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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! November 22, 2005 Who's Who In IraqBy GreyhawkA great question from the comments on this post: Can anyone tell me what the 150000+ troops are actually doing right now in Iraq?An excellent question. I wouldn't use the term, but if you're a "complete illiterate" I don't doubt you represent a large segment of the population, and that's why I'm here. The quick answer is that the combat elements require a very large number of support units. Any military installation can be looked at as a city, providing all the necessary services - police, fireman, "banks" (finance specialists), construction crews, communications infrastructure and folks to repair it - on and on. Essentially most of the larger outposts in Iraq can be looked at in that manner. Also there are civil affairs troops - those who are rebuilding Iraq. They are combat capable, but clearing the ville isn't their primary task. And then you have the various levels of headquarters and requisite functionaries. Add in the Air Force with the massive task of airlifting everything from point A to B. Several AF camps over there contain all the elements of the "small city" supporting lots of folks handling cargo and passengers, air traffic controllers, base operations managers, weather forecasters, aircraft maintainers, fire crews, security forces... An army of personnel specialists is there to make sure all the paperwork is done. Annoying but essential. Doctors and nurses - several hospitals full. Dentists. Chaplains. Supply folks. Heating and Air Conditioning repair guys. Computer repair guys. Vehicle maintainers. On and on and on. These folks are all armed too - or at least each has a weapon nearby. Those who go "outside the wire" - combat, civil affairs, explosive ordnance teams - sometimes refer to their support elements as "Fobbits" - those who never leave the FOB, Forward Operating Base. But they are all at risk too - rocket and mortar attacks occur daily, and although rarely scoring a hit they sometimes do "get lucky". One way to look at it is that these are the folks who don't get to shoot back. Combat crew or not, incoming mortar rounds when you just hit your bunk - or worse, when you just stepped into the shower - can really ruin your day. That's just a quick and partial answer to the question "What is everyone else doing and is what they are doing important enough that it justifies the daily IED losses?" Justify the losses? No - the end state justifies the losses (or not, if we cut and run), and that's the issue of the day. Anyhow - give all due credit to the guys who "hit the streets". But take nothing away from the rest of the folks who are there, far from home, under fire, and getting the job done. Posted by Greyhawk / November 22, 2005 8:56 PM | Permalink 9 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Any idea what the rough ratio between combat troops and support troops is? How many of the 150 000 or so would be combat troops?
My uninformed guess would be somewhere between 1:1 and 1:2, meaning somewhere between 50 000 and 75 000 combat troops.
Thanks for the info.
News Item: Cheney Ratchets Up Verbal Assault on Majority of Americans
The Bush Administration this week continued to ratchet up its rhetoric against the 63% of Americans who disagree with Administration conduct of the war in Iraq and the 57% of Americans who believe that the Administration misused intelligence to justify their preconceived plans for the invasion of Iraq
Bush has called those who accused him of manipulating pre-war intelligence “deeply irresponsible.” Last week Vice President Cheney emerged from his bunker to label those who disagreed with his views as “dishonest and reprehensible” and further accused them of “cynical and pernicious falsehoods.” Yesterday Cheney, in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, took the rhetoric up a notch, describing Americans who disagree with his opinions as “shameless and corrupt.”
Latest polls show Bush’s approval rating among Americans at 34% and further indicate that only 40% of Americans consider Bush to be “honest and ethical.” Cheney’s approval rating hovers at an abysmal 19%; only 29% of Americans consider Cheney to be “honest and ethical.” More importantly, polls this week show that 57% of Americans believe that Bush and Cheney deliberately misused pre-war intelligence to justify the Iraq invasion, 63% think that Bush is mismanaging the war effort, and that these percentages are continuing to increase. A further disquieting fact for the Administration is that most Americans, including even Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, believe that the Bush strategy in Iraq is creating new terrorists faster than we can kill them.
Critics are split on whether the Bush/Cheney strategy of calling the nearly two thirds of Americans that disagree with them “irresponsible, reprehensible and dishonest, shameless and corrupt” will help their approval ratings.
White House operatives are carefully watching the polls to determine if their policy of lashing out against the clear majority of Americans who disagree with them on Iraq moves public opinion back in their favor. If it does, sources indicate that they may be open to bolder initiatives. They are said to be considering reacting to the 89% of Americans polled who consider Cheney the “human embodiment of evil” by having Cheney call them “witless troglodytes.” Karl Rove is rumored to have suggested an even stronger reaction to the 78% of Americans polled who consider Bush to be an “amiable dunce,” having Bush refer to them as “pustulent whores.” Sources say that there is indecision about whether to have Scott McClellan or Ken Mehlman deliver the White House message that the 63% of Americans who think Bush is mismanaging the war are “gonadally challenged.”
In an increasingly bad sign for the Republicans, 67% of Americans polled responded that they viewed Pat Robertson as the “sole voice of reason” in the Republican Party, though those polling numbers were taken prior to Robertson calling for his close friend God to assassinate the President of Venezuela, to destroy the town of Dover, PA, and prior to this past weekends gratuitous pimping of Jesus by Robertson on the 700 Club to raise money for his political action committee.
Asked to comment on these recent developments Bush, in Mongolia for a joint appearance with an Emu, encouraged Americans to wear the purple heart band-aids “in honor of the 2 purple hearts won by that coward John Murtha.” The band aids, decorated with a purple colored heart, were developed and worn by Republicans at their National Convention to mock John Kerry’s purple hearts, and are a common visual device used by Republicans to poke fun at the bravery of American soldiers with whom they disagree. Bush, sporting one of the band-aids on his forehead, encouraged all Americans to join him in mocking Murtha’s “so-called bravery.” Seeing Bush off at the airport, the President of Mongolia issued a brief statement regarding Bush’s visit which was later translated as “What a pompous asshole!”
Thanks for the detailed answer to my question, but may I have a 'follow-up'?
Could we volunteer phil to serve as 'lead' for future vehicle convoys ? By his above posting he appears to be clinically brain-dead already, but I'm sure he would want to serve his country to the best of his limited abilities, were he still able to formuate rational concepts.
Just asking.
Actually if I remember correctly the ratio of combat arms to support is 1 in 7 for the Army, 1 in 5 for the Marines, 1 in 15 or 20 for the Air Force. Now being the Iraq counts as foward deployed the ratios are probably a little less but I would guess that they are no where close to one for one.
jamerlina, interesting, thank you!
Air force would obviously be higher since it takes one or two pilots to fly many planes but lots of people to keep them in the air.
If it is indeed something like 1:5 for Army/Marines, that would mean if 160 000 troops are in Iraq then they are roughly 130 000 support and 30 000 combat. That does sound about right, since I know there are around 3000-6000 involved in offensive operations in Anbar, which would represent 10-20% of the total combat force.
Phil, get back to smoking pot and watching old reruns of Fahrenheit-911. Only incompetent presidents, like our prior one, govern according to poll results.
New Harris polls show approval ratings of Democrats lower than those of Republicans ... and the President.
Phil, make sure you give us the whole story when using polls to justify your position, OK ... especially when using them in a work of fiction, like your last post.
I would be happy to forward the latest information on Iraq Operations as it becomes cleared for release. To prevent an overflow of requests, perhaps Greyhawk or a web administrator could send me their e-mail and I can forward the releases to them at the same time they go to the media. I also encourage everyone to look at www.grd.usace.army.mil and go to DVIDSHUB.net to get the latest information. These are just 2 sources but they are current. I am currently serving in Baghdad on my second tour in Iraq (Yes I volunteered to come back). I am proud of the men and women I serve with and have great hopes for the Iraqi people. v/r CPT B
Hey Capt B, will that include the press releases about how U.S. troops used WP solely for illumination purposes in Fallujah, and how WP is not a chemical weapon except when Saddam uses it? Sorry, but the U.S. military is about as credible as "Baghdad Bob" these days.