Posted on 12/24/2006 8:56:55 PM PST by ventanax5
For just a minute or two, step into my life. I am an American soldier in the Army Special Forces. I have just returned from a one-year tour of duty in Iraq, where I lived, shared meals, slept and fought beside my Iraqi counterpart as we battled insurgents in the center of a thousand-year-old city. I am a conflicted man, and I want you to read the story of that experience as I lived it. In the interest of security, I have omitted some identifying details, but every word is true.
Routine and Ritual
I wake in the cold and dark of each morning to the sound of a hundred different muezzins calling Muslim men and women to prayer. These calls reverberate five times per day throughout a city the size of San Francisco. Above this sound I also hear two American helicopters making their steady patrol over the rooftops of the city and the blaring horns of armored vehicles as they swerve through dense city traffic. As a combat adviser and interrogator, I find these contrasts very appropriate for the life that I now lead.
This morning, on the Iraqi base in which I live, I walk 100 feet from my bedroom to work and back again. These are the same 100 feet I will travel month after month for one year. During every trip I smile, put a hand to my heart, sometimes a hand to my head, and say to every passing Iraqi the religious and cultural words that are expected from a fellow human being. In Iraq, one cannot separate Islamic culture from the individual. They are intrinsically woven into the fabric of daily life, but for most Westerners, they seem abnormal.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenation.com ...
The little bastrds can't even lie correctly.
Ever meet one that called it "the Army Special Forces"? Why say "soldier"? Ever meet any sailors in "the Army Special Forces"?
I read these kinds of bull sheet flase flagged propoganda and laugh.
Your post #33 is dead on, by the way. Especially on FR. For an OIF vet poster, the only difference between being a rock star and a pariah is how you rate our chances of winning. If you say that everything is going great, just ignore the media, and victory is right around the corner, you're practically the second coming. Say anything else, and the receptions range from icy to scalding hot.
I was lurking and FReeping well before 9/11, and I've been called a troll and worse by newbies who've never set foot in Iraq, just for calling it like I see it. They'd have been suspended in 2004, because I was staunchly optimistic at the time. In other words, useful. Now that the facts on the ground have changed, and my opinions have changed with them, I am no longer useful.
Coincidence? I think not. As Kipling put it, "But Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy sees!"
I think you present a fair and accurate assessment, but that's me, and I'm sure you already know that. I was 11B with all the bells and whistles on my uniform and all the right schools etc. and after 15 years of rucksack time, and a little instructor time at the NCO academy, I know BS when I see it. And there is a lot of wishful thinking, denial, and BS going on everywhere. It is hard to see the truth sometimes, and I think it is high time we are honest with ourselves. I'll always try to be respectful, but my New Year's resolution is to be as open and honest as possible. I wasnt a part of OIF but Ive been to Korea, Egypt, Haiti and a few other places...
Our young men and women in uniform deserve that.
~Corey
For one, he's probably being specific for the sake of the laymen he's writing for. Also, the lines are increasingly blurred these days.
Within Special Operations, there are a lot of joint commands and assignments where Sailors, Marines, Soldiers and Airmen work together, attached to each other, or otherwise mix and match. While I was working in the Army Special Forces, for instance, the office next door to me was composed entirely of Air Force personnel. They were permanently assigned to the unit the same way I was, or the same way they'd be to any other USAF command. I also worked with Sailors and Marines supporting an Army SOF mission. Joint assignments and inter-service crossovers are the norm in the SOF world, even more so as you go downrange.
We may very well find out that Major Bill Edmonds and Captain Jamil Hussein are dating...
Someone's checking, Doctor.
Most experienced soldiers have very little time for BS. As an instructor and an NCO, you probably ran an AAR or two. I was raised to do one after practically everything, to see what went right, what went wrong, and how to fix it. Nothing gets me more on edge then when people refused to take an honest look about what's going wrong.
It's one thing to tell your troops to keep their heads down and soldier on, but the NCOs and leadership need to keep their heads out of their asses and make no-BS assessments of the situation. Any unit that won't is bound for mediocrity. Any war effort that won't is bound for the same.
Very good.
Thanks for your comments. I've been impressed by the number of soldiers I've met who were willing to take greater chances with their own lives to increase the chance of succeeding.
Most are worried, as I am, that there is so much hatred in Iraq and in Arab/Muslim culture as to make it impossible to build a decent society there. One of the reasons I supported going in was the fact that IF we COULD build a semi-democratic society in Iraq, it would transform the entire ME.
In fact, I think that is why so many terrorists have gone to Iraq - they know if we win there, their cause is doomed.
However, I'm increasingly worried that it is a bridge too far. Like many who believed in the war, I may have underestimated just how warped Arab society is - and the arabic mentality has been spread by Islam into areas such as Iraq. Countries that are steeped in Islam are also steeped in the worst of arab tendencies.
I remember Rush Limbaugh saying that all men have an innate desire to be free. At the time, I agreed.
Now, I wonder if a religion that means 'submission' sucks that out of the souls of the people who follow it, making democracy and respectful disagreement impossible.
PGR rides, eh?
To bury phonies? http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies285.htm
Or led by phonies? http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies263.htm
...and... http://macvsog.cc/dolan_robert_edward.htm
(Don't get me wrong. I welcome anyone that wants to support the troops and the flag, and if you're against Fred Phelps, well, like Churchill, I will at the very least make a favourable reference to you in public. But the PGR has a rather severe wannabee problem. (Why do these guys do this? Sure, the other guy was a dirtbag jailbird failure, but Dolan seems to have served honourably, just wasn't SF or SEAL or SOG or any of his outlandish claims... what's wrong with the guy that he can't be proud of what he really did do... guys depended on him, whatever it was.
When legit vets resigned from the PGR over Dolan, the people at the home office slimed them (it's deep in the POW network thread). I was disappointed to read that.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
20 - ""Mr. Bill" isn't just another soldier, and that SF and other military advisers bring a different perspective to the table. A perspective that is especially suited to carrying out the President's intent in Iraq."
Bingo. He is also an excellent writer, observer and well educsted.
As a Vietnam era USAF officer, I was an advisor/liason officer with numerous other militaries, including the Canadian, Filipino, Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, and German Air Forces. Then I worked similar positions in civilian overseas work, especially Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Egypt. One of my most challenging positions called for our liason with the US Marines.
Cultural prejudices are common to all, and all cultures are not equal, however, unless they are respected, they cannot be understood and cannot be easily changed, without destroying them (which may be necessary to achieve particular goals).
24 0 very thoughtful and well put. Very few people, in any culture, have the ability to understand other cultures, except from their own biased perspectives.
49 = "a bridge too far" - well put, or at least, "a bridge a lot farther away than we thought."
"Now, I wonder if a religion that means 'submission' sucks that out of the souls of the people who follow it, making democracy and respectful disagreement impossible."
Freedom is not the basic drive of all individuals. It is the basic drive of some. Because with freedom comes responsibility for your own actions, and for yourself and consequences. When god is responsible for everything, then you have no requirements/responsibility. This is why there was no major slave revolution in our civil war. It is also why the Democrats love government programs, that way they are not responsible for anything.
Islam does not teach free thinking, but subservience, without thinking.
Most of them do .....Merry Christmas ~~Pandora~~
Wow Criminal -- you completely lost me with that post.
Do any of you other PGR folks have a clue what this is about? (post #50)
I have confirmed to my complete satisfaction that Maj. Edmonds is exactly who and what he says he is in this post.
He is back in the USA and working in a responsible staff position, which is a routine assignment for an officer of his grade.
While it is The Nation, I didn't detect an overtly political message in his essay. I suspect that everyone will take away from it support for the ideas he had already!
I recommend that you read his entire essay and you will get a new feel for some of the problems that face not only our soldiers and advisors, but also our Iraqi allies.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
According to http://www.soft-vision.com/guard/ and the links provided , Arizona's PGR Captain Robert Dolan claims to have been a Navy Seal and a POW in 'Nam, while he actually never was. When this was pointed out to PGR (nationally, that is) they allowed him to remain Arizona's State Captain.
However, according to the PGRs website (http://www.patriotguard.org/, go to the Leadership link on the left sidebar), Louann Thomas is Arizona's State Captain. My guess is that PGR is more up to date on who their state captains are than the other four links (three from post #50, and the one I linked to early in my post).
I know absolutely nothing about this (live in TX, not AZ, and while I follow the PGR threads I've not yet been on a ride) beyond what Google pulled up for me.
I found it exceedingly difficult to read throught the links that Criminal Number 18F provided; much of the content seemed to be poorly written rants about Dolan and PGR.
I would consider it a gross overstatement to say that two instances (another incident of a member making such claims was cited in the third link) indicate that PGR has "a severe wannabe problem."
Star, HTH.
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