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In the Twilight of His Deployment
Share / Recommend - Comment - Print - Sunday, Aug 26, 9:12AM
I just came across this blog of an American military guy that the Pentagon has not yet shut down called "Army of Dude."
Here are some choice entries:
Stupid Shit of The Deployment Awards!
Working with 1920s -- A Sunni insurgent group we've been battling for months, responsible for the death of my friend and numerous attacks, agreed to fight Al Qaeda alongside us. Since then, they've grown into a much more organized, lethal force. They use this organization to steal cars and intimidate and torture the local population, or anyone they accuse of being linked to Al Qaeda. The Gestapo of the 21st century, sanctioned by the United States Army.
The Surge -- The beefing up of ground forces in Iraq at the beginning of the year, started by the 82nd Airborne. Unit deployments were moved up several months to maintain a higher level of boots on the ground to quell the Baghdad situation. What most don't realize is the amount of actual fighting troops in a brigade, something in the area of 2,000 soldiers in a brigade of 5,000 depending on what unit it is. So for every 2,000 fighters, there are 3,000 pencil pushers sucking up resources in every brigade that was surged. A logistical nightmare that, surprise, failed miserably. The increase of troops in Baghdad pushed the insurgents to rural areas (like Diyala), hence our move here in March. The surge was nothing more than a thorn in the side of nomadic fighters having to move thirty five miles while the generals watched Baghdad with stubborn eyes.
This occupation, this money pit, this smorgasbord of superfluous
aggression is getting more hopeless and dismal by the second. It's
maddening to think that more than a year's worth of blood, sweat and
tears will lead to little more than a pat on the back and a hideously
redundant speech from someone who did none of the bleeding, sweating or
crying.Despite being in a meaningless situation, my life has never had this much meaning. I watch the backs of my friends and they do the same for me. I've killed to protect them, and they've killed to protect me. For friends and family, being deployed is like being pregnant or surviving a car wreck; everyone is nice to you all of a sudden. People I don't even know send me kind words and packages from all over. They came out of the woodwork knowing my plight and shared with me heartfelt hope and luck.
The fact that you're reading this now, dear reader, is a testament to that. Would you have cared about what I thought, felt or did two years ago? This position I'm in, shared by less than one percent of the U.S. population, has given me the distinct privilege of sharing my experiences and ruminations of this war, observations undiluted by perpetually delirious officials like General Petreaus and mainstream media sirens. I have felt every extreme of the human condition, physically, morally and emotionally. I've never laughed so hard, cried so long or felt more ashamed of myself in all of my life. In a matter of weeks it'll be over, and I'll have just the memories of enduring 130 degree heat, and poker games lasting well into the night.
I'll look back on the hysterical laughter during fifteen hour Baghdad clears, the terror of being pinned down by machine gun fire, the sight of a Stryker on its side and the unfolding of a body bag under the flames of a nearby school, unzipped tenderly to fit the body of Chevy as RPGs screamed overhead. Soon this place will all be in the past.
The Enemy of My Enemy of My Enemy of My Enemy...
Fourteen months into this deployment and things are taking a turn for the surreal.
Throughout Mosul and Baghdad, we were fighting what could best described as an insurgent cocktail: parts of Islamic State of Iraq, Al Sadr's Mahdi Army, 1920 Revolution Brigade and simple, pissed off farmers. Shia and Sunni. Organized militias and rag tags. All they had in common was a shared goal: a total withdraw of occupational forces.
This seems like a blogger in the field that The New Republic should have hired -- or at least added to its team.
Reader Comments (12) - post a comment
So well written.... much pause for thought...poignant.
Bravo.
I hope this guy gets home alive.
We neeed all the truth tellers we can get.
His blog will be shut down within a week, and he will be lucky if he leaves Iraq in anything other than a coffin.
I was worried, as I read, that I'd get to the end and there would be a notation that he had died or something awful. Oh, I do hope he gets home alive! Nothing like hearing a first-hand, unvarnished account of what it's REALLY like over there. I'd love to know when he's safely home again. sigh
The Great Iraq Swindle
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16076312/the_great_iraq_swindle
Most of us know most of this already but when you read thru the details all together of this deliberate and planned looting of the US treasury as well as Iraq's and particulary from the eyes of the people there who saw it....well it should be more than anyone can stomach.
Give me one good reason this entire government including congress who no longer cares about where the money went shouldn't be burned to the f****** ground and the soil poisoned so it can never sprout again.
Carroll, the history of this sordid piece of American criminality is well known, documented, and as plain as day. What occurred is no longer in question. The issue is one of accountability, and the Democrats refusal to do their sworn duty. Absent this Administration being held accountable for their crimes, we no longer have representative government.
Here is yet one more politician that has been ignored, trivialized, insulted, and ostracized for his patriotism. Perhaps if he was given support and exposure when he was pursuing truth about the corrupted electoral process, and when he was advocating impeachment, he would not now be wavering in his conviction. But the media, and insiders such as Steve here, failed him at his, (and our), hour of greatest need.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_cheryl_b_070826_dancing_with_conyers.htm
Wow. Thanks, Steve, for posting these excerpts and link. I'm just in awe of how well this young man expresses the situation - particularly his situation. I'll be the first on the Amazon pre-order list when his book is published - because that's hopefully the first step (well, maybe second or third) when he returns home.
Amazing.
-jimmy
The Great Iraq Swindle.
Article after article after article. Mountains of evidence of fraud; looting the Treasury, murder. Not one damn thing done about any of it. Rolling Stone! Not the national news. It's hard to even be shocked any more. I'm just physically sick when I read this stuff. The other day a woman lost her second son in Iraq.....two sons dead.
I guess I'll have to stop reading it. It's making me sick.
Anarchy.
Who'd have dreamed we would witness what we are witnessing? And, all around us no one does anything. Those who could....are, themselves, on the take. Or, are looking out for #1.
Patriotism dead. Anarchy.
Shocking.
It's all over, folks. We've finally sunk to the depths.
I have to wonder what all those thousands of soldiers (and even more mercenaries and "consultants") are going to do in the years ahead, especially if we finally hit the wall as a country, running out of oil, the stock market plunging, and shortages of food and other supplies occurring as China and Russia yank on our dog collar.
GWB is going to have the largest security detail of any ex-president, and I suspect all those disillusioned, cynical, shell-shocked ex-troops may be part of this.
This is revolting. That monster is waxing poetic about the meaning he finds in traveling half way around the world to murder other human beings that were no threat to him or his nation. He may think that his memories of Iraq will be the poker games (and the rape of 14 year old iraqi children afterwards) but I suspect the ghosts of the people he murdered will haunt this man, if he has any soul left at all.
There is nothing heroic about being a paid killer.
What another dishonest politico? Another one who hold his own self interest above ours?
Has anyone ever heard of Dennis Kucinich? Shout his name to the hilltops! He is the only candidate that will get this soldier and others out of Iraq. He brought forth the Impeach Cheney bill. Lets have some action!
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