Smelling the Coffee

Amid at the political posturing in Washington, John Burns of the AP figures out that the "strategy" in Iraq is shifting.

via AP

BAGHDAD (AP) - In a move that could portend a strategy change, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq said Sunday he has proposed reducing his troop levels and shifting next year to missions focused less on direct combat.

Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon told The Associated Press that if current trends hold, he would like to begin this troop reduction and change in mission in Ninevah province, where he said Iraqi army forces already are operating nearly independently. He has proposed shifting the province to Iraqi government control as early as August.

"The Unbeatable Ship"

300,000 war time miles. Eighteen battle stars. The first U.S. Navy capital* ship to enter Tokyo Bay at war's end.

And despite being in the thick of battle, unscathed and almost unknown.

She was The Unbeatable Ship.

*see comments

Re: Battle Buddies, A Welcome Home.

SSG Thul at Foreign and Domestic finds this waiting for him when he get's home.

Less than 12 hours since arriving home, and I find that I am forced to defend my honor, and that of every US soldier and Marine in Iraq, from what appears to me to be another fraud.

<...>
First, I never saw an instance of soldiers in Iraq digging anything, let alone the outlines for a combat outpost, or COP. First off, even small COP's are larger than any house in the US. The notion of US soldiers digging thru the hard pack in Iraq is silly-we have engineer units for that. And if the engineers aren't available, we would call KBR or even the local sheik before passing out e-tools.

Second, even my least intelligent soldiers could identify, at a glance, the uniform of any female on base. Army ACU's, Army DCU's, Army mechanic's coveralls, Marine cammies, Marine flight suit, Marine mechanic's coveralls, it didn't matter. Natural curiosity was the main factor, but my guys desire to not say something stupid in front of a higher rank was a close second. The thought that these guys would poke fun at someone who could, for all they knew, be a US general, is patently absurd. And in black and white, military personnel carry weapons, while almost all of the civilians do not. Someone who he "saw every day" would be categorized quickly on this basis alone.

Third, while I don't doubt the black humor contained in the story, I do doubt that the US military would have someone obviously disfigured by an IED on a US base. My experience was that the coalition gets wounded troops out of country fast, not only for medical reasons, but for morale. Wounded troops make soldiers wonder and worry. A person disfigured as described in the article, if in theater, would be well known and described to all the troops so as to avoid the awkward situations that were described. I can easily hear the warning coming from my battalion CSM, thru my company 1SG, thru my PSG, down to me-there's a local Iraqi who is disfigured, don't you f***ing stare or you'll spend the day in the front leaning rest.

Fourth, while you and I might call them Bradley Fighting Vehicles, joes that drive them call them BFV's, or Brad's. Brad's are a light armored gun platform crossed with a infantry carrier. They do NOT take to cornering out buildings with ease. This more than anything was enough to make me disbelieve the story. A Brad could, in theory, take out a corner of a building and still continue, but there is plenty of stuff on the outside that will break. Like turn signals and headlights and mirrors. Any accident has to be accounted for. The Army always has to have someone to blame, even if only for paperwork purposes.
Stray dogs in Iraq are numerous, and I don't discount joes killing them on purpose. At Trebil, killing stray dogs with your rifle was almost a duty responsibility. But killing them by running over them with your Brad means washing the remains off, which is difficult since washpoints are hard to come by in Iraq. In 16 months, I had the privilege of washing my truck just once. Otherwise, the smell quickly becomes a problem.

Welcome home SSG Hul.l Thank you for your service.

Re Battle Buddies: Falcon PAO Responds

J.D. Johannes has our back, giving a heads up to the FOB Falcon PAO, who debunks :

Per COL Boylan's request, I have prepared the following:

1. There was no mass grave found during the construction of any of our coalition outposts in the Rashid District at any time. Such a discovery would have prompted an investigation and close attention paid at levels higher than ours to making sure that the victims were properly interred and attempts would have been made to determine their identities. It is difficult to fathom that a unit's leadership would condone Soldiers disrespecting the remains of anyone in the fashion described.

2. Due to the threat of IEDs, our combat vehicles are driven professionally and in control at all times. To be driving erratically so as to hit dogs or other things would be to put the entire vehicle's crew at risk and would be gross dereliction of duty by the noncommissioned officer or officer in charge of the vehicle. Drivers aren't allowed to simply free-wheel their vehicles however they see fit, and they are *not* allowed to be moved anywhere with out a vehicle commander present to supervise the movement. Therefore- claims of vehicles leaving the roadways to hit animals are highly dubious, given the very real threat of IEDs and normal standards of conduct.

3. As for the alleged woman with severe burn scars, we have nobody matching that description here at FOB Falcon. As Soldiers, we practice the value of Respect: "Treat people as you want to be treated." If the blogger and his friends can't live the Army value of respect, I have little doubt that someone around them who does would have made an on-the-spot correction. The Falcon dining facility is not a spacious one. Anyone being rude, loud or raucous calls immediate attention to himself. It is hard to fathom that anyone would be able to get away with such callous behavior without somebody intervening and stopping it from happening.

Time to put 'em on the table, TNR.

Climate Change

Michael Totten arrives in Baghdad:

We dismounted the plane and I stepped into harsh blazing sunshine.

You know how it feels when you get into a black car in the afternoon with the windows rolled up in July? It’s an inferno outside, but inside the car it’s even hotter? That’s how Iraq feels in the shade. Sunlight burns like a blowtorch. If you don’t wear a helmet or soft cap the sun will cook your brain. First you get headaches. Then you end up in the hospital.

The funny thing is, you eventually get used to it. Heat remains a threat, and you're never comfortable outside, but you drink lots of water and become accustomed to the extreme. You become "climatized" to temperatures in the one hundred-teens - and higher. It's still hot - believe me - but you can deal with it. I once had a month-long stay in a tent city in Egypt. It was August, and we had no air conditioning back then. But we got used to 110 degree heat, and shivered when night time temperatures plunged into the 70's.

Point being, if you haven't caught on yet, that after a couple weeks you get used to it - the body is amazing that way.

Back to Michael:

After having spent several days Baghdad’s Green Zone and Red Zone, I still haven’t heard or seen any explosions. It’s a peculiar war. It is almost a not-war. Last July’s war in Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon was hundreds of times more violent and terrifying than this one. Explosions on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border were constant when I was there.

You’d think explosions and gunfire define Iraq if you look at this country from far away on the news. They do not. The media is a total distortion machine.

But stick around long enough, and you'll find the war. Or it will find you.

Read the whole thing.

Oh, and by the way, if you're a blogger headed to Iraq and would appreciate a better welcome then the one Michael received, contact me before you depart, I'll see what I can do. (I can't lower the heat, but otherwise...)