when I was still with the Panther Battalion. He had broken bones, shrapnel lacerations, and a lot of blood lost by the time they managed to stabilize him at the Aid Station. Even with that barely-achieved stabilization, he flatlined twice on the medevac flight to the better equipped hospital. He's still with us, but he came a lot closer to the last full measure than any of us would like.
Some of the junior Soldiers, the first tour cherries, express surprise and wonder at why I am always so fast at getting into a bunker when the Incoming alarm sounds. I tell them that rank doesn't make you bulletproof, and they're supposed to move on the bounce and with a quickness when they hear that alarm, because replacing their lazy asses is time-consuming when we have to train a whole new team of monkeys. I don't mention SSG Schelbert, or Sami the interpreter, or any of the others I've carried on stretchers or seen loaded into choppers over the years thanks to fire from the sky. I just tell them to shut up and get in the bunker.
We spent an hour sitting in a bunker tonight, waiting for the latest alert to clear. Same as Sunday, same as Saturday, and on and on. We don't even counterfire anymore. Not that it would make much a difference, but we'd feel better. Unlike mortars, rockets can be launched on a delay. Just light the fuze and leave. So we'd be blowing up empty fields. At least it might make them think twice. Maybe....one of the attacks was launched from the local police station's parking lot. The insurgents know the local cops are either terrified, relatives, or both, and are not going to even say 'boo'. We're winning hearts and minds. There's a light at the end of the tunnel.
I hate this place. We've reached the point where every picture of an insurgent's house now just has "JDAM Target" mentally painted over it. I'm not even interested in interrogating prisoners anymore, since they're being released by the Government of Iraq at a rate of hundreds a week as we shut down Camp Bucca and Cropper and all the other big detention centers. And just because US Forces caught the guy red-handed with a smoking AK-47 over the bodies of a dozen of his Sunni neighbors is no justification for an Iraqi judge to order Ali held one more day in jail. No Iraqi warrant, no Iraqi evidence or witnesses, no problem! Out he goes to rejoin his buddies and go right back to shooting at the infidels. I'm sure that 9 months he spent in Cropper will have made him a changed man. He won't cause any more problems.
A week ago an SF raid in northern Iraq killed the top leadership of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Again. We did that back in 2006 too, if you recall. You probably don't No one's paying attention to us. I don't think the strike even made more than a one day mention on the news. FOX was probably too busy telling me President Obama is a baby-eating Communist Nazi to bother. Not like that makes a difference either. AQI is not even half of our problem here. Jaysh Al Mahdi and Asa'ib Al Haqq and the Promised Day Brigade and others that 90% of America couldn't recognize to save their lives are much bigger problems.
I want to whine, "What am I doing here?", but I know this is part of the process. But its 2010. We've been here for seven goddamn years. Were we still fighting guerillas in 1952 Germany? Did you ever think about how much planning went into the occupation and de-Nazification of Germany to make it go so smoothly? We started planning for the aftermath of World War II on December 8th, 1941. We didn't start planning for the aftermath of W's little crusade until we were setting up camp in Baghdad. If you can even call the sunshine-Pollyanna 'everything will turn out for the best!' idiocy they engaged in 'planning'. Everything since has been damage control.
I can't remember where I read it, but someone once defined war as 'cleaning up after the failures of politics.' I know we can't just set the place on fire, leave, and collect the insurance. But some days I wonder why I can't at least shoot back. Being the janitor is hard work.
SPC M will be getting half off on shoes for the rest of his life.
I want a drink. I want my family. I want this to have been worth it 30 years later.
For now, I'm going to bed.
Hammer2D out.
They did on Saturday.
A 107mm rocket, probably manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran, smuggled across the border by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps - Qods Force, and placed in the hands of Iranian-trained Iraqi insurgents, was fired at our base that night, and slammed into a concrete T-wall near the housing units belonging to my old battalion. There were three people near the point of impact.
One was only mildly hurt, a walking-wounded returned to duty the next day. The two others were more badly hurt, especially SPC M, a guy I knew a little from when I was still with the Panther Battalion. He had broken bones, shrapnel lacerations, and a lot of blood lost by the time they managed to stabilize him at the Aid Station. Even with that barely-achieved stabilization, he flatlined twice on the medevac flight to the better equipped hospital. He's still with us, but he came a lot closer to the last full measure than any of us would like.
Some of the junior Soldiers, the first tour cherries, express surprise and wonder at why I am always so fast at getting into a bunker when the Incoming alarm sounds. I tell them that rank doesn't make you bulletproof, and they're supposed to move on the bounce and with a quickness when they hear that alarm, because replacing their lazy asses is time-consuming when we have to train a whole new team of monkeys. I don't mention SSG Schelbert, or Sami the interpreter, or any of the others I've carried on stretchers or seen loaded into choppers over the years thanks to fire from the sky. I just tell them to shut up and get in the bunker.
We spent an hour sitting in a bunker tonight, waiting for the latest alert to clear. Same as Sunday, same as Saturday, and on and on. We don't even counterfire anymore. Not that it would make much a difference, but we'd feel better. Unlike mortars, rockets can be launched on a delay. Just light the fuze and leave. So we'd be blowing up empty fields. At least it might make them think twice. Maybe....one of the attacks was launched from the local police station's parking lot. The insurgents know the local cops are either terrified, relatives, or both, and are not going to even say 'boo'. We're winning hearts and minds. There's a light at the end of the tunnel.
I hate this place. We've reached the point where every picture of an insurgent's house now just has "JDAM Target" mentally painted over it. I'm not even interested in interrogating prisoners anymore, since they're being released by the Government of Iraq at a rate of hundreds a week as we shut down Camp Bucca and Cropper and all the other big detention centers. And just because US Forces caught the guy red-handed with a smoking AK-47 over the bodies of a dozen of his Sunni neighbors is no justification for an Iraqi judge to order Ali held one more day in jail. No Iraqi warrant, no Iraqi evidence or witnesses, no problem! Out he goes to rejoin his buddies and go right back to shooting at the infidels. I'm sure that 9 months he spent in Cropper will have made him a changed man. He won't cause any more problems.
A week ago an SF raid in northern Iraq killed the top leadership of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Again. We did that back in 2006 too, if you recall. You probably don't No one's paying attention to us. I don't think the strike even made more than a one day mention on the news. FOX was probably too busy telling me President Obama is a baby-eating Communist Nazi to bother. Not like that makes a difference either. AQI is not even half of our problem here. Jaysh Al Mahdi and Asa'ib Al Haqq and the Promised Day Brigade and others that 90% of America couldn't recognize to save their lives are much bigger problems.
I want to whine, "What am I doing here?", but I know this is part of the process. But its 2010. We've been here for seven goddamn years. Were we still fighting guerillas in 1952 Germany? Did you ever think about how much planning went into the occupation and de-Nazification of Germany to make it go so smoothly? We started planning for the aftermath of World War II on December 8th, 1941. We didn't start planning for the aftermath of W's little crusade until we were setting up camp in Baghdad. If you can even call the sunshine-Pollyanna 'everything will turn out for the best!' idiocy they engaged in 'planning'. Everything since has been damage control.
I can't remember where I read it, but someone once defined war as 'cleaning up after the failures of politics.' I know we can't just set the place on fire, leave, and collect the insurance. But some days I wonder why I can't at least shoot back. Being the janitor is hard work.
SPC M will be getting half off on shoes for the rest of his life.
I want a drink. I want my family. I want this to have been worth it 30 years later.
For now, I'm going to bed.
Hammer2D out.