Phil and Becky

Jill Carroll statements

2006-04-01T21:35:00.000-06:00

When Jill Carroll got released, her captors released a propaganda video of her making several statements that were favorable to her captors and not-so-favorable to the United States, our military and our efforts in Iraq.

I am reluctant to prescribe malice to anyone unless I have a good reason to do so, and it doesn't look like Ms. Carroll spoke with malevolent intent. Rather, it looks like she was doing what she needed to do in order to survive and that she made those statements under duress.

From the Associated Press, via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online:

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) -- Protected by the U.S. military and far from the country where she had been held hostage, Jill Carroll strongly disavowed statements she had made during captivity in Iraq and shortly after her release, saying Saturday she had been repeatedly threatened.

In a video, recorded before she was freed and posted by her captors on an Islamist Web site, Carroll spoke out against the U.S. military presence. But in a statement Saturday, she said the recording was made under threat. Her editor has said three men were pointing guns at her at the time.

As Grehawk points out in this post, this new revelation should make two groups feel silly: conservatives who immediately criticized her without thinking through the context of the situation and liberals who agreed with the comments and jumped on the story as if it proves some point or provides some justification their position.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Change in tactics?

2006-03-31T18:17:00.000-06:00

I found this article from Stars and Stripes via the Mudville Gazette this afternoon. Apparently, some unit thinks that fighting through ambushes is a new idea.

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — In a change to Army tactics, U.S. soldiers will stand and fight instead of shooting and pressing on when their convoys are attacked on Iraqi roads, according to Harvey Perritt, spokesman for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va.

“In the first two years of Iraq, convoys (under attack) just fired and kept rolling,” said Maj. Roger Gaines, the battalion’s operations officer said Thursday. “That gave bad guys the perception that Americans run away. Now, convoys will stop and engage the enemy.”

Huh? Gaining and maintaining contact is not a new idea. The whole point is that the enemy doesn't show his face for very long and so you need to make the most of every opportunity. You NEVER just drive through an ambush... that is just silly talk.

Of course, the article is profiling a company in a Signal battalion. Maybe combat support units would do that. But I am going to go out on a limb here and say that there isn't an Infantry or Armor platoon the face of the earth (or in the U.S. Army at any rate) that would just drive by when someone was shooting at them unless they had a darn good reason to do so (i.e. they had a time-sensitive mission that they couldn't deviate from).

The article should distinguish between escorts for logistics convoys and combat patrols. It implies that for the past two years, combat patrols don't "stand and fight" when they're attacked. I promise, that isn't the case. As far as logistics patrols are concerned, the React to Contact battle drill is slightly different than for a typical motorized platoon, but they do have a battle drill.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Media coverage

2006-03-29T20:21:00.000-06:00

Kelly Vlahos from Foxnews send Becky and me an email about a week ago asking for some thoughts on media coverage of the war in Iraq. Here is her email:

hi there!i dont know if you remember me, but we did a story together a while back for foxnews.com? i was wondering if you could help me with another one ... i was hoping phil might have some insights on the media reporting on the war? i know there is an ongoing debate over the media coverage of the war, and whether it is disproportionately skewed to depict a negative view ... how is/has been phil's experience with the media? does he believe the reporting is skewed? does he think the media is doing a good job with the tools/resources/access they have?

As a Unit Public Affairs Representative in Iraq, I have a little bit of firsthand experience with embedded journalists. I don't know if any of my thoughts will make it into the final draft of the article (particularly since I procrastinated so long in sending them to her), but here is what I wrote to her:

Media coverage is definitely biased, but not necessarily in the way that most people think. News media, particularly television, is biased towards drama, especially drama that can easily be covered in a brief segment. It is an undeniable fact that ratings influence coverage, and spectacular, dramatic events are more likely to draw in ratings than other segments. Insurgents conduct spectacular attacks not necessarily because the attack itself does anything for their cause but rather because the media coverage advances their agenda in the information war.

I don't begrudge journalists for gravitating to the excitement; I do, however, fault them for failing to recognize that tendency and curb it when necessary in the interest of our ultimate strategic victory. This is because journalists have such strong potential to be unwitting pawns in the enemy's information operations campaign.

Abu Ghraib was not a significant strategic event until the media published the now-infamous photographs of everything those perverts did to the prisoners there. The enthusiasm of seemingly every major print and television media to cover this unfortunate series of events ad nauseum hugely aided the insurgency in Iraq. One could say that the Abu Ghraib scandal and its ensuing media coverage did more damage to our efforts in Iraq than any other event since the invasion.

In my personal experience with journalists as a Unit Public Affairs Representative while deployed, I found most journalists to be polite, friendly and generally skeptical of our efforts in Iraq. However, nearly all of them were good listeners, and I shared many conversations and friendly debates with our embedded journalists.

Media coverage is definitely skewed disproportionately to depict a negative view, but it is not necessarily due to malevolence on the part of journalists. Part of the problem is that negative events are easily reportable. It is easy to report the facts on a spectacular event, and accompanying video of an explosion makes for a good segment on the evening news. Positive developments, on the other hand, are less tangible and less reportable. For example, a positive development in Iraq is that citizens can now criticize the government in personal conversations without fear that the secret police will drag them and their families away to Saddam's torture chambers. But it is hard to imagine, every single day, seeing a segment on the news profiling a different Iraqi citizen who freely spoke to his or her neighbor and wasn't thrown into a dungeon. Negative events are easily reportable while positive developments are less so.

Some elements of the media coverage in Iraq, unfortunately, do seem to be due to malevolence. One such item can be the headline attached to an article. One journalist who embedded with us wrote a good, objective, balanced piece about events in a particular part of our area of operations. The content of the article highlighted both successes and challenges, but the headline that ran was "Iraqi Army Endures Desertions" even though the article had nothing to do with the Iraqi Army as a whole but rather discussed some specific circumstances surrounding a particular Iraqi Army unit in a particular place at a particular time. It was a great article but an intentionally and inexcusably negative headline. Additionally, the overexposure of scandals like Abu Ghraib can only be intentional; members of the media cannot plead ignorance after three years of war -- they know the impact of continually showing these photographs and they do it anyway. That's not right.

In other news, the reason for the long gap in posting to the blog is that work has been absolutely crazy. An S1's work is never done, especially when the stop loss is removed and the floodgates have opened up for soldiers to ETS or PCS from the unit. Departing soldiers need awards and evaluations and this and that and it has been crazy. Plus, we had a battalion ball to celebrate our redeployment, and I was fortunate enough to get to play a significant role in the planning and execution of that adventure. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Cartoon violence reaches our shores

2006-02-11T10:23:00.000-06:00

Now here are some cartoons to get upset about...

Seething Midwest Explodes Over Lombardi Cartoons (via Michelle Malkin)

Green Bay, WI - Like a pot of bratwurst left unattended at a Lambeau Field pregame party, simmering tensions in the strife-torn Midwest boiled over once again today as rioting mobs of green-and-gold clad youth and plump farm wives rampaged through Wisconsin Denny’s and IHOPs, burning Texas toast and demanding apologies and extra half-and-half.

The spark igniting the latest tailgate hibachi of unrest: a Texas newsletter's publication of caricatures of legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi.

Protestors demonstrated against the images throughout the Badger State yesterday, with violent egging and cow-tipping incidents reported in Oconomowac, Pewaukee, Sheboygan, Ozaukee, Antigo, Oshkosh, Waubeno, Wauwautosa, Waunewoc, Wyocena, Waubeka, and Washawonamowackapeepee.

Out of respect for the Packers, I will not display the offending cartoons here. But if they are so blasphemous as to enrage the peaceful citizens of Washawonamowackapeepee, you can only imagine what they might be like.

Becky and I are preparing to make our annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin since we missed the last one due to my deployment. We may even attend a demonstration or two... :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Iraq war referendums in Wisconsin

2006-02-10T23:39:00.000-06:00

I learned today, while perusing the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that several localities in Wisconsin are putting Iraq war referendums on the ballot in their April and November elections. I first learned about the Milwaukee referendum when I came across this editorial from the 10 February 2006 MJS. The editorial, written by a supporter of the referendum, offers a laundry list of negative assertions about Operation Iraqi Freedom that the reader must unquestioningly and uncritically accept because she doesn't offer any substantiation to her claims -- just the list. It goes back to something my high school history teacher would tell her students -- something is not true simply because you say it is true. You need to establish that it is true through your argument. And a list is not an argument.

But I'm not writing this post to talk about this particular editorial, although I may address it in the future. Rather, I want to talk about these referendums popping up across Wisconsin and their possible significance.

From the February 4, 2006 edition of the MJS: State a 'test site' for referendums on the war

A growing movement of local referendums on the Iraq war is making a name for Wisconsin in a way that proponents see as an achievement, but critics regard as an embarrassment.
Depending on the outcome of referendums scheduled so far in 21 communities, including Milwaukee, anti-war activists in other states might follow Wisconsin's lead in using the ballot box to gauge opposition to the war.

The intent, according to article, is to "send a symbolic message about whether Wisconsin voters think U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq." According to an MJS article appearing on 19 January 2006, here is how the question will appear on the Milwaukee ballot in November, to which voters will respond with a yes or a no vote:

Milwaukee voters will be asked: "Shall the United States commence a humane, orderly, rapid and comprehensive withdrawal of United States military personnel and bases from Iraq?" An early version called for the nation to "immediately" begin withdrawing troops, but Mayor Tom Barrett and others criticized that language.

I don't have the specific language of the referendums on the ballot in other communities but surmise that they are probably similar. The question, of course, is whether these referendums are a good thing, a bad thing or simply a thing.

My initial reaction is that, regardless of the outcome, there is little real significance to this sort of thing but strong potential for abuse in the information war.

I say that there is little real significance to a referendum of this sort because local elections generally don't see voters turn out in significant numbers. I don't particularly place much importance on the results of a referendum when only a small minority of voters participates.

I say that there is strong potential for abuse in the information war because numbers are funny things and it seems that creative spinsters can always make the numbers support their particular point of view. The full story must include context and details about voter demographics and turnout. In this case, I strongly suspect that antiwar groups will take the results of these referendums and use them to support the notion that support for the war is waning. The converse is also true, but, pardon my cynicism, I think that the former will get the bulk of the sympathetic coverage.

Bottom line, I don’t think that these referendums will produce anything beneficial to the war effort unless they are overwhelmingly rejected and that voters turn out in numbers significant enough to dispel the notion that the pool of votes was too small and only representative of the dedicated minority as opposed to the population in general. If the results are close, then we will have to endure apologists from each camp explaining why the results should be viewed in a certain way. If voters accept the referendums, I don't necessarily expect it to be front-page news all over the world -- Wisconsin is probably too small a stage, I think. But I wouldn't be surprised if the referendums received widespread, if brief, coverage. If voters reject the referendums in a gesture of support for our efforts in Iraq, I would expect much less coverage.

On the other hand, it is entirely possible that the results of these referendums could get widespread publicity. Suppose the Milwaukee referendum passes -- a not too farfetched notion. It is by no means inconceivable that our antiwar friends in other states (especially blue states -- or "blue big cities" in otherwise red states) would do the same thing with similar results. This could easily develop into a campaign with the goal of proving that support among the American people for our efforts in Iraq is weak. That's not good for morale. The last thing we should do is communicate to our soldiers an eroding foundation of support. I promise, nothing good can come of that.

The way I see it, people who want us to win in Iraq have two options. The first option is to get the referendums off of the ballot. That will prevent biased individuals or groups from twisting the results. I don't think that this is feasible or even smart because it will undoubtedly produce criticism about suppression of democracy and such. And that criticism would not be entirely incorrect. The other option is to campaign aggressively and vote to reject them. Like I said before, the only way that these referendums can benefit the war effort is if they are overwhelmingly rejected. That will be easier said than done because some of these cities are fertile ground politically speaking for antiwar sentiment. If you look at a map of election results, you would observe that Wisconsin is a blue state. That isn't quite accurate -- it's actually a red state with two really big, really blue blobs centered vicinity Milwaukee and Madison (and a few smaller blobs elsewhere). Unfortunately, I would be surprised if voters in Milwaukee and Madison reject these referendums. As far as the other referendums, I'm not sure; but I'm guessing that antiwar groups won't push for a referendum in a city where they thought they'd lose...

I'll continue to follow this topic. It deals with the Iraq war, it deals with Wisconsin... what more could a soldier blogger from Wisconsin ask for? :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Moderate Muslims speak up

2006-02-07T15:07:00.000-06:00

Found this on Instapundit...

We are sorry.

Actually, I have no way to verify if this website is indeed created by moderate Muslims or not. But at least it says a lot of the things that we wish got said more often. :)

And for something totally different, here is something awful from Something Awful (also found via Instapundit).

Phil

Muslims gone wild... again

2006-02-03T16:46:00.000-06:00

It looks like, once again, crowds of angry Muslims are frothing at the mouth all over the Middle East. Apparently, a non-Muslim has committed the horrific act of drawing a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.

This is completely absurd, obviously, and I'm sure that plenty of more eloquent folks than myself have already taken it upon themselves to discuss this. But, since I have been on block leave for approximately eight hours and I am already bored out of my mind, I will walk through a recent article from the Associated Press (via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) covering this latest outrage forced upon the Muslim world.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Outrage over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad erupted in a swell of protests across the Muslim world Friday, with demonstrators demanding revenge against Denmark and death for those they accuse of defaming Islam's holiest figure.

This sort of reminds me of Christians' response when the art exhibit "Piss Christ" opened. That federally subsidized form of self-expression depicted a caricature of Christ on the cross upside down and submerged in urine. I, myself, joined an angry mob from my church that burned flags and effigies of artists, demanded the artist's death and stormed city hall. Er... wait, that didn't happen. Silly me. :)

In Iraq, the leading Shiite cleric denounced the drawings first published in a Danish newspaper in September, one of which depicted the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb. But the cleric also suggested militant Muslims were partly to blame for distorting the image of Islam.

To Sistani's credit, he acknowledges that the Muslim community bears some responsibility for its image and its reputation. Moderate Muslims do not distance themselves from the words and actions of the extremists. If somebody claiming to be a Southern Baptist decided to blow up an abortion clinic, the response from the vast majority of the Christian and pro-life community would be shock, horror and rejection of that tactic. The radio waves and TV shows would be bombarded with representatives from every pro-life organization and Christian denomination categorically rejecting that sort of activity and declaring it not representative of our faith. Unfortunately, I simply have not seen that response from moderate Muslims.

Clerics in Palestinian areas called in Friday prayers for a boycott of Danish and European goods and the severing of diplomatic ties. Tens of thousands of incensed Muslims marched through Palestinian cities, burning the Danish flag and calling for vengeance.

"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, a tailor who marched in the pouring rain with hundreds of other Muslims in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," the protesters chanted.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians calling for vengeance does not inspire sympathy in my mind. Rather, it invokes concern that extremism is a little too mainstream for comfort. Just last month, Palestinian voters overwhelmingly elected Hamas to power in their parliamentary elections. Commentators speculated that the vote for Hamas was not one for terrorism per se but rather a rejection of the rampant corruption in the ruling Fatah party. I suspect that the Palestinians knew exactly what they were voting for. Also, based on my unit's experience in Iraq, I can say with virtual certainty that Hamas is probably quite corrupt in its own right. Corruption is rampant over there and an assumed part of the way things are.

One more thing to rant about:

The U.S. and British governments criticized publication of the caricatures as offensive to Muslims, raising questions about whether the line between free speech and incitement had been crossed.

And a little farther down in the article...

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw criticized European media for reprinting the caricatures. While free speech should be respected, Straw said "there is not any obligation to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory."

The State Department called the drawings "offensive to the beliefs of Muslims" and said the right to freedom of speech must be coupled with press responsibility.

"Inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable," State Department press officer Janelle Hironimus said.

The deference given to Muslim hypocrites full of righteous anger at an editorial cartoon but utterly desensitized to Muslims killing innocent civilians on a daily basis in Iraq strikes me as pathetic and somewhat patronizing. Apologetic statements like these only serve to legitimize the point of view of this mob, and it isn't right. The idea that an Al Qaeda strike against Denmark is an appropriate response to these cartoons is not a legitimate point of view and must be challenged on every front.

I will close with one more piece of commentary on the Piss Christ exhibit. As a Christian, I was extremely disappointed that something that offensive would be considered art (and eligible for federal grants). However, as a Christian, I also know that Jesus died for that artist's sins the same way that he died for mine. I also know that vengeance is not for me to take. God will judge that artist for his actions the same way that he will judge me for mine. And, if that artist decides to someday become a Christian and accept the forgiveness for sin that Christ offers, the angels in heaven will rejoice at his salvation the same way that they rejoiced at mine. So who am I to spew my hatred at him or to judge him? Everything will work out in the end -- it always does.

Phil

Wounded journalists

2006-01-31T15:53:00.000-06:00

I briefly noticed some of the coverage regarding the two ABC journalists who were wounded in an IED strike the other day. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it other than to wonder where it happened. The coverage said that they were traveling with soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division, and I was wondering if it happened in our old stomping ground.

It turns out that that was not the case. I read an AP article saying that it was near Taji, which is a little to the north of Baghdad on the other side of the Tigris River from where we operated. The article that I read said that they were in the hatch of an Iraqi Army mechanized vehicle and that they suffered from head wounds. That tells me that they were too exposed in the hatch -- a definite no-no.

I don't know what type of vehicle these journalists were traveling in. Maybe they couldn't ride inside. But I am guessing that they just didn't stay inside the vehicles like they should have. Every time a combat patrol rolls outside the wire, the patrol commander gives a patrol brief that stresses, among other things, for all gunners to stay at chinstrap defilade in order to survive the blast. Gunners need to survive the blast in order to repel the ensuing small arms/RPG ambush (if it is a complex attack and not simply an IED strike). I'm guessing that these journalists had their torsos and heads exposed and, when the IED detonated, they were wounded right where we'd expect them to be. Who knows, I wasn't there. I'm not saying it was definitely their own fault because, as I said before, I wasn't there -- but it might have been. I didn't read anything about the vehicle's armor being penetrated. This tells me that they were wounded because they were exposed. Regardless, I hope that they're all right.

I hope that this incident doesn't lead to unwarranted negative generalizations about the state of affairs in Iraq. These journalists getting hurt doesn't mean that the insurgents are any more or less sophisticated than they were yesterday; it doesn't mean that security is any better or worse than it was yesterday; nor does it mean that the Iraqi Army is any more or less competent than it was yesterday. It simply means that we are fighting against insurgents who sometimes employ improvised explosive devices and that one of those improvised explosive devices detonated, wounding two journalists.

Phil

Home sweet home

2006-01-30T15:34:00.000-06:00

I fell off of the blogging train this past month and it is about time that I climb back on. :)

I arrived home safe and sound and am currently preparing to take 30 days of well-earned block leave. Prior to signing out on block leave, there were a number of mandatory tasks to take care of. Some of them dealt with reunion with family members (i.e. briefings from the chaplain), some dealt with money (turn off all of our deployment benefits) and some dealt with general housekeeping issues (update immunizations, go to the dentist, etc.).

This morning, I filled out my leave form and waded through the pile of mandatory risk assessment tools necessary before signing out on leave. My primary objective for this week is to, as quickly and easily as possible, take care of any last minute pre-leave emergencies. We are working a half-day schedule, which is nice. The intent, I think, is that we be at work only as much as is absolutely necessary and to maximize time off. That's always a good thing. :)

I'm not sure whether or not we will continue to post to this blog or not. The original purpose of the blog was to update friends and family about the Iraq deployment. Since our Iraq deployment is now over, maybe we should discontinue the blog. We'll see. A blog is a fun hobby and can still serve a purpose. Maybe we will change the focus to media/current events analysis in light of my experiences/observations from the deployment. And I can always write about the Packers...! :)

Phil

Time flies...

2006-01-02T03:10:00.000-06:00

...when you're having fun. :)

The last several days have been quite busy, mostly dealing with setting the conditions for going home. There is a lot of planning, coordination and work that goes into moving a tank battalion from Iraq back to the United States.

In other news, my Packers won a meaningless game against the Seattle Seahawks, which could have negative consequences for the team come draft time. Oh well, it will all work out. Having the best draft pick doesn't guarantee success -- you need to use that draft pick on the right player. Plenty of top 5 draft picks turn out to be busts and plenty of lower picks work out. The best players in the league, however, tend to be players picked high in the draft their particular year.

I was disappointed that the game was not televised on AFN. If it ends up being Brett Favre's last game, I will be disappointed to have missed it. Hopefully he comes back next year.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

A pleasant chill

2005-12-29T01:36:00.000-06:00

Before I deployed, a friend told me that the weather in Iraq is only nice for two days out of the year -- one day in the spring and one day in the fall. Other than that, it is either hot or cold.

After spending the end of winter, all of summer, and now the beginning of winter here in Iraq, though, I think that he is wrong. In the spring, I would say that he's probably right. As the weather is warming up, there is probably one day where it is nice, and after that it is not. But in the autumn, we haven't had a rapid drop in temperature.

Rather, the weather here is pleasantly brisk in the mornings. It gets a little chilly at night, but overall it is pretty nice weather these days. The showers are a little on the cold side -- but that's not exactly unexpected.

In search for a time to take a warm shower, I have decided to be creative with my PT schedule. I do PT right around lunchtime and take a shower around 1215 or 1230. The hot water is usually replenished from the morning showers enough to give me a few minutes of lukewarm goodness. The other advantage of doing PT mid-day is that there aren't many people in the gym at that time. Besides, when everyone else goes to the gym (i.e. after work), I am still working (and wouldn't be interested in fighting the crowds anyway).

In other news, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published another article speculating on Brett Favre's future with the team. I hope he keeps playing. I hope that he will still be playing for the Packers into his 40s. We'll see. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Take the long view

2005-12-27T13:17:00.000-06:00

I found this article today on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online:

Indonesian Rebels End 30-Year Insurgency

The two sides signed an accord in August, and the rebels last week finished handing over their self-declared 840 weapons. Tuesday's disbanding was the next major step under the plan, and it carried large symbolic weight.

"The armed wing of the Free Aceh Movement has demobilized and disbanded," said rebel commander Sofyan Daud, effectively ending the separatist insurgency that has killed at least 15,000 people since 1976.

What is the relevance to Iraq? The relevance is that insurgencies take a long time to die down and often the victory comes by persuading the insurgents to buy into the political process, as happened in Indonesia.

"The Aceh national army is now part of civil society, and will work to make the peace deal a success," he said after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

"We are entering a political era now. We do not need weapons anymore."

Instead, the guerrillas will participate in April elections in this province of 4 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

I'm not suggesting that the Indonesian insurgency was the same as the current Iraqi insurgency. There are stark contrasts, most notably that the Indonesian insurgency did not have the full endorsement and support of Al Qaeda and the Indonesian government did not have an outside power shouldering much of the burden.

Nonetheless, the election earlier this month demonstrated that Iraqis by the millions desire to participate in democratic self rule. Additionally, the election demonstrated that certain segments of the population that once actively supported the insurgency (and probably still do) have, at least temporarily, bought into the political system. That is a very good thing and bodes quite well for ultimate strategic victory (in Phil's small mind, Ultimate Strategic Victory = Iraqi government and security forces sufficiently stable and pluralistic so as to allow us to drastically if not completely reduce our footprint of combat soldiers).

The lesson from the Indonesian insurgency is that these things take time. This rebellion against the government in Indonesia started in 1976. The insurgency in Iraq began in the summer of 2003 and could, arguably, be given a free pass until the transfer of sovereignty. As of June 2004, with the transfer of sovereignty, the insurgency became a rebellion against the Iraqi government.

And so, tiptoeing technicalities, the insurgency could be less than two years old, and we have already made enormous strides. Keep in mind that the Iraqi insurgency is divided between terrorists and legitimate insurgents (you can tell the difference by their tactics and by their targets). As insurgents (and their base of support) buy into the political process, don't be surprised if the Iraqi public becomes increasingly less tolerant of the terrorists. Right now, they share certain goals and each group is a means to an end for the other. But that dynamic will change as the insurgents' base in the Sunni population buys into the democratic process.

The important lesson to take from this incoherent rambling is that this takes time. Don't sacrifice long-term success because short-term sacrifice is unpleasant. Take the long view.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

2005-12-26T13:25:00.000-06:00

I bought a copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe last week and watched it on my laptop.

I first read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was in grade school, and I remember enjoying them. Being a Christian, I am quite familiar with the allegorical comparisons to the gospel message, and naturally don't have a problem with it. If a Christian wants to write a children's story with an allegorical Christ-figure, that is his prerogative.

As far as the movie itself, I enjoyed it quite a bit. However, I viewed it in the frame of reference that it is a children's story. I didn't expect the same as from, say, a Lord of the Rings. The Chronicles of Narnia are short, easy reads that a child can grasp and enjoy. I read those books in elementary school and I think that I would have found the movie much more captivating if I were 10 years old. I had trouble suspending my disbelief that Peter and Edmund would contribute meaningfully to or even survive a medievel-style battle without any training in how to fight. I don't think they'd have lasted two minutes in a real battle. :)

Other than that, I liked the movie a lot. :) And I didn't let my inner skeptic bother me too much. Besides, C.S. Lewis kind of addresses that problem in the books (Prince Caspian, if memory serves) when he talks about how Narnia air has a maturing/strengthening effect on humans. :)

In other news, I called home today to wish my family a merry Christmas. We allowed soldiers to use a couple of the satellite phones in the TOC to call home on Christmas because the phones at the MWR building were all booked. I didn't make my call on the 25th but waited until the 26th because that is when all of my siblings and their spouses would be at my parents' house.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-24T13:10:00.000-06:00

Okay, it's not quite Christmas yet, but it will be in about an hour and a half. :)

I was able to sneak out of the TOC an hour early today to attend Christmas Eve services at the FOB chapel. It was a nice service, and I participated as one of the Scripture readers. The service consisted of Christmas songs and Scripture reading. It was nice.

Some of the staff captains are having a pseudo-Christmas party near our old quad in order to get rid of some excess cigars that have piled up over the course of the deployment. After I finish this post, I may make an appearance. :)

On a humorous note, for the past few weeks we have been broadcasting Christmas music in both English and Arabic on our FOB loudspeakers, basically to annoy the locals. :) Normally, we do it in the middle of the day, but tonight at 2200 we BLASTED "Here Comes Santa Claus" at approximately 50,000,000,000,000,000 decibels. I think that it was some boredom-induced humor from the TOC bubbas. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

MJS reporting from Iraq

2005-12-24T02:31:00.000-06:00

You generally don't have to look very hard to find biased or irksome coverage of the war in Iraq. However, sometimes you run across coverage that is neither sensationalist nor overtly biased. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a reporter in Iraq these days, and I generally like the articles of hers that I have seen.

She was over here a few months ago and now is back to cover Iraq over the Christmas holiday. She will be concentrating mostly on Wisconsin units, like she did before, and she just wrote an article covering a battalion from the Wisconsin National Guard:

Ordinary objects hide deadly surprises: Road patrol is trained with an eye for spotting the unusual

The article discusses how a battalion from the Wisconsin National Guard has the mission of keeping a portion of MSR Tampa open for traffic. This mission is similar to one that we have on the roads in our area of operations. Bad guys put IEDs out there and try to blow us up; we try to find the IEDs and catch the guys doing it. It's fun. :)

It would be as if security teams patrolled I-94 from the Illinois border through Kenosha and Racine counties and noticed every bottle, can and fast food wrapper lying on the side of the road, while eyeballing every vehicle that might be driven by a hijacker.

Not a bad analogy for the folks back home. :) It sounds daunting but our guys get very good as spotting the unusual. I don't have the precise data, but we find a lot of IEDs before they detonate. Actually, I do have the precise data, but I won't post it here. Tee hee. :)

Overall, I thought that this was a pretty good article. If you read articles closely, you will often find snide comments subtly inserted. For example, if there was an IED strike, the intro might be, "In spite of optimistic assessments by the Bush Administration, violence still rages in parts of Iraq. An improvised explosive device detonated today in the town of..." This article doesn't have any of that. Likewise, I didn't see any of it in her last batch of articles (the ones I read, at least).

This reporter is also keeping a blog on her trip. I read her blog from her last visit to Iraq and enjoyed it.

Her posts are down to earth and appear to come from someone not totally familiar with the military. However, she is not patronizing in her tone and, if she does have strong opinions about the war, I don't see it reflected in her writing.

I haven't read enough of her coverage to give her a blanket endorsement (particularly because as soon as I do that I'll stumble across something ghastly like finding her as a regular contributor to Michael Moore's website or something). But since I'm always willing to call out bad behavior by the media, I should be just as happy to point out good things as well.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Man test

2005-12-23T01:40:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I observed first hand the phenomenon of the man test. The man test, for those not sure what I'm talking about (i.e. female readers), is when members of the male species prove to the herd how manly they are by performing some ridiculous or painful ritual.

It all started when someone (not sure who) sent one of the soldiers in the TOC a care package that contained, among other things, a couple of gag shocker pens. They were real pens except that to extend or retract the point you would twist the bottom end. The top of the pen had the usual push button, giving the pen the appearance of a normal ball point pen. When you pushed the button (thinking that it would operate the pen), you got a shock. Endless laughs, to be sure.

Initially, the fun game was to leave the pen out in the open. People would invariably pick the pen up and, for some reason, picking up a ball point pen produces an urge to click the button on it. They would get shocked; we would laugh; repeat with another hapless victim. It was a good time. :)

After a while, we got bored with that joke. Plus, you can only get somebody once and eventually everybody knew to treat any unfamiliar pens with caution. So, in our boredom, we decided to see how long we could shock ourselves. The person who could shock himself for the longest continuous time won the man test.

The thing is, you can get used to the continuous shocking of the pen when you press the shocker with your thumb (as I learned from experience). So then we moved on to shocking ourselves in between the eyes with the pen. That is a different story.

It was quite amusing to me how otherwise professional, rational people can be so entertained by shocking themselves with a gag pen. Willingly subjecting yourself to continuous electric shock is not a natural act. Regardless, that pen amused us for a good two weeks. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Media coverage parody

2005-12-21T14:20:00.000-06:00

I got an email today with a satirical review of the Indianapolis-Pittsburgh game that occurred a couple of days ago. Funny stuff. :)

Imagine Monday Night Football Being Covered by the media Like the War in Iraq has been ...

By Jon Ham
November 30, 2005

RALEIGH - Watching Monday Night Football the other night, it occurred to me that if one imagined the mainstream media covering that game the way they cover the war in Iraq (or the economy), the absurdity of their reporting would be plain for all to see.

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indianapolis Colts, seeking to silence critics who say they are overrated, fell short of that mark on Monday night by outscoring the Pittsburgh Steelers by a mere 3-point margin in the first quarter.
Despite the unspectacular first-quarter margin, Colts head coach Tony Dungy insisted that his team was winning the battle. "Hey, we're up three," said Dungy. "In my book that's a lead." But critics pointed out that the Colts gained their lead only as a result of a desperation 80-yard pass by quarterback Peyton Manning to Marvin Harrison on their first play of the game.
"That score was based on subterfuge and was patently unfair," said one critic, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by league officials. "It amounted to abuse of opposing players to fool them like that."
Despite scoring on their first snap of the game, and later scoring a field goal to go up 10-0, the Colts allowed Pittsburgh to score with only 1:18 left in the first quarter. Colt critics demanded that Dungy acknowledge that he had made coaching mistakes in the quarter, but he refused to do so.
The Colts have become a target of critics since going undefeated so far this year. That so many Colt players have openly expressed a desire to go undefeated the whole season is seen as arrogance and a sense of exceptionalism by many, causing many former friends to turn against them.
The staunch Pittsburgh defense, though out-manned and out-gunned, managed to battle the Colts to a standstill in the second quarter, allowing them only six points. Those familiar with the Colts say this second-quarter swoon reveals a lack of depth on offense due to unmet recruitment goals during the off-season.
The insurgent Steelers, striking sporadically with lesser equipment against the hegemonic Colts, inflicted serious damage with several tackles, a sack and some pass breakups, holding Indianapolis to only two field goals in the 15-minute span. Observers said it looked as if the tide were turning in favor of the insurgent Steelers.
In the third period, the Steelers again held the Colts to a single touchdown, damaging the Colts' aura of invincibility and giving hope to the insurgents that their time would come. Some critics pointed to the stands as some Colt fans began filing out, saying that this showed the Colts losing support at home.
The Steelers were even stronger in the final period, holding the Colt juggernaut to a mere three points. "I think Indianapolis was just in the wrong game, at the wrong place at the wrong time," one Colt critic was heard to say.
The final score, by the way, was Colts 26, Steelers 7.

Jon Ham is vice president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of its newspaper, Carolina Journal.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Ouch

2005-12-20T04:27:00.000-06:00

I dragged myself out of bed this morning to support my Packers on Monday Night Football, which for some odd reason comes on TV early Tuesday morning here. It is still called Monday Night Football, but the coverage in Iraq doesn't begin until Tuesday morning. What a crazy country.

And so, I was able to witness my Packers come up short in yet another nail biter. Football is a game of inches, and often the difference between victory and defeat lies in just one or two plays. Or, in this case, one or two dozen plays... :)

On a positive (or scary) note, we got to see Brett Favre's heir apparent, Aaron Rodgers, take the helm for the entirety of the fourth quarter. There are good times ahead, I can tell. :) This article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel provides some encouragement by pointing out that Aaron Rodgers and Kyle Boller are virtually indistinguishable from each other in video footage from their college careers. As long as that remains the case for their professional careers, then we can rest easy. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Sunday

2005-12-18T13:19:00.000-06:00

Today was an uneventful Sunday for me. Since the Packers have a Monday night shoot out with the Baltimore Ravens, I don't even have any football to watch. I caught some of the Pittsburgh versus Minnesota game as well as part of the San Diego versus Indianapolis game.

I attended a number of mandatory briefings required before redeploying, which was a somewhat exciting event. We received a reunion briefing, a suicide awareness briefing, an operational security briefing, a legal briefing and a finance briefing.

We are getting these mandatory briefings out of the way now so that we won't have to worry about them when our replacements arrive. When that happens, we will have plenty to do in order to set them up for success when they take responsibility for the area of operations.

We might be getting some visitors from the Ambassadors of Hollywood group. They do tours to support/encourage deployed soldiers. They are sending us Kelly Hu (the actress who played Lady Deathstrike on X-Men II) and some musician guy named Mitch Allen. I've never heard his music, but by the look of his picture he could use a haircut. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Election aftermath

2005-12-16T13:22:00.000-06:00

We had a nice quiet day following yesterday's national election. Maybe the insurgents were tired, maybe they decided to call it quits. I'm not a gambler, but I wouldn't hold my breath that it is the latter. :)

We celebrated the end of the election by serving a feast in the chow hall. It was originally scheduled for Christmas Eve, but we moved it to today for some reason. Maybe it indeed was to celebrate the election, I don't know. But we roasted four pigs and served grilled steaks and roast pig for dinner. As with the last two pig roasts, the food was quite good.

I sometimes wonder what the local nationals on our FOB think about our fixation with pig roasts, but after I think about it for a minute I come to the conclusion that it probably isn't a big deal. If you go into our chow hall during breakfast, for example, you will see plenty of interpreters stuffing their pie holes with bacon, ham and sausage. I suppose that it shouldn't come as any surprise that Iraqis can be as superficial with their religious convictions as anyone else :)

I spent this quiet day putting together a couple of draft newspaper articles that may or may not get sent back to the hometown newspapers. I also put together a draft NCOER for my S1 NCOIC. Those familiar with NCOERs will know how fun that is. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Election day

2005-12-15T14:37:00.000-06:00

We have just finished up our second national vote in two months and, like the October referendum to decide the fate of the Constitution, this month's national election was a smashing success from our viewpoint.

After some mild snarkiness on the 14th, there wasn't a single incident at a polling site in our area of responsibility. The mood was actually fairly festive in some spots according to my sources. I, of course, could not observe any of this first hand because I was trapped in my little concrete box, like every day. :)

Our voter turn out actually increased from the October vote based on our initial reports. The news reports say that the Sunni community really rocked the vote today, and we observed higher voter turn out in Sunni towns and villages. Boycotting the January election was the most boneheaded thing the Sunni community could have done, and it seems like they made an effort to do better this time.

I don't have any information on the results, obviously, because it will take some time to tally the votes. If I were rooting for anybody, I'd have to say it would probably be for Ayyad Allawi's secular Shiite bubbas. We'll see how it turns out. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Who are the villains?

2005-12-13T13:29:00.000-06:00

For the past week or so, we have been hosting a writer from the Associated Press. This evening, I read his first article that is somewhat relevant to us. I liked the article but hated the headline, and so I am going to talk to him tomorrow and find out if it was his idiotic headline (which, incidentally, has almost nothing to do with the content of the article) or if he just writes the stories and someone else creates the headline.

It gets back to the question of who the real villains in the media are. I have already come out as saying that I don't think that the embeds are necessarily the evil ones (although we have had our share). The embeds, in my observation, tend to be pretty good folks.

Maybe the villains are the editors who decide which stories to run. Or maybe the villains are the reporters who don't embed with maneuver units but just stay in their hotel in the Green Zone and send out their stories about how awful things are without actually doing any real reporting.

Or maybe there aren't any villains and it's just that the vast majority of reporters can't grasp the nuances of a counterinsurgency fight. They report on what they understand -- an IED strike or a car bomb or an attack or whatever. Like the line in Spies Like Us -- "It's not your fault, you're stupid." :)

Or maybe the reporters are lazy and don't want to put forth the extra effort. It is easy to crank out a story about a car bomb or IED strike -- they probably have them pre-written and then they just fill in the specifics like location, number of casualties, etc. But developing a thorough knowledge about what's going on here and incorporating the perspective gained by really grasping what a counterinsurgency fight is all about -- heck, that's hard work! :)

Incidentally, I am not describing our current reporter. I read a few of his previous articles and I liked them. I thought his recent dispatch was quite good, as a matter of fact. Except for the headline, that is. :)

Anyway, back to the question at hand. If anybody has any theories as to who the villains are, I'm more than interested in hearing them. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

UPDATE -- I suppose that a link to the original article I reference would help... Here it is: Iraqi Army endures desertions. Read the article and judge for yourself whether or not that is the critical theme...

Christmas goodies

2005-12-12T14:41:00.000-06:00

Every mail day brings a new bounty of Christmas packages. Not only are soldiers getting packages from loved ones but we are getting a lot of gift packages from churches, schools and other organizations.

Today I got the package Becky sent me. Among other things, it contained Andes mints, cream savers candy, Smarties candy, a small bag of chips, Season 1 of the Muppett Show, a bag of yummy peanut butter Hershey kiss cookies and a bag of frosted Christmas cookies shaped like little tanks. They were very adorable. :)

And so I spent the rest of the day stuffing my pie hole with Christmas cookies and other assorted yummies. I can feel myself getting fatter as the cookies digest. And I think that if I have another day where I shovel sweets in my mouth in the same voluminous quantities that I did today then I will be sick.

In other news, the election has officially begun. Soldiers in our partnered Iraqi Army battalion cast their votes today. I will undoubtedly have more to say about the election once it is all said and done.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Another day

2005-12-11T13:08:00.000-06:00

Today was another quiet day. I spent the morning doing my standard routine of S1 work, which was only notable in that we held a ceremony to present end of tour awards to some soldiers. There is a substantial pile of approved awards in the S1 shop and we are slowly but surely whittling away at it.

In the afternoon, I pulled my usual shift in the TOC, where the only notable event was the S3 taking his tank out on a patrol and everyone in the TOC making jokes about what would break on it and when. Maintenance is something near and dear to every tanker's heart, and there is plenty of good-natured ribbing between crews when tanks go down for mechanical reasons.

In other news, the Packers take on the mighty Lions this week. I think that the real choke job for the Packer season will be when we win out, thus taking us out of the running for the top draft pick and setting the conditions for us to waste a #9 or #10 pick on another Jamal Reynolds. Raar! On the other hand, we could lose out but still end up with the #2 pick, enabling us to waste it on another Tony Mandarich. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

You know you've been doing too much paperwork...

2005-12-08T13:27:00.000-06:00

... when you discover that you know from memory the social security number for your Commander, S3, XO, Company Commanders and battalion fire support officer. I made that observation today when I was filling out the administrative data on OERs and realized that I didn't have to look up any social security numbers all day.

Fortunately, I am nearing the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of OERs. One more quiet day and I can put them to bed. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Still here...

2005-12-07T01:25:00.000-06:00

... just busy.

I've been spending my *free* time either doing OERs or engaging in planning for a number of fun events that we have going on in the future -- the national election next week, handover of our battlespace to the oncoming unit when they arrive, our eventual redeployment and then actions after redeployment. I've even gotten questions about our future battalion redeployment ball.

The good thing about the ball is that the wives and rear detachment are, by necessity, doing most of the planning and coordination. At least I hope so. Being an S1 while planning for a battalion formal event is a unique experience in pain and suffering. Something I will probably get to experience one more time... :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Something to write about...

2005-12-03T16:39:00.000-06:00

Long time no post. Things here have been slow enough that nothing noteworthy or blog-worthy has happened but have been busy enough that I haven't had the time or inclination to sit at the computer for long periods of time thinking of something to write about.

Speaking of things to write about, I stepped in feces today for the first time in the entire deployment. It was in, of all places, on the floor of a porta-john. This experience brought to mind the porta-john snobbery that exists among the group of staff captains that I live by and wrote about a few months ago.

For newcomers to the blog, I live in a secluded quad of rooms that houses just a small group of staff captains. The previous occupants of those rooms (from OIF II) put padlocks on the nearby porta-johns in order to provide controlled access. They did this because some of our Iraqi friends had a tendency to spray their urine everywhere and to defecate on the toilet seat and/or floor. Not exactly something you want to deal with on those nights when you just HAVE to go. :)

The curious thing is that the specific portajohn where I had my unfortunate run-in with someone else's fecal matter was located near the offices of the S1 section, S4 section, post office and mayor's cell. It is fairly secluded and not one that is commonly used by local national laborers. I'm interested to know who in the S1 shop, S4 shop, postal section or mayor's cell has taken to pooping on the floor...

Other than that, the only notable part of my day was staying up half the night to watch the Army/Navy game. It was pretty fun to watch until about midway through the second quarter when we adopted a peculiar "allow Navy to score on every possession" defensive strategy. The Army touchdown at the end of the 3rd quarter offered us a glimmer of hope, and we did manage to stop Navy for the first eight seconds of the 4th quarter. Unfortunately, they scored their sixth touchdown with 14:51 remaining in the game. Doh!

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Pictures

2005-11-30T22:02:00.000-06:00

Here are a few pictures I thought I'd share. I took a bunch when Phil was home on leave. There's also a few of my Thanksgiving. ~Becky :)

The Packer game! It was lots of fun, even though the score didn't end up how we'd like it to.

It was beautiful weather... a little bit brisk, but you're jammed in there with all those other people, so you stay pretty warm.

We got to hang out with Brett. :) Can you tell which one is him?

Phil with his parent's new cat, Zeke.

Once we were back home, we just got to relax. Phil helped me make an apple pie... he did most of the measuring!

There's a fenced in tennis court/basketball hoop area outside our house. It looks like he made the shot! :)

The Kitty likes to join us out there too.

He was pretty funny chasing around that little ball... I think he thinks he's a dog. :)

Thanksgiving at my grandparent's house...Me with my sisters (Jenny and Shelly) and Mom.

Jenny, Me and Dad.

Kurdistan

2005-11-30T14:11:00.000-06:00

Kurds Keep the Peace In Their Own 'Nation'

I'm on an Early Bird kick tonight. Hopefully the link works.

The link takes you to an article originally appearing in the Washington Times. Not all of Iraq is in rough shape. The Kurds have managed to build themselves a secure little society for themselves in the three provinces that make up Kurdistan. It is an encouraging read.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

UPDATE -- The link doesn't work. At least it won't work unless you have an Army Knowledge Online login. Raar. Here is the link to the same article from the Washington Times online.

Loony peace activists kidnapped

2005-11-30T13:18:00.000-06:00

I read this article via Early Bird News about four peace activists kidnapped by insurgents. This unfortunate turn of events has caused the group to rethink who the real villains are here in Iraq.

Er, wait... no it hasn't. Here is the statement from Christian Peacemaker Teams, an antiwar organization out of Chicago:

"We were very saddened to see the images of our loved ones on Al Jazeera television recently," Christian Peacemakers said. "We were disturbed by seeing the video and believe that repeated showing of it will endanger the lives of our friends.

"We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. government due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people," the statement said.

These poor misguided folks came to Iraq thinking that we were the bad guys, and they are learning otherwise the hard way. Ironically, the terrorists would be hurting their own cause by doing anything to these guys because, as their organization's statement indicates, hurting them would take allies off of the street.

This organization's worldview is so warped that they still see the US and UK as the enemy even as terrorists are putting their members on Al Jazeera, accusing them of being American spies and threatening to kill them. Egad.

Regardless, I hope the four get released. The whole story is kind of funny if you ignore the part that four innocent people might get murdered by terrorists. [Note: Sometimes in my posts I use the term "insurgent" and sometime I use the term "terrorist" -- these guys are terrorists.] As misguided and foolish as they may be, they are still noncombatants and don't deserve the grisly end that may await them.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

UPDATE -- The Early Bird link doesn't work because I accessed it through Army Knowledge Online. So unless you have an AKO username and password, you won't be able to access the link. Here is a link to the same article from the Washington Post online.

Media time again

2005-11-30T04:34:00.000-06:00

We hosted up a journalist from the Associated Press recently. He seemed like a nice fellow but, to be honest, most of the media embeds we have had were decent folks.

My little conspiracy theory is that the villains in the media are not necessarily the guys on the ground getting the stories but rather it is the editors and ideologues back home who pick and choose which stories to run.

Hosting reporters is something of an inconvenience but in this case it was relatively painless. He wanted to write about Iraqi Security Forces and their progress (or lack?), and so we hooked him up with the Military Transition Team that works with our local Iraqi Army brigade. Too easy.

Whenever we host a reporter, I find out the individual's name beforehand and then do a Google search for previous articles he or she has written. It can give us an idea as to how guarded we have to be. Unfortunately, there is some distrust between soldiers and journalists. I wish it didn't have to be that way because the media could be such a useful tool in the information war.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Slow day = good day

2005-11-28T13:53:00.000-06:00

Today was a slow day, which means that it was a good one. Our partnered IA bubbas handled a couple of IED situations, but nothing that merited our attention.

It is encouraging to see the Iraqis take care of IEDs without any help from us. There was a time when we had to do all of that sort of thing by ourselves.

I was thankful for the slow day because it gave me a chance to work on some officer evaluations. It is that time of year again -- officer evaluation time. Officers get evaluation reports annually and last year the Army made a slight change to its system for evaluating lieutenants and captains. A side effect of that change is that every lieutenant and captain in the battalion got an OER (Officer Evaluation Report) between October 1st, 2004 and March 10th, 2005 with the majority being in December. All of those officers who got evaluated last December are due their annuals this December. That means that Phil will be a busy little S1 in the coming weeks. Yay. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

The decisive operation(s)

2005-11-26T13:27:00.000-06:00

Critical to understanding the conflict here in Iraq is the realization that the decisive operation is not combat. I realize that the country of Iraq is like a patchwork quilt with some areas more violent and some areas more stable than others. It is very possible, therefore, that there are parts of Iraq where combat is the decisive operation. But I do not assess that to be the case in our little corner of the world nor do I see it as the path to ultimate strategic victory (which is what we are obviously working towards in the long run).

If combat is not the decisive operation, then what is? The decisive operation, in my view, is a toss up between governance and build-up of the Iraqi security forces. I'll call it a toss up for now, but I lean towards governance. The strategic objective as I understand it is to create a functional liberal democracy in the Middle East because citizens with hope, dignity and the promise of a better tomorrow don't fly airplanes into buildings or strap suicide vests onto themselves to blow themselves up in crowded marketplaces. The plan is to win the culture war by spreading freedom. Will it work -- winning the culture war against radical Islam by spreading liberal democracy? I don't know, but at least it's a plan. :) We definitely won't win the culture war solely by killing the radical Islamofascists because they are so good at the disinformation campaign in the Middle East that our kinetic action will inevitably create fodder for recruitment. It is impossible to fight an effective war where no innocent people get hurt. The enemy is very good at exploiting this with the receptive public in the Middle East. That is why the governance piece is so important -- it complements the combat action piece.

When fighting an insurgency, it is virtually impossible to stamp it out completely, especially in a country like Iraq. There may always be a segment of the population that supports the insurgents and is willing to provide them with sanctuary. But as the governance piece develops -- as the Iraqi people hold one successful national election after another; as they elect local governments again and again at the city, regional and provincial level; and as they come to believe that they truly have ownership of and a stake in their own government; then that segment of the population will become smaller and smaller and less and less relevant. That is ultimate victory against an insurgency -- it isn't killing everyone because that isn't a reasonable expectation. Rather, it is achieved by reducing the insurgency into irrelevancy in terms of its ability to supplant and replace the standing government. Eventually, it will die out on its own.

Incidentally, the first part has already happened. The only catch is that we still have 150,000 or so service members here ensuring it stays that way. That is why build-up of the Iraqi security forces is the other decisive operation. It is debatable whether the insurgency would be irrelevant if we left. I imagine that it is currently being debated in pay grades way above mine the degree to which the insurgency will increase (or decrease?) in relevancy depending on the degree to which we draw down in the coming year(s). At least I hope that's what they're debating... :) I really hope that that issue drives the train of our troop reduction and not political expediency. :)

As the Iraqi Security Forces improve, they will be able to keep the insurgency in its current state of irrelevancy and then we will be able to gradually reduce our footprint over here until our presence is minimal.

On a totally different note, I had a conversation like this with another officer in Kuwait when I was coming back from block leave. He made the point that, no matter what, we have only a few years left in Iraq in any substantial numbers because when the next president runs and wins on an antiwar platform, we will be coming home whether we are finished or not. Is he right? Maybe, I don't know. Not my lane, not gonna worry about it. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Giving thanks

2005-11-24T13:11:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone enjoyings this day to give thanks and take the time to reflect on how fortunate we are.

Thankfulness is not an emotion or a feeling, it is a choice. Sometimes that choice is easy and sometimes it is not so easy. Regardless, the choice is ours. Choose to be thankful... today and every day! I do. :)

Be safe, drink water... and give thanks!

Phil

Thanksgiving vacation

2005-11-24T00:32:00.000-06:00

Becky here...

I made it up to Wisconsin on Tuesday afternoon. It was kind of nice coming up a day before the big holiday travel rush. I didn't have any extra waiting at the airport and I made it to Wisconsin without any delays!

There was a lovely surprise when I woke up this morning! We had gotten about an inch of snow overnight! It didn't last very long... most of it was melted by the end of the day, but it was very pretty while it lasted!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and it should be a pretty nice day. I will start out the day by making some pies with my mom for dinner tomorrow night. I'm officially in charge of the apple pie and I think we're also going to make a pumpkin pie too. Then I'll head over to Phil's parent's house for a Thanksgiving lunch. Thanksgiving with my side of the family will be at my grandma's house at dinnertime. It should be a good time, as always. :)

By the way, since I haven't written since Phil was home for leave, I must report that it was an absolutely fabulous time! It was so nice to relax and spend such a quality 2 weeks together. It was just wonderful because we were able to fall back into our routines and "normalness" and just enjoy each other.

Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Becky :)

Zeke

2005-11-23T01:26:00.000-06:00

During R&R leave, Becky and I went up to Wisconsin to spend a few days with family. We brought the cat because we didn't want to trouble our neighbors with coming over to feed him and because my folks like it when he visits. They are relatively new empty nesters and have been thinking about getting a pet to keep them company.

In all, it turned out to be something of a traumatic weekend for The Kitty. Riding in the car for hours and hours is no fun, and he likes to remind us ever 3-5 seconds. We've tried drugging him in the past for the trip, but all that does is make him squawk groggily instead of squawk alertly. He has gotten better but is still by no means a good traveler.

Once we got there, however, he enjoyed having my folks' big house all to himself. That is, until he spotted a stray cat through the sliding glass doors in the basement. This cat could have been his identical twin and possibly reminded The Kitty of his own days as a stray. Whatever was going on in his small brain, he definitely didn't like the introduction of another cat into his little sphere. The humans in the house, however, took an immediate liking to the new cat. He was extremely friendly, leading us to believe that it was somebody's pet that either got lost or else was allowed to roam. On the other hand, he wasn't fixed yet, and most pet owners take care of that right away. Maybe The Kitty was jealous because the new kitty still had balls.

After watching the cat hang around for a day or two, we checked with the neighbors to see if the cat was theirs. We also called up the animal shelter to see if any cats meeting that description were reported. It didn't belong to any of the neighbors and none of the animal shelters we contacted had any information either.

My parents, already intending to go to the humane society to find a cat to adopt, decided that this cat that seemingly dropped out of nowhere was as good as any -- particularly because he was so friendly. They reported the animal to the humane society and brought him in to get checked out and to wait out the mandatory period for owners to reclaim lost animals. After that period expired, my folks as the finders would have the first opportunity to adopt. Then it is just a trip to the vet for a check-up, shots and a minor medical procedure.

The cat, eventually named Zeke, definitely loved the attention. He didn't even squawk when we took him in the car. On the other hand, if he had known that we were taking him to a place where they would put him in a cage, poke him with needles and cut his balls off then he might not have been so cooperative. :)

I learned the other day that nobody came forward to claim Zeke in the alotted time, and so, after giving it a couple of extra days, my folks adopted Zeke the stripey cat. He should like his new home. There is plenty of space, a fertile hunting ground in the basement and nice carpeted stairs to shred. Yay for claws... and scratching posts. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

On being a true fan

2005-11-22T13:44:00.000-06:00

I dragged myself out of bed this morning after less than 5 hours of sleep so that I could watch my Packers in their weekly exercise in futility. Poor sad Packers. :(

This season is causing Packer fans to undergo some fan introspection, specifically regarding the role of the fan. Is it the role of the fan to cheer for the team to win or is it the role of the fan to cheer for what is ultimately best for the team in the long run?

The question is relevant at this point in the Packer season because a 2-14 finish might give the Packers the #1 choice in next year's NFL draft and the opportunity to draft the next big superstar. That could, in turn, reap the benefit of great seasons in the future. However, that would put fans in the awkward position of cheering for their team to lose now in the hopes that it will lead to glorious wins in the future.

Personally, I don't buy into it. I'm a cheer-for-your-team-to-win guy. I never want the Packers to lose and will be happy for them every time they win -- even if a late season win results in a lower draft pick. Irrational? Maybe, but sports have a way of influencing otherwise sensible folks to engage in silly behavior. I myself have been known to wear a foam wedge of cheese on my head on occasion. :)

And so, I root for my team to win but recognize that a silver lining does exist to losing seasons. If anything, we'll get to see how much Packers General Manager Ted Thompson learned from the great Ron Wolf while under his tutelage. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Choices choices

2005-11-22T13:30:00.000-06:00

The DFAC contractors forced an awful choice upon us at lunch today, serving both chicken cordon bleu with mashed potatoes and spaghetti with meat sauce in the same meal. Those two meals, among the best on the menu, were never meant to be served at the same time.

I went for the spaghetti. It was good, but I can't help but wonder if the chicken cordon bleu would have been extra tasty today. Alas, I'll never know. They need to serve the good meals side by side with something disgusting like cabbage goulash or liver and onions (apologies to those who prefer those dishes). That way we won't run into this kind of dilemma.

Yes, it's a good (and slow) day when the most agonizing decision you had to make was in the chow line. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Improvement

2005-11-22T03:52:00.000-06:00

We work closely with the local Iraqi Army battalion in our little corner of Iraq. One of the key tasks to accomplishing our mission here is to build the Iraqi Army to the point where it can assume the full mantle of responsibility for security and the counterinsurgency fight. As that happens, we will have more options in terms of reducing our footprint here until, eventually, we are gone in any substantial form.

The IA battalion that we work with is a work in progress, and progress is being made, albeit slowly sometimes. Remember, however, to take pessimistic evaluations of their capabilities with a grain of salt because we measure them against a very high standard -- ourselves. We have a professional fighting force with an established non-commissioned officer corps that enforces standards and maintains discipline. We are highly trained and arguably the best equipped fighting force in the history of the universe. There is no place for relativism on the battlefield, and so we evaluate and measure the IA against an objective, high standard.

Even though at times it seems like they have an agonizingly long way to go, every now and then they give us an encouraging sign that they are getting it. We got one such sign recently from our partnered IA battalion when they successfully repulsed a complex attack targeting one of their checkpoints.

In the past, our Iraqi friends had some trouble with checkpoints being overrun because they wouldn't wear their protective equipment, man their guard posts or stay awake while on duty. This time, however, the soldiers on duty were doing the right thing and decisively defended their position.

After the insurgents broke contact, the IA reinforced the checkpoint, set hasty blocking positions along the likely egress routes of the insurgents and conducted a hasty cordon and search of some nearby villages.

While the operation was playing out, someone in the TOC remarked that their response was pretty similar to what we would have done in that circumstance. They quickly massed combat power at the decisive point, Iraqi commanders on the ground directed the fight, and we didn't have to do much at all.

Bottom line, it wasn't something to get irrationally excited about but it was encouraging to see them doing well. Hopefully we see more of that in the future.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Back safe and sound

2005-11-20T11:23:00.000-06:00

I made it back to sunny Baqubah and the FOB this afternoon. My 24 day vacation (four days travel outgoing, 15 days leave, and five days travel returning) is now over and it is time to get back to work.

R&R leave was great. I think that I enjoyed that 15-day period as much or more than any other 15-day period in my life. It was a blast. Becky and I kept our agenda light and spent a quality two weeks together. We spend most of the time at home but did make time to spend a long weekend in Wisconsin where we got to see family and the Packer game on November 6th. It was a lot of fun, the final score notwithstanding. :)

I am still working through a little bit of jet lag right now. I'm ready for a nap around 1500 or 1600 every afternoon, and I usually wake up around 0400 or 0500 every morning. It will probably take a few days to get that out of my system, but for now I am going to use it to my advantage. The Green Bay versus Minnesota game on Monday Night Football comes on at 0500 on Tuesday morning, so hopefully I will still be waking up early so I can watch it live. The Packers, at 2-7, won last week against a better Atlanta team, and now we in the Packer faithful are filling our heads with visions of winning out and a 9-7 finish. Stranger things have happened. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Leave time

2005-10-27T13:27:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the light posting lately. I've been keeping busy making sure that everything was straight before I go on leave. But the time for preparing is over because tomorrow morning I will begin the hopefully quick but sometimes painful travel process home for my R&R leave break. I am one of three people on the very last group of soldiers in the battalion to go on leave. It was a long wait, but well worth it.

As such, don't expect much from the blog in the next couple of weeks. We'll be back posting as soon as I get back. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

1-5...

2005-10-24T14:18:00.000-05:00

I got the opportunity to pseudo-watch the debacle against the Vikings yesterday on the Gametrax on Foxsports.com. It seemed like everything went right in the first half (minus the missed field goal) and everything went wrong in the second half.

When there is that dramatic a change in a game after halftime, it leads me to conclude that the team that did very poorly in the first half made adjustments at halftime that paid them dividends in the second half. In other words, coaching was a difference... which means that the Packers got out-coached by... Mike Tice. Yikes. Another difference, obviously, was injuries -- we're getting crushed by injuries and it's hard for 3rd and 4th string players to be competitive.

Actually, I think that this is all part of the master plan. We have lost four games by three or less points -- and every one of those losses was an inch away from victory but for either a bad call or missed field goal(s) or whatever. The plan is to lose every game, thus setting ourselves up for a high draft pick while at the same time being competitive in each game so that diehard fans and apologists can sanely argue that the team isn't as bad as the record implies.

On a related point, I must point out that Brett Favre had a great game, dome and all, and that this season could have been very different had the brass decided to wait until after he retires to dismantle and rebuild instead of trying to do it with him here in the hopes that he can minimize the pain of rebuilding by carrying the team on his shoulders. It seems to me that the poor guy is all alone out there -- his running game was nonexistent and, even though the Vikings knew that we would be throwing on every down, he still completed 77% of his passes for over 300 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Maybe we should have him kick field goals too...

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Milestones

2005-10-22T02:03:00.000-05:00

I experienced a couple of milestones this week. The first milestone was that today was the first day since about March that I didn't have any air conditioning turned on in my room because it is sufficiently cool at night. I don't know when it will be time to turn on the heat, but there was definitely a chill in the air when I got up.

The second milestone was yesterday. After taking a PT test in order to meet an annual requirement, I took my first cold shower since, again, about March. I am definitely not ready for cold showers yet, so I hope that it was simply due to timing. The hot water heaters are finite and my shower was right at the trail end of the morning rush. When we first got here, I could usually get warm water by being judicious about when I showered.

The third milestone was this morning, when I finished another tube of toothpaste. I tried to make it last until I go on leave but was unsuccessful. On my agenda today is to make a trip to the PX here on the FOB to pick up some more. :)

The next milestone isn't so much of a milestone but a count down. I'm down to counting the days on two hands before I head home to take R&R leave. Woo-hoo!

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

The countdown!

2005-10-20T21:42:00.000-05:00

Becky here…

It's been a good week for me so far. And tomorrow is Friday, so that is good! :) Friday mornings, before work, I go to a Bible study with eight or so other women. It's been such a wonderful group to be a part of! Right now we're studying Philippians and I'm really enjoying that. It's kind of amazing because we've been working on it since the beginning of September and we're just a little way into chapter two! There's just a lot of good stuff in there!

After Bible study I've been in the habit lately of stopping either at Panera for a bagel with cream cheese (plain bagel with plain cream cheese) and coffee or McDonald's for an egg mcmuffin and coffee! I think the McDonald's thing came from Phil. We had a Sunday routine of going to early church service, Sunday school, then making it to McDonald's for egg mcmuffins just before they stopped serving breakfast. So I think I'm keeping up the tradition, just on a different day. I do wish they had better coffee at our McDonald's… it sort of tastes like they brewed it from tree bark.

I'm in countdown mode right now. Phil is due to come home for R&R leave within the next couple weeks and I absolutely cannot wait!!! It will be so wonderful to see him and be together for a little while. Every time I think about seeing him, my heart does that goofy little flip-flop thing!!!

Our plan is to stay here for the first couple days. Then we'll head to Wisconsin to visit our families for the weekend. We plan to catch a Packer game while we're up there too, which will be awesome (it will be nice to wear our cheeseheads without getting weird stares from people)! Then we'll head back and spend the rest of our time at home.

I kind of like the way things have worked out in regards to Phil's timeline. He's coming home for leave about 9 months into the deployment. So he'll get to be home for a couple weeks and then we won't have too much left after he goes back (hopefully). :)

So… I'll just continue to count down the days. I've been making sure to tell the Kitty every now and then that Phil will be home soon. That way he isn't completely caught off guard when he walks through the door. :)

Becky :)

Saddam Hussein...

2005-10-19T15:25:00.000-05:00

... is not guilty, we learned today. We watched briefly today as the former president of Iraq graciously educated us on the illegitimacy of his trial and then informed us that he is not guilty of the charges before him.

Given this groundbreaking information, it is clear that we must recognize the error of our ways and release the former president immediately. My recommendation is that we move immediately to release Saddam Hussein into, say, a crowded Basra marketplace. Or maybe somewhere up in Kurdistan. Since he is innocent, I'm sure that he would have no problem with us dropping him off in an orange jumpsuit in the middle of an urban Shia or Kurdish neighborhood to be greeted by his adoring countrymen and women. We'll announce the time and place so that his Shia or Kurdish friends can be there to welcome him.

It's all about justice, and it is time that we stopped withholding from this man what he truly deserves. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Referendum roll up

2005-10-19T02:56:00.000-05:00

It's been several days since I last posted here. Initially, I was gathering my thoughts after the referendum. After I had somewhat gathered my thoughts, we spent a couple of days in a communications blackout status during which I did not capture those thoughts and subsequently lost them. And I have been somewhat swamped the past couple of days with S1 work -- processing awards, pushing through OERs (officer evaluation reports) for officers who are due, etc.

And so, I am back to musing about the referendum, how it went and its implications. First off, my assessment is that the events of the day went off extremely well. We had good voter participation, great security and no hiccups. Remarkably, we didn't have a single polling site attacked in any credible form on the day of the referendum except for a mortar attack several hours before the polls opened. We had some snarkiness the night of the 14th, but nothing big on game day.

I don't have any information on how people voted except in one of our cities. The vote was slightly in favor of passing the Constitution. The results for that particular city are consistent with what we might have predicted based on demographic data. For the rest of our AO, the only information I had access to dealt with numbers of votes cast and not the break down of votes.

Throughout the day, we sent various "atmospherics" reports to our higher headquarters covering the mood of civilians and the disposition of crowds at the various polling sites. We also submitted information about voter turnout as a percentage of registered voters. Higher headquarters, whether it is Battalion if you're a platoon leader or Division if you're on Brigade staff, always seems to have an insatiable appetite for obscure tidbits of information and it is up to the folks on the ground to collect the data. The guys on the ground dutifully reported information on everything we asked of them, and we sent it all up to the appropriate folks.

At this point, the jury is still out as to the implications of the referendum. It looks right now that the Constitution will pass. If it does, great; if it doesn't, that's great too.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

After the referendum

2005-10-16T14:55:00.000-05:00

Every indicator that we have at this point is that the referendum Saturday was a smashing success. I don't care at this point if the Constitution passes or not -- either way it's a victory as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not going to dive into a full blown analysis of things just yet -- it's late and I am heading off to bed soon. But I wanted to post a short note to let everybody know that I hadn't dropped off the map. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

In the fight

2005-10-13T15:24:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, our partnered Iraqi Army battalion held a press conference to display a munitions cache that they discovered the previous day. The press conference highlighted the find in order to show the good folks in our AO that their Iraqi Army soldiers are doing some great things in the counterinsurgency fight.

The cache was a significant find -- it contained enough materials to make somewhere between 50 and 100 IEDs, depending on how big they were and whether they would be configured with a single round or multiple rounds. The IA, with our help, sorted out the cache and laid it out for the media to photograph. It contained mortar rounds, mortar tubes, and several initiating devices.

After the IA found it, we linked up with them on the ground to take a look and also to help them check the surrounding area for more stuff. We had two embedded journalists with the patrol, and the event made its way into a dispatch from Reuters. The coverage wasn't particularly impressive -- one sentence buried in a larger article. I think that the reporter could have written a decent story covering just that event. Alas.

There has been some discussion recently about how ready or not ready the Iraqi Army is. Make no mistake, our partnered IA battalion is clearly in the "not ready" category, but as this event demonstrates is clearly in the counterinsurgency fight. The IA developed and pursued the intelligence leading them to the general area of the cache and then found the cache itself, all without our help. Pretty much the only thing we did is take pictures and help them transport it.

I can give several concrete, specific examples of operations that we have conducted side by side with the IA based on actionable intelligence from Iraqi sources. In my humble opinion, they are by no means ready to assume the fight in our absence. They have their warts, some of which enrage us on a seemingly daily basis. Regardless, they are most certainly in the fight and we are MUCH more effective in the counterinsurgency fight side by side with them than we would be on our own.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Our role

2005-10-12T03:43:00.000-05:00

This morning, I poked around on the Internet to see if I could find any dispatches from our hosted reporters.

Here is the first one.

The article discusses some of the work we are doing in order to ensure that the Constitutional Referendum on Saturday goes smoothly. It's a cute little tap dance routine for us because it is an Iraqi operation where the Iraqis are responsible for everything, but we need to be prepared to assist them with anything.

U.S forces say they aim to keep a low profile, leaving polling site security and delivery of the ballots to Iraqi police and army.

Nonetheless, each presentation from U.S. officers in charge of different sectors laid out alternative plans for "catastrophic" events, and Iraqi officials made sure they knew how to call in air support from the Americans.

There is the primary plan, where the Iraqi Security Forces are responsible for everything. Then there is the alternate plan, where we must be prepared to step in and assist at any point of failure as requested by the Iraqis. Our level of involvement will obviously depend on the circumstances, and we must be prepared, as always, for any contingency.

I don't do this often -- in fact, I don't think that I have ever done this. But I am going to solicit feedback from readers. Here is the topic: allowing or refusing to allow the Iraqis to fail. Should we be willing to allow the Iraqis to fail in the interest that failure can be a powerful learning tool in developing self reliance, or are the consequences of failure too great and benefits of success worth the implications in possibly delaying Iraqi self-reliance? Thoughts?

Clarification: I am not talking about failure in terms of our strategic objectives -- that is obviously out of the question. I am talking about short-term failures as a help or a hindrance to the larger strategic objective of Iraqi self-reliance.

Send us your thoughts either in the comments section or to the Gmail account. This is a subject that I have been mulling in my mind for some time and am interested in what you all think.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Embedded media

2005-10-11T03:34:00.000-05:00

With Saturday's Constitutional Referendum fast approaching, our Brigade, like probably every other Brigade in country, is being flooded with journalists. Well, if not flooded, hosting more than usual. We got our slice this past week -- a TV journalist from a European TV station, a reporter/photographer team from Reuters and a scheduled-but-not-yet-arrived reporter from USA Today.

And so, I get to put on my public affairs bubba hat again. In case you are wondering what a public affairs bubba hat looks like, it is about two feet tall, cone-shaped and comes to a point on the top.

At this point, all of the journalists in this batch seem like decent folks. To be honest, we haven't embedded too many evil journalists with us (yet). We have gotten a couple, but most reporters or photographers have been polite...at least on the surface. :)

The TV journalist spent a few days with us but is already gone. I think that he had a distinctly different picture in his head about what things are like here. He wanted to see more action, but the few days he was with us were dull and boring. Obviously, we are not going to conduct operations for the sole benefit of embedded media. We'll let them join us if it works out that way, but we won't put on a show for them just to provide sexy footage for a story.

Ironically, the day that he left to go somewhere more exciting, we executed one combined US/IA raid on multiple target houses in multiple villages to catch bad guys based on actionable intelligence and one all-night cordon and search in another area to apprehend a target based on another piece of actionable intelligence. It was all quite amusing to me -- purely by coincidence and not by design (you can't exactly predict when you'll get actionable intelligence), as soon as he left, we rolled out the gate to execute these different missions. Doh! :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

1-4!

2005-10-09T15:03:00.000-05:00

Today I got to *watch* the Packer game via the Gametrax on Foxsports.com. Although there are still about two minutes left on the clock in the 4th Quarter, I think that we are going to pull this one out. Whew.

Last year, the 1-4 start was awful, but after the first four weeks of this season we were hoping for 1-4. And we got it. :) For at least one week, Packer fans can be at peace. We got some turnovers, the offense played well, we got some defensive scores and we didn't get into trouble turning the ball over. Maybe we can finish 12-4...! Hope springs eternal. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Sleep cycle

2005-10-08T23:46:00.000-05:00

I think that I may be the unwitting subject of an experiment measuring a person's ability to adapt to new and varying sleep cycles. Since the deployment began, I went from a normal, awake-in-the-day-asleep-at-night schedule to a reverse cycle night shift. After the night shift, I went to the extreme graveyard shift. After that, I went back to a little more normal battle rhythm, working in the TOC in the afternoon and evening. Then I went to the night shift again and now I'm back to working the "2nd shift" block of time -- right where I want to be. :)

There are plenty of good reasons to shift schedules -- usually to cover down when someone goes on R&R leave. As I've written earlier, we did a good job of ensuring that everyone who was eligible got to take R&R leave. But I am beginning to suspect that all of this, including the deployment itself, is simply an elaborate ruse to test my body's response to multiple alterations in circadian rhythm.

And so, for the past two nights I have slept for only three hours each as I attempt to get my sleep cycle a little more normal. No issues, really -- I should be good to go by tomorrow. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Thank you!

2005-10-08T10:05:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the kind words, the encouragement and the support that has been shown in the last couple days on the blog. We've had a lot of new faces around here since they put that article online with Foxnews and it's been so neat to hear from so many different people! Phil and I have really enjoyed it. The emails have been especially wonderful to read! So thank you again. We definitely appreciate it!

There isn't too much on the plate for me this weekend. It's definitely started getting colder, which is so nice!! Fall is in the air! I was thinking of maybe going for a walk this morning. The Badgers play Northwestern at 11:00 am so perhaps I will tune into that too (if it's televised here)! I've had a new interest in Badger football because my little sister made the UW Madison marching band this year!! She's always been extremely talented musically (she plays the oboe). I'm so impressed with her because she just decided this summer that she wanted to learn how to play the trumpet so that she could try out for marching band… and she made it! So, I keep hoping they'll pan across the band and I'll see her one of these times. It seems for some reason that most people are more interested in the football game than the marching band, though… weird. :)

I got a phone call from Phil last night around 12:30. I was already asleep so I had to take a moment to figure out what was going on. :) It sounds like his shift schedule has changed again. I think he said that it was now going to be from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Or I could be completely making that up. I was pretty tired when we were talking last night. :) I'm sure that he'll be able to tell about his work hours more accurately than me!!

Becky :)

One more chance

2005-10-06T16:09:00.000-05:00

I gave myself one more chance this past week to prove to myself that I was disciplined enough to set my alarm and go to the gym to do PT before assuming duty in the TOC. My alarm dutifully rang at the designated time -- two and a half hours before I was to assume duty. And, in a very disciplined manner, I reached over, turned it off and went back to sleep for another hour and a half. Doh.

And so, I have decided to work out after work instead of before work. I finish in the TOC, give the incoming Battle CPT his changeover brief and then head over to the gym. After the gym, I jump in the shower, put DCUs back on and then grab breakfast in the chow hall before going to bed.

After PT this morning, I enjoyed a tasty dinner of scrambled eggs (made fresh, not the just-add-water variety), toast and canned peach slices. My belly full, I proceeded back to my room to hit the sack.

This afternoon, I woke up and got ready for the day quickly because I wanted to head over to the S1 shop to get a brief from my guys before assuming duty in the TOC. I sent a couple of emails and then headed over to the DFAC to enjoy a tasty breakfast of salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, corn and ice cream. Mmm... ice cream...

In other news, the shaggy mop on top of my head is growing unruly, but, fortunately for me, my barber just got back from R&R leave. One of the soldiers in the S3 shop is a talented barber who offers his services to soldiers in the Battalion. Hopefully he has some spare time in the near future because my long flowing locks are due. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Welcome new readers

2005-10-05T18:19:00.000-05:00

Welcome to all new visitors who found us via the recent article on Foxnews.com. Feel free to stop by and visit anytime!

By way of introduction, Becky and I started this blog when I first deployed to Kuwait back in January and have maintained it throughout the duration of our Iraq deployment. We blog anonymously, choosing not to give out our last name, unit, or duty station. Giving out personal information on the Internet opens the door to potential risk, and we chose to avoid that by blogging anonymously.

This blog started out as a means to keep family and friends up to speed on what I have been up to here in Iraq without cluttering up inboxes with unwanted mass emails. Family and friends can visit as rarely or as frequently as they choose. However, it has turned into what I view as our own little piece of the information war. The constant deluge of bad press can be somewhat overwhelming at times, and I enjoyed reading soldier blogs before I deployed to get a more balanced perspective on things. I have found myself with a medium through which I can make some small impact on the larger information war, which is arguably more strategically decisive than the shooting war going on here.

And so, again, welcome. Poke around as you like and feel free to post a comment or email us at our gmail account found in the right hand margin.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

On blogging

2005-10-04T22:31:00.000-05:00

In this war, the democratization of information dissemination has produced an unprecedented degree of information flow from the front lines to the home front. Military leaders know this and, understandably, some are quite apprehensive. Anxiety about the unknown is a common and forgivable component of human nature.

In the comments section to my previous post, Wayne's Mom provided a hyperlink to a post of a blog that seems to have been shut down at the gentle request of the soldier's Battalion Commander.

UPDATE -- I reread the post and the soldier voluntarily shut it down after speaking with his boss. The Battalion Commander didn't tell him to shut it down. Sorry...

Read the post and judge for yourself whether this blogger wrote something inappropriate. Keep in mind that the blogger appears to have a great attitude and support his Commander's decision even though he probably wishes it went the other way. Also keep in mind that there may be more to the story than we know and that it may not be appropriate to jump to conclusions.

Considering the totality of circumstances, ask yourself the following questions:
(1) Did the blogger reveal sensitive information as to any current or future operation? Sensitive information is anything that could aid the enemy in determining time, location or concept of the specific operation and thereby reduce the mission's likelihood of success.
(2) Did the blogger reveal any overly specific information about past operations that the enemy could use to his advantage in the future?
(3) Did the blogger reveal any information about how his unit operates that the enemy would not have otherwise learned or known that would assist him in identifying, adapting to and possibly defeating these tactics in the future?
(4) Did the blogger give any information that the enemy would not have otherwise learned as to the success or failure of the attack?
(5) Did the blogger give any information that the enemy would not have otherwise learned regarding any enemy tactics, techniques or procedures that his unit finds challenging or is having difficulty countering?
(6) Did the blogger write anything derogatory or disrespectful to any member of his chain of command?
(7) Did the blogger divulge any classified information?
(8) Did the blogger violate any direct or indirect instructions from his chain of command?
(9) Did the blogger violate the Prime Directive of Milblogging? The Prime Directive of Milblogging (derived from something that Greyhawk wrote some time ago and slightly expounded upon by Phil) is that, when posting, you must write as if the enemy, the Chief of Staff and your mother will all read it.

This list of questions is not all encompassing, and I have no metric as to how many "yes" answers you get before a post is bad. It obviously depends on the post. A "yes" in Question #1 is probably a little more severe than a "yes" in Question #4. Question #9 is broad in nature and is intended to make the soldier blogger think before each post about any unintended second or third order effects.

The reason that I bring this topic up is because, in my brief Army experience, I have either directly observed first-hand or read secondhand accounts of various units' chains of command responding with seemingly inordinate apprehension to the topic of information dissemination. It could be phones, it could be email or it could be blogging.

The first fear that I have observed is that honesty by the soldier will upset families back home. While I agree that it is inappropriate to post graphic descriptions of carnage and death, it is just as wrong (or worse) to whitewash things. Besides, graphic descriptions of carnage and death would likely violate Question #9, depending on your mother's tastes. :) It is misleading to imply that life here is not dangerous. Transparency is key to the credibility of a military blogger, and it would be misleading never to write about IEDs or indirect fire because that implies that those things never happen. Readers look to soldier bloggers for the real story, not the constant dripping of defeatism from the mainstream media but also not a line of propaganda. I think that the public generally trusts soldier bloggers and it would be a breach of that trust to present a picture that is even the slightest bit misleading. If family members don't want to read about some of the less pleasant aspects of a deployment, they are free to choose which blogs they would like to read and which blogs to skip.

The second fear that I have observed is that the enemy is reading our blogs and using what we write against us. This is legitimate and is the source for several of the questions above. I take it seriously, although I acknowledge that it is debatable whether or not that fear is particularly rational. The first reason that this fear might not be rational is that Becky and I use a particular website tracking service that, among other things, tracks every IP address that accesses the web page back to its country of origin. To my knowledge, not one IP address from Iraq has accessed this blog. [Note: When I access from the office or MWR, it shows up as a U.S. IP address because of our satellite Internet service. Therefore, it is theoretically possible that insurgents are accessing my blog from Army Internet systems, in which case we have a lot more to worry about than anything he could glean from this blog. It is also possible and Al Qaeda cells in the United States are accessing this blog and then emailing information to insurgents in Iraq.] The second reason that this fear might be irrational is that I have done several Google searches using various key words such as cities from the region or local FOBs, and they don't ever seem to lead to our blog. This could just mean that I don't know how to effectively use search engines to find what I'm looking for... :)

This apprehension or anxiety about the democratization of information dissemination is real. I have personally observed it in my unit and other units. My unit's leadership, thus far, has fortunately not taken this anxiety to any rash extremes. That is not the case with every unit. In the interest of full disclosure, members of my chain of command know about this blog and sometimes read it, so I have to tap dance around this issue slightly. Leaders are people too and it is theoretically possible that someone might read this and attribute my vague generalizations to a specific person or event – that is only the case to the extent that it has to be in order for some of my statements to be truthful (i.e. If I say that I have personally observed something, then obviously I have some specific case to reference otherwise I can't back up the statement).

The solution, in my mind, is to embrace the democratization of information dissemination but regulate it. Allow soldiers to keep blogs but mandate that they give their supervisor the URL. The chain of command can then periodically visit the blog to make sure that nothing objectionable slips in. Sometimes a blogger, in the eagerness to tell his or her stories (especially when the stories are good or involve successes against the enemy), can accidentally post some information that results in "yes" answers to some of the questions that I listed above. When that happens, the soldier's leadership can explain to him or her exactly what was objectionable in the blog and then take corrective action to alter the post, delete it or leave it be.

Incidentally, this is exactly the Army's policy. There was some hoopla recently when it came out that soldiers had to register their blogs. All that means is that soldier bloggers needed to let their leadership know that they have a blog and give them the URL.

Regular readers of this blog know that I rarely pontificate like this, which means that either it's been on my mind for a while or else it's been a dull night on the graveyard shift. In this case, it's the former. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Foxnews.com article

2005-10-04T22:05:00.000-05:00

Phil and I had been contacted over a month ago by a Foxnews.com reporter who was writing an article about military marriages. I think she was just getting ready to publish it when Hurricane Katrina came along, and the article probably went on the back burner after that. Well, I had a nice surprise tonight when I was browsing Foxnews.com... the article finally was published!!

I think she did a pretty good job quoting us. We corresponded via email, since it's hard for Phil to call the U.S., especially with odd work hours and different time zones. So she emailed us a whole bunch of questions and Phil and I each responded separately to them. She asked a lot of good, thorough questions, so I think she was doing a good job of trying to get our perspective on things. It's funny because the parts she quoted are such a small fraction of the info we actually gave her.

The one thing I do think is kind of amusing is how she characterizes our experience as sounding like a "cakewalk". Neither Phil nor I used the word cakewalk at all. :) But that's ok. We basically said it's hard, but you do what you have to do!

It's definitely kind of cool to see your name in a major news article like that! Cool and weird all at the same time. :)

Becky :)

Rocket attack

2005-10-02T19:59:00.000-05:00

We got a reminder the other day that we are still at war and that there are still people out there trying to kill us. I was already relieved by the day Battle CPT and was making small talk before going to the chow hall to eat breakfast and then go to bed when we heard a boom.

Then we heard more booms.

It appears that some rambunctious teenagers felt like launching bottle rockets to see them whiz and pop, but, unfortunately, all they could scrape up were 107mm rockets. Either that, or else insurgents were launching rockets at our FOB again.

I say "again" as if it happens all the time, but it really doesn't. It happens rarely enough to be notable but not so infrequently that we are not well-versed in what to do. I'd have to check to be exact, but I think that you could count on your fingers the number of times we've been attacked with indirect fire since we got here last February.

After the indirect fire attack, we sent soldiers to the impact sites to do crater analysis. From the crater, we can often determine information about the ordnance used as well as the direction from which it came. We take that data and use it to identify patterns in attacks and then use those patterns to mitigate future attacks. Fortunately for us, one of the rockets just planted itself into the ground without detonating, giving us a perfect back azimuth to trace back to the point of origin.

At the point of origin, we placed a large bowl of bird seed with a stick of dynamite at the bottom. As the insurgent pecks at the birdseed, we will light the long wick on the stick of dynamite and blow our speedy insurgent friend to Mars.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Daylight savings time

2005-09-30T18:18:00.000-05:00

Today at 0100 we set our clocks back an hour for daylight savings time here in Iraq. Over here, they "spring forward" and "fall back" the same way that we do back home, but it not on the same days. Everybody got an extra hour of sleep tonight.

Except, that is, for the folks on the night shift, who got an extra hour of duty. Raar! It all balances out, though, because we got an hour less duty back in April when we changed our clocks the first time.

I'm thankful for the extra hour of work tonight because I got another pile of end of tour awards to sift through. Some of them went quickly because it was the second time around. If they made the corrections from the first time, I blessed off on it and moved on to the next one. Others, however, did not go as quickly, and I still have a stack of awards to get to once I am finished with this little break.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Common sense, PLEASE!!!

2005-09-29T22:33:00.000-05:00

Becky here...

I don't usually get involved in the debate of things like this. I have plenty of opinions about the way our world is going, but I'll leave the debate up to others. However, I am excessively irked about something today. As Phil would say, this issue has crossed over into my lane. :) I have a husband over in Iraq who this could affect. I have a husband who has lots of good men who are serving with him who this could affect. This is definitely in my lane.

The news has been reporting that this judge ruled in favor of the ACLU to release more photos from Abu Ghraib. Every time I start thinking about this I can literally feel my face get all hot and my stomach turn. I was actually yelling at my T.V. tonight (or maybe strongly reprimanding is more accurate). :) It angers me SO much because you know this is going to whip extremists up into a frenzy and we will see more violence against our soldiers because of it.

What is wrong with the ACLU (and this judge)? How can they be so completely dense that they would care more about the principle of releasing pictures that "we have a right to see" than they do of the safety of our soldiers? I am really steamed about this. Where is the common sense?

He based his decision on the Freedom of Information Act. I don't have much knowledge of the details of this act, but it seems like that would be completely beside the point if our soldiers are going to be put in any more danger than they are already in. There is absolutely no doubt that extremists would have more motivation to carry out attacks if these pictures start floating around (again, by the way... we saw enough of them the first time to get the gist of what happened!!!).

So, if the judge is ordering these pictures to be released based on the Freedom of Information Act, is he right in how he's interpreting it? Is he right in ordering them to be released? Does he have to do it just based on the principle of it without any thought to common sense? Here is what he says…

My task is not to defer to our worst fears, but to interpret and apply the law, in this case, the Freedom of Information Act, which advances values important to our society, transparency and accountability in government.

I say…

The "values important to our society"? We must protect and support, in every way possible, the ones who are fighting to protect us … those who enable us to even hold those values.

As for "transparency"? I think we had enough transparency to last us quite a while when we saw the first batch of photos. What good will come of seeing any more of them? I believe the appropriate phrase is "beating a dead horse".

And "accountability in government"? Where is our accountability to the men and women who put their lives on the line? We (the government, the courts, individuals, etc.) must do everything possible from back home to ensure their victory and survival in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The judge says that terrorists "do not need pretexts for their barbarism". He is a foolish and naïve man if he thinks that following through with this decision will not lead to greater violence against our troops. I cannot understand the lack of common sense.

Becky :)

Lines between crime and the insurgency

2005-09-29T16:20:00.000-05:00

I wrote a little while ago about how sometimes the lines between criminal behavior and insurgent behavior can blur. We got an example of that recently.

We got a report from the Iraqi Army that AIF had stolen two cranes from civilians in one of our cities. The IA pursued them and eventually caught up with them, finding the cranes abandoned near a small village.

This was semi-notable to use because at the time we were in the process of using civilian contractors to emplace barriers at polling sites in preparation for the referendum. It was possible, we theorized, that these cranes were specifically targeted to hamper that effort.

After finding the cranes and speaking with the villagers in the town, the IA learned that the people who stole the cranes were from another nearby town. We had since joined them and, since we had plenty of combat power available, decided to poke around in the town.

Long story short, we conducted a hasty cordon and search of these villages and found two large heavy machine guns there. The bad guys probably stole the cranes in order to use them to unearth and move the machine guns.

I wasn't in the TOC when all of this happened. By the time I assumed duty, all of the activity was wrapping up. That's why I'm a little vague on the details -- I wasn't there when everything was happening. Of course, even if I had been there I would still be just as vague. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Keeping busy

2005-09-28T07:55:00.000-05:00

Lately I have been a little busier than normal at work. As I alluded to in my last post, the companies are beginning to submit their soldiers for end of tour awards. The deadline for the companies to turn in their awards submissions to my shop is October 1st, giving us ample time to proofread them all for errors, get corrections and then process them.

So far, we are finding mistakes in the majority of the submissions -- usually little grammar errors. I am noticing a trend -- it seems that the comma key on half of the keyboards in the battalion are on strike, judging by the absence of that punctuation mark.

I've also been spending my time working on various products for the upcoming Constitutional referendum. We have several polling sites in our area of responsibility and we track them based on location, security personnel present and barriers present.

In a clever operational security ploy, we have created several different tracking spreadsheets for our polling sites, and each product has slightly different data for each category -- a slightly different grid, a slightly different number of IA or IP present, and a slightly different number/type of barriers emplaced. That way, if insurgents hack into our computer systems, they won't be able to accurately assess our strengths and vulnerabilities because they won't know which data to trust. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Staying busy

2005-09-26T18:14:00.000-05:00

Light blogging today and possibly for the next few days, depending on how much progress I make on the pile of end of tour awards sitting on my desk. I have spent pretty much all night tonight going through them, and I got to the point where I needed to either take a break or stab myself. I elected to take a break. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Learning the ropes

2005-09-24T17:36:00.000-05:00

I got a question from a reader about how much time we take to teach replacements the ropes. The short answer is plenty. But since brevity has never been a strong suit of mine, here is a more involved answer. :)

When it comes to individual replacements, there isn't a lot that the Battalion itself has to do. New soldiers have a platoon full of people who have been around the block a few times and it is in their interest to make sure that the new guy knows what he is doing.

When it comes to units changing out, there is a robust relief in place period that consisted of a thorough orientation of everything that the departing unit knows and does. It starts with right seat rides, where the old unit and the new unit conduct patrols together, with the old unit taking the lead in terms of planning and execution.

After right seat rides are complete, we transition to left seat rides, which are the same except that the new unit now takes the lead in things.

The relief in place (RIP) process encompasses all aspects of task force operations. The line companies and line platoons do their RS/LS ride phases and so do the staff sections. In our experience, if anything, we erred on the side of caution and made RIP longer than it needed to be. But erring on the side of caution isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Hope this helps...

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Leave slots

2005-09-23T18:00:00.000-05:00

This past week we got our R&R leave slots for the month of October. I am usually a popular fellow around this time, but sadly this might be the last month that I will be the most popular staff captain in town because, as of October 29th, every eligible soldier will have taken leave.

At the beginning of the deployment, I heard a lot of skeptical remarks from soldiers as to whether or not everybody would get to go home on leave. From the beginning, we wanted to be completely done with leave by the time November rolled around, and it looks like we are going to meet that goal.

In other news, the night shift has been as dull as ever, although I had a little bit of activity the other night when the boss came in early to roll out at around 0300 to observe an Iraqi Army operation. It was a brigade-level operation taking place just outside our area of operations to root out some bad guys.

Tonight has been a quiet night so far, and hopefully it remains that way because AFN is televising the Army-Iowa State game at 0400. I don't want to miss that. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Continuity books

2005-09-21T18:14:00.000-05:00

Recently we hosted leadership from the unit that will eventually replace us. Last year, before we deployed, we sent some of our key leaders over to Iraq for a few days to see how the current units did business in order to help us in our planning process for our deployment.

And now, we are experiencing the same thing from the opposite perspecive. We have an important role in this process -- to ensure that the soldiers who relieve us are as prepared as possible to take over. This is a time for us to think about some of the questions we had when we first deployed and then answer them for the next unit.

In the spirit of setting up the next unit for success, I updated the latest installment of my S1 continuity book about a week ago. It describes everything that we do in the S1 shop, explaining the similarities and differences between garrison S1 operations and deployed S1 operations. Some things are the same and some things are different. Obviously, some things are harder, but some things are actually easier when deployed.

For example, evaluations are easier to do while deployed because we digitally send all evaluations to DA (Department of the Army -- Human Resources Command). Back at home station, we mail evaluations the old fashioned way, which takes longer. Over here, since the mail might not be reliable, we are allowed to scan the documents and then email them.

In fact, any administrative submission that needs to go outside the battalion for approval is easier over here because we scan and digitally send everything. We don't have to worry about hand carrying anything because it's so much easier to instantaneously send stuff over email. Plus, it isn't right to assume risk on potentially dangerous roads to hand carry a piece of paper that we can just as easily send electronically.

Anyway, my continuity book will go to some Battalion S1 somewhere and hopefully he or she will find it useful. I know that I found the products from the unit that we replaced to be helpful.

In other news, things have been fairly quiet here. The last several nights have been blissfully free of activity, although the only nights that I care about are Saturday night and Sunday night. Those are the nights that AFN televises College and NFL games. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Spineless terrorists

2005-09-19T17:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning, we sent a patrol down to the city of Narwan to attend their weekly city council meeting. Narwan is the site of a VBIED strike on September 17th that killed over 30 civilians. It was a terrorist attack, cut and dried -- no inkling of insurgency to be found.

The distinction between a terrorist attack and an insurgent attack, of course, lies in who the attack is directed against. Like I've said before, there are a lot of bad guys out there. Some bad guys are insurgents, some bad guys are terrorists, and some bad guys are common criminals. Sometimes the lines blur.

Insurgents, like some of the former regime bubbas, attack Coalition Forces and Iraqi Security Forces. The vast majority of IEDs that target us fall into the "insurgent activity" category. The majority of the bad guys we have been dealing with in our area of operations, in my estimation, are insurgents. We generally haven't seen a lot of attacks specifically targeting civilians.

These guys, on the other hand, were terrorists through and through. The victims were civilians at the marketplace who served no military or occupational function whatsoever. There were no Iraqi Security Forces or Coalition Forces anywhere near the site of the VBIED strike -- just civilians. Shiite civilians, to be specific.

I don't necessarily harbor any personal angst against insurgents. I don't take it personally if they want to attack soldiers. Terrorists, on the other hand, I have a problem with. Terrorists are cowards who kill innocent, defenseless civilians because they are too spineless to attack us. There is nothing honorable about preying upon the weak.

In the words of Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

CBIED

2005-09-17T17:43:00.000-05:00

I heard a story today about a patrol that came upon a cow behaving suspiciously by the side of the road. On further examination, they discovered that the cow was chewing on PE-4 (plastic explosives) with blasting caps stuck into it. Given that the cow was still chewing and hadn't gotten its head blown off, I surmised that it hadn't chomped down hard on any of the blasting caps.

I heard this story from the day Battle Captain when I came on duty today. It didn't happen in our area of operations and I haven't found any corroborative evidence (although I haven't looked for any either).

It is unknown at this time whether it was an AIF cow attempting to emplace an IED but got distracted by its tasty appearance or if it was an innocent bystander who happened upon the explosives and was hungry. Or maybe it was a heroic cow bravely placing himself in harm's way to disarm the IED. A more sinister theory would be that AIF were intentionally feeding PE-4 to the cow in the hopes of creating a cow-borne IED (CBIED). It is also possible that this was a highly-trained, bomb sniffing cow, an asset that could greatly assist us in our continuing struggle against IEDs. Being from Wisconsin and therefore sympathetic to the bovine species, I lean towards the hero cow scenario as opposed to the villain cow scenario. Or, at the very worst, the victim cow scenario.

We are currently looking into the possibility of expanding this idea to donkeys and goats. If we can ally ourselves with the Iraqi livestock, the enemy's ability to move and act unnoticed will be greatly diminished. Donkeys and goats are all over the place, and with them on our side we'd have eyes everywhere.

At this point, I cannot comment on the location of the cow, but can only presume that it is being debriefed in a secure location. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Happy Birthday to Phil!!

2005-09-16T09:27:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let you all know that today is Phil's birthday!!! He's caught back up to me and we're the same age again. :) If you get a chance, wish him a happy day!

I hope you have a fabulous day, Phil, and make sure to be safe and drink lots of water. ;) I love you!!!

Becky :)

Temporary schedule shift

2005-09-16T06:02:00.000-05:00

I have been shamming hard all day today because we are temporarily moving from three Battle Captains to two. My previous shift of duty in the TOC went from 1400-2200 daily. Now I am working from 1800-0600 -- back on the night shift again.

In a sense, the move from eight hour shifts back to 12 hour shifts will be nice because I will be working less. Once I am done in the TOC, I will do PT, take a shower and then hit the sack. Before, I would work in my S1 shop all day before assuming duty and sometimes after my shift as well.

I've been shamming today because I got off duty yesterday at 2200 and don't assume duty until 1800 this evening. I tried my best to sleep in, and managed to stay in bed until 1100. But at 1100 I started to go a little crazy and decided that I had to get up. I was hoping to sleep as much as possible in the daytime in order to minimize the disruption in my sleep cycle as it transitions back to the nocturnal. But it will probably take a couple of days to get back to my new unnatural sleep cycle.

Today will be an especially long day for me because, after working all night, I won't be able to go to bed right away because Saturday is staff meeting day. Hooray for staff meetings! :)

This schedule shift is also a good thing because, in the wee hours of the night, I will have plenty of time to sift through the mountain of end of tour awards that will be coming my way. Companies have until October 1st to submit them to my shop, and we get to proof every submission. Yay. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Baiting first responders

2005-09-15T02:14:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, our guys foiled a fairly well planned attack that the bad guys threw at us.

It is sometimes hard to discern the specific goal of an attack because there are many different shades of bad guy here. There are the hardened, committed terrorists who kill because that is what they do. There are the former regime bubbas who want to return to power but don't necessarily want to destroy the country in the process. There are common criminals, and there are also tribal squabbles. The mere occurrence of an attack like a drive-by shooting doesn't necessarily tell us which group is responsible or what they intended to accomplish.

For example, a while back we investigated reports of some civilian workers getting murdered. These guys were working on a Coalition-funded road repair project. Did these guys get killed because insurgents wanted to punish them for working with the coalition and, at the same time, send a message to future workers? Were they the simple victims of crime? Or were they all members of the same tribe killed by members of a rival tribe (who, coincidentally, were competing for the same labor contract)? Sometimes the answer is a combination of things.

The attack I referenced at the top of the post went down as follows: bad guys with weapons drove up to an Iraqi Army officer's house and sprayed it with bullets and RPG fire. No big surprises here -- this sort of thing has happened before and does not necessarily indicate that insurgents are responsible. It could be insurgents targeting a member of the Iraqi Army or it could be a tribal dispute.

When we got the call for help, we sent our QRF to assist with a second platoon following behind to reinforce if necessary. You don't want to send too small an element to help -- it is generally better to have too much firepower than not enough.

As our guys made their way to the IA soldier's house, we received a report of a suspiciously located car parked along the route that our guys had to take to get there. We passed the word, but learned that the platoon had already bypassed the vehicle. We then informed the follow-on platoon to treat the vehicle as a possible VBIED (vehicle-borne IED). It was in the perfect place to target first responders and we weren't going to take any chances.

When our guys got there, they found Iraqi Army soldiers already present who were adamant in their insistence that it was a VBIED. To be safe, we called up Brigade and requested EOD to come out and investigate. I'm sure that EOD was cursing my name for calling them out in the middle of the night. :)

What followed was a mildly amusing (but not so funny at the time) comedy of errors involving EOD driving right past the designated linkup point and then breaking down (we sent out recovery assets to drag the broken vehicle to FOB Gabe and have our mechanics get to work on it), but any frustration was validated when EOD got to the scene of the possible VBIED and blew open the trunk using a charge emplaced by their cute little EOD robot. The charge blew open the trunk and scattered several artillery rounds from the trunk onto the road -- as many as 5-6 were in there. Bottom line, it was clearly a VBIED and it would have made one heck of a big boom if it had gone off.

So why didn't it go off? Because our guys and the Iraqis identified it right away, set a proper cordon, and never gave a lucrative target. The triggerman was probably hoping an IA truck with 15 people crammed inside would drive past and bugged out when the IA spotted it.

As everone knows by reading the news, this tactic has worked for insurgents in the past -- attack something not necessarily intending to do much damage but then setting an IED or VBIED along the route that first responders will take. We vary our routes in order to reduce the effectiveness of this tactic, but the IA is still catching on to the fact that you can't blindly rush out the gate in response to an attack. You have to calm down, take a minute to think, make a quick plan and then go.

The IA must be getting at least a little better, though, because they did the right thing this time. Hopefully we see this trend continue.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Slow day for us, not so slow for others

2005-09-14T13:25:00.000-05:00

Today was a really slow day for us, which might be surprising considering all of the activity that happened in other parts of the country.

In fact there wasn't anything "sticky-worthy" that happened in our area of operations all day. Whenever anything happens, we put a colored sticky on the map with a brief description (IED, small arms fire, etc.). The map was sticky-free when I assumed duty and it was sticky-free when I got relieved. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Burning synagogues in Gaza

2005-09-13T01:56:00.000-05:00

I'm sure that this is old news to everyone, given the extensive coverage in the major print and television media of the lawlessness and looting in the Gaza strip following the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

I haven't watched any TV today, but can only presume that the airwaves and screens are chock full of deserved condemnation the mobs of Palestinian thugs rampaging through the former Israeli settlements burning Synagogues and desecrating Jewish religious sites.

Likewise, be sure to read next week's Newsweek coverage that will undoubtedly spark violent riots in Israel and Jewish communities in the United States.

Several bloggers have already commented on this, and Instapundit has links to a few of them. Because of our temperamental network here, I haven't been able to access the links, but I suspect that normal folks won't have any trouble.

This topic really fires me up. In the interest of finding out more, I checked the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online, Foxnews, and MSNBC (CNN didn't want to load for some reason). On the MJS online, I didn't find anything prominently displayed. On Foxnews there was the hyperlink "Israel Completes Gaza Pullout" that led to an article with the headline "Palestinians Celebrate Freedom in Gaza." The article comes from the Associated Press but doesn't mention anywhere the religious desecration and makes only passing mention of the looting. MSNBC linked to a better AP article here, one that describes the looting and violence against synagogues.

I also did a Google search and found the following articles:

From the Telegraph, filed on 13SEP05 (today): "Synagogues burn as Palestinians retake Gaza"
From Ynetnews, posted 12SEP05 (yesterday): "Hamas leader prays in Gaza synagogue"

The Telegraph article takes the angle that rioting Palestinians desecrating Jewish religious sites is due to their uncontrollable joy and pent up anger at Israeli oppression:

Within minutes of the Israel army's pre-dawn withdrawal from Gaza, a markedly less orderly horde of Palestinians swarmed over the ruins of the settlements.

The skies were yet to be lit by the rising sun when the first flames from burning synagogues could be seen, set alight by Palestinians incensed by years when the Israeli army ruthlessly defended the settlements. But the only explosions over Gaza yesterday came from fireworks lit in celebration by the crowds on a day of unprecedented Palestinian celebration.

In the interest of balanced coverage, the Telegraph provides their version of equal time to the Israeli point of view:

There was some grumbling from senior Israeli government figures at what they described as desecration, but in the eyes of the Palestinian crowds it was just payback for years of Israeli occupation.

Squared away, keep up the good work guys.

In a vote of confidence for those who would like to see an independent Palestinian state (other than Jordan), here is this pearl:

The synagogues were the first objects of attention for the crowds. The Israeli authorities had forlornly attached signs saying "Holy Sites" in Arabic to try to protect the 26 places of Jewish worship. But this was not enough to stop the angry crowds who surged into the buildings, ripping out light fittings, window frames and anything of value. The departing Israelis had already removed everything of religious significance.

"The Palestinian Authority cannot impose its will on the people,"said one of the crowd, Abu Mustafa, as the Neve Dekalim synagogue was sacked. "The people want to destroy everything linked with the occupation."

So the Palestinian Authority cannot impose its will on the Palestinian people. That's a relief; we don't want governments imposing their will on people. Especially when that will consists of outlandish, irresponsible demands like "Don't strap a suicide vest on yourself and murder Israeli civilians" or "Don't harbor terrorists. Or be one. Really, we're serious." And I'm sure that the Palestinian Authority will be able to enforce the ridiculous demands of the international community like, "Don't be a staging area for an Egyptian invasion of Israel... again."

Ynetnews gives the Hamas side of the story:

Hours after thousands of Palestinians desecrated synagogues in Gaza, setting them on fire and taking buildings apart by hand, members of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, headed by senior Hamas chief Mahmoud Zahar, arrived at the synagogue in Kfar Darom and held a Muslim prayer session at the site.

Ahmad Jabari, another senior figure in Hamas, said that Hamas would continue to attack Israel. “The withdrawal proves that the resistance is the only legitimate weapon. We will strike at any hand that reaches for our weapons,” said Jabari.

And this...

“The jihad and the resistance are the only ways to liberate our homeland, not negotiations and agreements,” said Jabari. The Hamas leader ruled out the possibility that Hamas members would join Palestinian security forces, saying, “we will never be part of that corrupt Authority,” before waving his gun.

For the record, the "resistance" had nothing to do with this withdrawal. The Israeli government unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, it was not forced out. It was probably the right thing to do, too. It forces the Palestinian Authority to prove that it can assert control and maintain order -- i.e. that it deserves to exist (a concession that far too many Palestinians still refuse to grant not only to the Israeli government but to the people too).

We'll see how this story plays out. Imagine, though, if the U.S. Army burned down 26 mosques in Iraq. Do you think that I would have to do a Google search to find some coverage about it or read about it first in a blog?

As I said before, this story fires me up. Depending on how much free time I have (or original thought to contribute), I might write more about this.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

So what has Becky been up to?

2005-09-12T21:52:00.000-05:00

Funny you should ask. :)

I had a very nice quiet weekend. I went to a baby shower on Saturday then I headed over to church to help serve and clean-up for a wedding reception. I got a phone call from Phil around 2:00 am on Sunday so we got to chat for a while, which is always nice. Of course I was pretty groggy at first (like most people are when woken up at 2 am), but I came to after a while. :) I'm sure it's very amusing for Phil to talk to a half asleep person. :)

One thing I finally got started on is organizing all my pictures that I've taken over the years. I've got about 18 years of pictures that I've been wanting to do something with. My prior method of organization was to keep them all in the envelopes they came in from the store and then keep those envelopes in a big cardboard box. :)

But earlier this spring I went to a Creative Memories show and bought a big, photo-safe photo organizing box that can hold up to 2400 pictures. So I got started with that on Sunday. I've been numbering the negatives to correspond with the pictures in case I ever want reprints. I'm probably going to have to get another one of those boxes because I've just about gotten this one filled up and I've only gotten to our wedding pictures! Then I think my next step will be to venture into the crazy world of scrapbooking.

Speaking of pictures, I've been procrastinating on something else for almost a year now. Last November, before Phil deployed, we went to get some professional pictures taken by a photographer. It was really cool because we did some inside pictures, then we headed out to the lake nearby and did some outside shots. Phil was such a great sport with it all. It was definitely my idea to go do this... I don't think going and getting pictures taken would have been the first thing on his list before deploying. :)

Anyway, they turned out so nice! But I've procrastinated for so long in ordering the silly things. Well, Saturday I sat down and I think I've finally figured out what I'd like to order. I can't wait to actually get some of the photos so I can get them framed and get them in albums!

There's not a whole lot on the agenda for me this week. I'm helping with our Awana program (the kids program at church) again this year. Phil and I were both leaders a couple years ago, last year I was a director, and this year I am a secretary. I think I'm going to like it this year because I definitely enjoy the administrative end of things! Our first "real" Awana club is this Wednesday, so we'll see how everything goes. There are tons of kids (last year I think we had around 150) and it's the beginning of the year, so things are going to be hectic!

Lastly, I figure it's been an awfully long while since you've seen a good picture of the kitty. I wouldn't want anyone to forget how cute he is, so here is a picture I took recently. :)

Becky :)

Last night

2005-09-12T13:56:00.000-05:00

I stayed up until about 0330 this morning to watch the Packer game last night. I watched it live, televised on AFN Sports. Egad. Although I will say that, in my humble opinion, the final score didn't tell the whole story of the game. In actuality, the game was much, much worse than the 17-3 final score implies. In a word, yikes.

It wasn't a great day for the NFC Central. The only team to come out with a win was Detroit by virtue of beating the Packers. I was really surprised when Tampa Bay beat the Vikings.

In other, non-football related news, today was a quiet day. We had a spike in IED activity along one of the routes in our AO in the last couple of weeks but they haven't been a particularly grave threat because we have gotten very good at spotting them over the last eight months. Most of them we spotted prior to detonation and got the EOD bubbas out there to do their magic.

I also encountered a spike this past week in goody-package activity, being on the receiving end of three care packages in a span of just a few days. I should schedule birthdays more often... :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Sunday morning

2005-09-11T00:17:00.000-05:00

Today might be a long day for me. It started out earlier than normal because I had to set my alarm for 0600 in order to be at a 0700 9/11 remembrance ceremony that my battalion held this morning.

The ceremony was brief and featured some remarks by the Commander followed by a few award presentations. We presented an Army Commendation Medal with Valor device to a soldier and two Combat Medical Badges to a couple of our medics.

The ARCOM was for something that happened a few months ago, back in May. One of our companies was conducting an early-morning raid and, as they were clearing the objective, an insurgent opened fire with an AK-47, spraying wildly into a room full of people. He didn't hit a kid, right in the abdomen, who didn't make it. Our guys returned fire, wounding the insurgent, and he tried to escape in the thick palm groves surrounding the house. We treated the kid with the gunshot wound, but he didn't survive.

Sunday morning is usually a day for me to sleep in because Sunday services in the chapel are in the evening. So when I got up early today, I told myself that I would take a nap after the ceremony. As expected, however, I'm awake and don't think that I'll be able to fall asleep. But I have a feeling that I will be tired tomorrow because the AFN schedule shows the Packer game playing at midnight. Maybe I'll make Mondays my sleep in day for the next few months. :)

In other news, yesterday was a tough day for the Big Ten -- Michigan, Iowa and Ohio State all lost. Hopefully the Packers give us something to cheer about tomorrow. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Spontaneous digital incineration

2005-09-08T13:42:00.000-05:00

Today was a long day but I am strangely motivated to stay up and work right now (with a short break to blog, of course).

Yesterday I had an extremely disheartening episode when my computer spontaneously decided to digitally incinerate something that I had been working on for the past two weeks.

I got one of our computer guys to get onto my machine and attempt to retrieve the file, but to no avail. So this morning I set out to redo the project that I had been working on for two weeks.

Now, I wasn't working on it continuously for those two weeks. Rather I would spend an hour or so each day. So if I cram 6-8 hours of work into this every day, I should be caught up in a few days. We'll see how it goes. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Tamimi fight club

2005-09-07T03:49:00.000-05:00

Here at FOB Gabe, we contract our food out to civilian contractors for both food and labor. The company with the contract is the Tamimi corporation (or something to that effect). We eat Tamimi food prepared by Tamimi employees, mostly from India or Pakistan (I think).

The other day, we had to medically evacuate one of our Tamimi workers because he was knocked unconscious by another Tamimi guy. This guy was out cold -- he wouldn't even respond to smelling salts. Since we didn't particularly want to have this guy die or suffer permanent brain damage, we evacuated him to higher care.

We aren't sure what they were fighting about, so we naturally concluded that there is an underground Tamimi fight club here at FOB Gabe. None of the other workers have discussed this fight club with us, further solidifying its existence in our minds. Obviously they maintain a strict code of silence. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

More PAO guests

2005-09-06T13:14:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the break in posts. First, I didn't have anything to write about. Then, we spend a day or so in a blackout status because of a casualty in the Brigade (not our battalion). And then, when the blackout got lifted, I was on duty. This is the first chance I've had in the last two or three days to post.

So what exciting things do I have to talk about? Not much, really. We hosted an L.A. Times reporter last week, and he has moved on to bigger and better things. I looked him up to see if his article would be way out in left field (no pun intended), but nothing jumped out at me from his first article. The only thing that disappointed me is that he hardly wrote about us at all. The entire focus of the article was elsewhere except for a line thrown in here and there about Baqubah. I'll check tomorrow and see if he has anything else. Maybe our upbeat nature didn't give him much to write about. :)

Because we did so well with our L.A. Times friend, we got a reporter and photographer from the New York Times dropped in our lap. We actually didn't want them today (but do you ever really want the New York Times?) and so we pulled out the old "sorry, we don't have any patrols going to Warhorse for the rest of the day, so we'll just pick them up tomorrow" routine. Unfortunately, our friends from the other side of the FOB picked them up with one of their patrols and brought them here. Doh! :)

And so we are doing the PAO dance again. These guys seem a little more evil than the last reporter we had. We'll see how the visit goes. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Distaster relief and logistics

2005-09-03T01:46:00.000-05:00

For those of you feeling discouraged after watching too much cable news, there is a reality check on the logistics of disaster relief operations over at Countercolumn. Click on the link and just keep scrolling.

Some people seem to think that the government can pull massive relief efforts from thin air on a whim. They have no concept of logistics. Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Disaster blogging from New Orleans

2005-09-02T04:17:00.000-05:00

Check this out. My brother emailed me with a link to a guy who works for a New Orleans internet hosting company. Go to the Calendar view and read each day's post in chronological order. It is crazy down there.

I'm probably a day late and a dollar short with this link -- I imagine that plenty of the bigger blogs have already discovered this guy. But if you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth a look.

It is somewhat disheartening to read about the looting and rampant crime in the city. There is the temptation to think of us as civilized and above that sort of thing, but that is clearly not the case. And I'm not talking about stealing in order to survive -- that at least falls into the category of a moral dilemma. I'm talking about hauling a shopping cart full of Nike shoes or stealing a TV or breaking into an ATM.

It's like the Lord of the Flies -- take away the strictures of society and there is a strong urge to revert to barbarism. Some people resist that urge better than others, as this disaster clearly shows.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Hosting another reporter

2005-09-01T13:31:00.000-05:00

I am a little weary of Constitution-blogging, so I am going to take a break. :) I had a fairly busy day today because I found myself putting together some of the daily reports that are usually finished before I assume duty. No, nobody was slacking -- we've just been busy. Not anything exciting or interesting, mind you, just busy.

We are hosting a reporter from the L.A. Times right now, but I have done almost nothing in my capacity as the unit public affairs bubba. Since I am virtually tied down to the TOC, my role in situations like this is basically limited to finding out what I can about the reporter and then, after he or she leaves, looking for what he or she wrote. If there is something questionable or something that we don't like, then, if the boss so desires, I write a snippy letter to the editor. :)

Actually, I don't write snippy letters, I write nice, polite letters. Snippy or inflammatory language may seem like a good idea at the time but probably doesn't help in the long run. And something tells me that I'd end up on the losing end of any pissing contest, so I won't even try. :)

He seems like a decent fellow, but I will reserve judgment until after I read what he writes about us! :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Sharia experts

2005-08-31T02:12:00.000-05:00

From the comments section...

Must admit that the section stating that the Federal Court be made up of experts in Sharia law worries me. The Constitution requires that Iraqi law be both Islamic and respectful of human rights - what happens when the two idealogies clash? Such clashes in law are usually settled by an independent judiciary, but when that judiciary is composed of people who've devoted their lives to the study of Islam I think that would work in a pro-Islam bias into their decisions. Imagine for a moment that the US Constitution contained a proviso that Supreme Court judges be Christian theologians. Do you really think Roe vs Wade would have been decided the way it was if that was the case? Somehow I think not.

Some good questions. In my view, this provision is only worrisome if you have a particular caricature of a Sharia expert in mind. A Sharia expert is simply an expert in Islamic Law, and I maintain that you WANT an expert in Islamic law if Islamic law is indeed a basic source for Iraqi law.

I feel that it is important to emphasize again that an expert in Islamic law is not the same as an ultraconservative, strict adherent to the most its archaic interpretations. There are some Christians who interpret certain passages in I Corinthians to mean that women are not allowed to audibly speak in churches. But not every expert in Christian theology subscribes to that! In fact, I would argue that experts in Christian theology are likely the ones who DON'T subscribe to that interpretation because they have better knowledge of the passage's socio-historical context.

In the same sense, wouldn't it be better to have a wise, learned person with a sound knowledge of Islamic law who can identify and rebut in scholarly fashion when Islam is being used to justify something questionable?

Regarding what to do when Islamic law and human rights clash, I need to point out a subtle difference between what the comment implies and what the Constitution states. The Constitution doesn't say that Iraqi law must be both Islamic and respectful of human rights -- rather it says that Iraqi laws cannot (1) contradict the fixed principles of Islam, (2) contradict the principles of democracy and (3) contradict the Constitution. By forming the issue in the negative, not the affirmative, the Constitution protects against the concerns that the reader mentions.

Here is what I mean. If a law comes to the table that is consistent with Islam but contradictory to human rights, it will be unquestionably unconstitutional because it violates #(2) above.

As with my previous post, I submit that the only way the reader's fears are legitimate is if the Iraqi Supreme Federal Court blatantly disregards essential parts of the Constitution. And if that happens, we have problems! :)

The last bit about a hypothetical alternate history in terms of Roe versus Wade if the Supreme Court were full of Christian theologians is interesting. I would argue that if the Supreme Court justices in 1973 paid more attention to the Constitution and less to social activism, then Roe versus Wade may not have been decided the way it was! :) But that is neither here nor there. :)

I appreciate the alternative point of view -- let me know where I am off base. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Welcome JSOnline readers

2005-08-30T23:21:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to welcome anyone who has made their way here via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Weblog Guide! We noticed a little while back that they had linked to us. And now that they have redesigned their web page, it looks like we are getting a more substantial number of hits from there. Although I'm not sure how much longer we'll be featured there since they switch them out each month. Our fame might be quite short-lived! :)

Phil and I are both originally from the Lake Country area in Wisconsin so it's neat to be featured in the paper from back home! Thanks for stopping by and we hope that you enjoy browsing around here!

Becky :)

Constitutional concerns?

2005-08-30T14:25:00.000-05:00

A reader emailed me a link to this article from the National Review Online that discusses some concerns that the authors have regarding religious freedom and individual rights.

Bottom line up front, I think that these authors are doing something that I talked about in my previous article -- combing through the Constitution, finding some subtle nuance or sin of omission and then predicting disaster. Judge for yourselves.

First off, the article is a very well written, civil piece. I didn't detect any overt hostility to either our mission here in Iraq or to the Bush Administration. Nor does it patronize or belittle the writers of the Constitution. The writers did their homework and put together a good article. I will present an alternate point of view, contrary to their thesis, that hopefully addresses their concerns somewhat adequately.

The article insinuates that the Iraqi Constitution poses a threat to religious minorities and to individual rights. So here goes.

Our first concern is the new constitutional "guarantee" of "the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people" in article 2. This was not part of the delicate balance over the paramount religion-and-state issue struck in Iraq's interim constitution or Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), but it fulfills longstanding demands by Iraq's most influential religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Hussein Al-Sistani (see here).

The authors feel that this clause increases the public role of Islam and raises the prospect of the division of the Iraqi populace into factions. The Shia, as the dominant faction, may then impose their will on the minority Sunnis (not to mention Christian minorities), religiously-motivated violence then increases and general bad-ness ensues.

In response, let's refresh our memory with what Article 2 actually states (I'm using the Associated Press translation from 24 August, same as the article). I will also throw in Article 3 for good measure.

Article (2):
1st -- Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation:
(a) No law can be passed that contradicts the fixed principles of Islam.
(b) No law can be passed that contradicts the principles of democracy.
(c) No law can be passed that contradicts the rights and basic freedoms outlined in this constitution.
2nd -- This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people and the full religious rights for all individuals and the freedom of creed and religious practices.
Article (3):
Iraq is a multiethnic, multi-religious and multi-sect country. It is part of the Islamic world and its Arab people are part of the Arab nation.

I think that we are making something out of nothing if these articles make us think that the public role of Islam will increase to the point that it is out of control. Article 3 explicitly recognizes the multi-religious nature of the Iraqi population. Article 2 explicitly places limits on the role of Islam in legislation. Imposition of religion expressly contradicts the principles of democracy (not to mention Article 7, Article 14, and Article 35). I just don't see the nightmare scenario playing out based solely on Article 2. They would have to throw out half of the Constitution for events like that to occur, and if that happens we have a whole host of problems on our hand.

As far as the "guarantee" of the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people -- I consider that just a bone thrown to the Shiites. I can just hear the counterargument -- "What if 30 million Christians move to Iraq? That clause could be used to justify forced conversion of Christians to Islam in order to "guarantee" that the majority of the Iraqi people are Muslims!" Nope, not unless they selectively enforce the Constitution. And if they do that, like I said before, we have a lot of other problems to worry about.

The second objection or concern that the article discusses is more involved.

The second feature of particular concern is the dangerous ambiguity of article 39 dealing with the law of personal status, a legal category that includes marriage, divorce, custody, alimony, and inheritance matters. This particular provision — and the surrounding legal context — matter greatly, since it is precisely over these issues — whether in Iraq, or in the U.S. or anywhere else — that individuals most often come into contact with the law. Article 39 provides in full as follows: "Iraqis are free in the adherence to their personal status according to their own religion, sect, belief and choice, and that will be organized by law."

The fear here is that by failing to specify individual rights here, it opens the window to "group rights" assigned by religion or sect. The authors devote a significant amount of space to this topic (but never establish, strangely, how "group rights" can be organized by "belief" or "choice" but rather focus exclusively on group rights by religion or sect -- probably because it doesn't support their thesis).

The authors go on to say that this article opens the window for separate sets of rights for male Muslims, female Muslims, and non-Muslims. This will in turn produce increased strife based on inequality between groups and then violence.

Like before, here is Article 39:

Article (39):
Iraqis are free in their adherence to their personal status according to their own religion, sect, belief and choice, and that will be organized by law.

Seems like a pretty innocent statement to get so wound up about. Does this statement really lead us down the slippery slope to persecution for religious minorities and suffering for women? How will that happen while consistently following all of the provisions listed elsewhere in the Constitution? We will need to descend into some anti-logic vortex where the law of noncontradiction no longer applies. :)

But seriously, the authors make some pretty grave predictions. Read this paragraph:

Religious minorities as well as women will suffer under Iraq's proposed constitutional architecture. The provisions we've cited further reinforce the second-class status of Iraq's already beleaguered Christian community, now roughly three percent of the overall population and rapidly shrinking. Iraqi Chaldo-Assyrians (more than half now live in exile) have long made disproportionate contributions to the life of their ancestral homeland, thanks in large part to a network of splendid church schools open to Muslims and Christians alike. It is these institutions that help explain the disproportionate numbers of Iraqi Christians — especially women — in the ranks of Iraq's professional classes. And it is ironic to consider that some of Iraq's most prominent Muslim political leaders — notably Ayad Allawi and Ahmed Chalabi — gained their excellent command of English at Baghdad
College, a remarkable boys school run by American Jesuits that was shuttered
by Saddam in 1969.

Iraq's proposed constitution threatens to bring this ancient community one step closer to extinction.

One step closer to extinction? How will it do that without violating Article 135 ("This constitution guarantees the administrative, political, cultural, educational rights for the various ethnicities such as Turkomen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and the other components, and this is regulated through a law.")? I'm sorry, but the only way that I see things turning out the way that the authors fear is if the Iraqis pick and choose which parts of their Constitution to enforce. First the authors need to establish that there is a strong likelihood that Iraqis will selectively enforce their own Constitution. Then the authors need to establish that the Iraqis will enforce the parts that the authors say they will enforce and will disregard the parts that the authors imply that they will disregard. Once that happens, then they will have a little bit sounder foundation for their concerns.

I want to talk about one more thing that the authors discuss with worry: the presence of experts in Sharia (Islamic Law) on the Iraqi Supreme Federal Court. Here is Article 90:

Article (90):
1st -- The Supreme Federal Court is an independent judicial body, financially and administratively, its work and its duties will be defined by law.
2nd -- The Supreme Federal Court will be made up of a number of judges and experts in Sharia (Islamic Law) and law, whose number and manner of selection will be defined by a law that should be passed by two-thirds of the parliament members.

Is this really so bad? Given that Islam is a basic source of Iraqi law (kind of like how Christianity is a basic source to a lot of our own laws), shouldn't those who sit on Iraq's highest court have some expertise in the subject? If their job is to interpret the law, and if Islam (i.e. Sharia) is a basic source of that law, then requiring experts in Sharia might be a good idea not a lousy idea. An expert in Sharia will know when a zealot with an agenda tries to use twisted or archaic interpretations of Sharia to justify legislation and be able to deliver a scholarly rebuttal. Just because they are experts in Sharia doesn't mean that they will be ultra-conservative, strict adherents to it.

Incidentally, Article 90 is the only place where I noticed the word "Sharia" appearing in the Constitution (or at least in the translation).

So that's my piece. Maybe I'm wrong and these authors identified a severe shortcoming in the Constitution with potentially significant consequences. I just don't see it unless a whole lot of other things go wrong too.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Don't change the subject

2005-08-29T13:58:00.000-05:00

I had two conversations today with other officers about the Iraqi Constitution. The first dealt specifically with the distribution of oil revenues and the second dealt with the Constitution in general. In both cases, I was the only person involved who had gotten a chance to read through the entire document.

Both conversations followed an interesting path, one that I would not be surprised if the national debate mimicked. I hold the viewpoint that, all things considered, this Iraqi Constitution is a fine document and that any questionable words or phrases are molehills that someone will try to turn into mountains. Furthermore, those opposing the Constitution (i.e. some Sunni Arabs) will really have to tap dance to make their opposition look principled (especially when people start actually reading it).

As my intellectual peers would bring up their objections or "concerns" I would attempt to alleviate them with specific references (as best I could recollect) from the Constitution itself. Both conversations were civil, but each one had a puzzlingly illogical moment when my *opponents* abruptly changed the subject, moving away from the Constitution itself and switching topics to whether or not the Iraqi people would accept it. To paraphrase, one conversation went something to the effect of, "Well, the Constitution may SAY the right things... but the Sunnis will just vote the way their leadership tells them to!" The other conversation was similar in sentiment but I don't recall the exact words. I'm sorry, but whether or not the Constitution fairly addresses the many difficult issues facing Iraqis is NOT AT ALL the same as whether or not the Sunni voters will behave rationally.

I would not be surprised if certain elements of the major media followed a similar path in their coverage. They will need to find something, anything to cast the Constitution in a negative light (or at least counterbalance the justified praise that it may or may not receive). Maybe they will comb through the Constitution, find some subtlety of omission and then predict disastrous consequences. Maybe they will not even read it and just parrot the usual "concerns" like federalism, the role of Islam and the distribution of oil revenues. Or maybe they will change the subject.

This post and my previous post pretty clearly show where I stand on this topic. Maybe I have it wrong and I am making mountains into molehills. I fully grant that I'm a glass half full guy, and it is my nature to approach problems that way. If anybody thinks so, I am happy to hear it -- just be sure that you read the entire document first and are prepared to back up your assertions. And don't change the subject. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Iraqi Constitution first impressions

2005-08-28T13:20:00.000-05:00

I read the new Iraqi Constitution this afternoon. My first impression is that it is a pretty good document. Nothing jumped out at me as too off the wall, but I'm an agreeable guy. :)

I don't really have the mental energy right now to fully dive into a thorough description of what the new Constitution says. But here are some of the high points:

(1) Oil Distribution.
Article (110):
1st -- The federal government will administer oil and gas extracted from current fields in cooperation with the governments of the producing regions and provinces on condition that the revenues will be distributed fairly in a manner compatible with the demographical distribution all over the country. A quota should be defined for a specified time for affected regions that were deprived in an unfair way by the former regime or later on, in a way to ensure balanced development in different parts of the country. This should be regulated by law.
2nd -- The federal government and the governments of the producing regions and provinces together will draw up the necessary strategic policies to develop oil and gas wealth to bring the greatest benefit for the Iraqi people, relying on the most modern techniques of market principles and encouraging investment.

Doesn't seem like such a bad solution to me. The federal government administers oil revenues and distributes them based on need so that there is no favoritism. And it gives preference to the groups that got short-changed under the current regime. That only makes sense. I'm not sure what the Sunnis have to gripe about with this course of action -- what do they prefer, having the provinces that own the oil fields administer everything? Then they'd be cut out completely because they don't have any oil-rich provinces.

Naysayers might take issue with the fine print that says that the federal government will administer stuff from "current fields," implying that the vast untapped oil fields will be exclusive property of the provinces. But it doesn't say that explicitly (or even implicitly). It only says current fields.

(2) Role of Islam
Article (2):
1st -- Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation:
(a) No law can be passed that contradicts the fixed principles of Islam.
(b) No law can be passed that contradicts the principles of democracy.
(c) No law can be passed that contradicts the rights and basic freedoms outlined in this constitution.
2nd -- This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people and the full religious rights for all individuals and the freedom of creed and religious practices.
Article (3): Iraq is a multiethnic, multi-religious and multi-sect country. It is part of the Islamic world and its Arab people are part of the Arab nation.

And here is some more...
Article (14): Iraqis are equal before the law without discrimination because of sex, ethnicity, nationality, origin, color, religion, sect, belief, opinion or social or economic status.

And this...
2nd -- The state is committed to protecting the individual from coercion in thought, religion or politics, and no one may be imprisoned on these bases.

And this...
Article (39): Iraqis are free in their adherence to their personal status according to their own religion, sect, belief and choice, and that will be organized by law.
Article (40):
1st -- The followers of every religion and sect are free in:
(a) the practice of their religious rites, including the (Shiite) Husseiniya Rites.
(b) the administration of religious endowments and their affairs and their religious institutions, and this will be organized by law.
2nd -- The state guarantees freedom of worship and the protection of its places.
Article (41): Every individual has freedom of thought and conscience.

It looks to me like the writers of this Constitution went to great lengths to ensure freedom of religious expression. Although I'm sure that someone will read between the lines and express grave concern that women will be required to wear burkhas because of some subtlety that is or isn't there.

(3) Federalism
I'm not going to quote the Constitution directly here because, as I indicated earlier, I'm tired and it would take way too long because a lot of the document deals with this topic. Basically, the Constitution delegates exclusive powers to the federal government (like our Constitution does), powers to "regions" and powers to provinces that aren't regions.

One or more provinces can vote to become a region and multiple regions can vote to merge. Regions have certain powers granted to them, a National Council to act as a legislative body and a regional president (kind of like how our states have a chief executive and a legislative body).

A province does not have to become a region, however. It can stay a province and will have a provincial governor and provincial council. The provinces will be "given extensive administrative and financial authorities to enable them to self-manage according to the principle of administrative decentralization" as regulated by law.

What does all this mean? Nothing that I read jumped out at me as a green light to break up the country. There was nowhere I read that authorized any province or region to secede, and I didn't see any code words like "self-determination" or anything. But I might have missed it and will undoubtedly reread it a few times in the coming weeks.

Bottom line, my first impression is that it is a fine document. Is it perfect? Of course not, but neither is any other man-made endeavor since the beginning of time. I think that this Constitution will do just fine. But I'm a glass half full guy. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Sunday afternoon weather

2005-08-28T04:11:00.000-05:00

I hope that we didn't pay very much for the air conditioner in the new S1 shop because it fights a losing battle with the heat every single day. It doesn't quite have the power to keep the office cool. Right now it is a pleasant 36 degrees Celsius in here (almost 97 degrees Fahrenheit) and our poor air conditioner wheezing and sputtering along as best it can. Poor sad air conditioner.

Fortunately, I will be heading over to the TOC to assume duty shortly. The TOC has three functional air conditioners and the inside temperature hovers around 80 degrees. It has been as low as 76 or 77 degrees recently.

The outside temperature is still hot, but the daily highs are starting to creep downward. We still occasionally hit 120 but the highs have been floating around 1115-118 this week. In a few weeks, the weather will probably be pretty nice here.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Backups

2005-08-27T13:08:00.000-05:00

Today was the kind of day that I like to have except for one small detail -- there wasn't anything interesting to write about. :)

And so, I'll shift to the other thing I like to talk about -- the Packers. :)

This Packer preseason hasn't been as much fun for me, but not because I haven't been able to watch the games. I got to watch the game against San Diego and will have a chance to watch the game against New England tomorrow if I so choose (they are showing a rebroadcast on AFN Sports tomorrow night). What is disappointing is that preseason is usually the only time I get to see Craig Nall play, who, as I have said before, is my choice to succeed Brett Favre (the top brass obviously missed my memo). But the Packers "already know what he can do" and so they are giving more playing time to Aaron Rodgers and J.T. O'Sullivan. Raar!

It puts me in something of a quandary as a fan. I want Craig Nall to succeed Brett Favre but I don't want the Packers to have made a bad investment in Aaron Rodgers. Alas. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Football season

2005-08-26T03:52:00.000-05:00

I'm looking forward to when football season begins in earnest. I like preseason, but when the college season and NFL regular season start, it will make time pass faster.

The nice thing about football season is how it breaks down the months of September through December into nice compact periods of time -- there is always something to look forward to at the end of each week, and a week isn't very long to wait for something. There is plenty of post-game coverage to entertain from Monday through Wednesday and then pregame coverage to entertain on Thursday and Friday. Saturday is college football game day, and Sunday is NFL game day.

During football season it will be nice to work in the TOC on the night shift because we have an AFN decoder and can watch AFN sports. Because of the time difference, the football games are coming on in the states right about the time things are slowing down here. We keep it on the news, but in the slow hours of the night I may authorize changing the channel... if everyone is good... and the Packers are playing. :) I also have a feeling that the midnight chow hour in the DFAC will be more popular in the fall. We recently contracted for the purchase of several TVs to put in the DFAC so we can watch games during mealtime.

On a side note, we have a great chow hall here at FOB Gabe. It is comparable to the one at Warhorse, although they have slightly better selection in terms of beverages, chips, etc. But that is because they probably stock themselves first before giving the outlying FOBs their cut. Savages. :)

Well, gotta run -- almost time to assume duty. Hopefully today will be another quiet day.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Quiet day

2005-08-25T13:24:00.000-05:00

Today was a quiet day for me, as my days tend to be. I came to work in the morning and did some work chasing down a few end of tour award submissions. After that, I snuck over to the MWR building to wake Becky up in the middle of the night, but she foiled my efforts by still being up.

My day as Battle CPT started out looking like it was going to be a hectic one, but it ended on a quiet note.

The high point of my day was reading that the Packers signed Bubba Franks to a long-term contract. Woo-hoo! :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Suicide bomber

2005-08-24T02:09:00.000-05:00

I was unable to post last night because we were in a blackout status following a suicide bomber attack that killed seven people and wounded about 19 or 20 (by my rough count) in Baqubah yesterday. The casualties were a mix between soldiers, Iraqi civilians, Iraqi Police and American civilians.

Our role was minimal in the day's events. The attack occurred outside our area of operations and none of the casualties were from my unit. We called the unit who took the casualties and offered medical assistance but they did not need it.

When something like this happens, there is always the danger that it is not an isolated event but rather just the first in a series of coordinated attacks. That is why, even though this attack was not in our area of operations, we took immediate action and dispatched presence patrols throughout our sector. The bad guys don't plan their operations based on our graphics, and the next attack might be in one of our towns or against one of our checkpoints.

Sure enough, one of the patrols reported an IED along one of our routes, a hastily emplaced artillery round, or "pop and drop" as we call it. The purpose of this IED could have been to target first responders following the suicide bomber. Our guys secured the area and waited for EOD to take care of it.

Unlike other days, however, this attack did not precede a series of attacks throughout the AO. The rest of the day was quiet.

This was the kind of spectacular attack that the insurgents like because they make headlines. However, they don't make themselves too many friends and it is an illustration as to why this insurgency will fail. As always, Iraqis bore the brunt of the casualties. An insurgency needs several things to be successful in the long term, and one of those things is popular support. This didn't do much for them in that respect.

It goes back to something I've said before -- these attacks are effective only insofar as they discourage the American public and reduce popular support for this war. That's the only way the bad guys can win. Don't let them. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

A not so safe haven anymore

2005-08-22T13:40:00.000-05:00

This afternoon, when I assumed duty, I got a tidbit of good news. The Iraqi Army had apprehended one of the bad guys on the Brigade's most wanted list. Good for them! But when I heard how it happened, I had to laugh.

Basically, one of the city councils put out an open invitation for prospective city council members to come and apply/interview/etc. And this guy showed up! As soon as they identified him, the IA snatched him up and called us with the news.

This, besides being extremely funny (the guy basically answered the moral equivalent of a classified ad), is encouraging for another reason. This guy obviously thought that this particular city was safe enough for him to show his face and even sit on the city council. Clearly, the city now offers no such sanctuary. I bet the look on his face was precious when the IA grabbed him and threw him in the slammer. :)

And so there is one less scumbag out there now. That makes today a good day in my book.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Quiet Weekend

2005-08-21T21:34:00.000-05:00

Becky here...

Another nice, easy-going weekend has passed. :) It was very relaxing and it was good to get some stuff done at the house.

I've found that I've become quite a homebody for some reason. Once I'm home, I usually just want to stay there and not have to go anywhere. I didn't even leave the house at all on Saturday. It was actually a pretty nice day because I worked on a sewing project during the day. I made a top from some cute fabric I found in the remnants pile at the fabric store! It turned out pretty cute! Then I started on a dress that I've wanted to work on for a while now.

I went to church this morning. I actually had nursery duty during second service. I was with the 0-18 month age group. It was pretty funny because we probably had about 10-15 kids in there and when I first arrived just about EVERY one of them was crying!!! I can't help laughing when I see little kids crying like that. They're not injured, they're not hurt, they're just cranky because their parents left them and they just aren't thrilled with the situation that they've been put in! It's just funny to me. :) Plus they're not my kids, so that makes it even funnier. :)

Phil and I should be finding out any day now which month he'll get his R&R leave in. It will either be in September or October. I'll be thrilled with either, but I'm kind of leaning toward wanting it to be in October. I figure the later the better because the more of this deployment we get done before leave, the less we have to do after leave. I think of it as eating all your vegetables first at a meal, which I usually try to do... and I know Phil does too. :)

Becky :)

Checkpoint defense

2005-08-21T13:32:00.000-05:00

This afternoon we received a call from our partnered Iraqi Army battalion that a group of bad guys was getting ready to attack one of the IA checkpoints in our area of operations. This isn't particularly remarkable -- we get reports like this fairly frequently. The report of "20 AIF with AK-47s and RPGs congregating" is something of a joke. It is always 20, they always have AK-47s and RPGs and they are always invisible when we show up.

We spun up a platoon to conduct presence patrols through the area in question -- if something was going to happen, better it happened when we had somebody in sector. I also brought in the platoon leader from the QRF platoon and briefed him on what we knew.

Barely two minutes after I dismissed the QRF platoon leader, we got another radio transmission -- RPG and small arms fire at an IA checkpoint. In minutes we had two platoons out the gate to assist.

What happened is that the insurgents started warning locals in the area to close up their shops and go home, and a concerned citizen informed the IA. The checkpoint attack failed miserably -- the IA were waiting for them and forced the AIF to break contact. This is significant because one of the major failures of the IA in our region has been vigilance on checkpoints. Fortunately, today these guys were doing the right thing.

We stomped around in the palm groves surrounding the checkpoint but didn't find anything. The bad guys escaped, but today was still a good day for several reasons. The IA successfully defended a fixed site from attack and Iraqi civilians warned the IA of the impending attack. Hopefully this trend continues... :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Another slow day

2005-08-20T13:42:00.000-05:00

I measure how busy the day was by how often we had to use our task force QRF (quick-reaction force). If the QRF has a busy day, the battalion has a busy day. Today was a slow day for both.

We sent them on a quick mission into Baqubah because our MiTT (Military Transition Team -- the guys who work with the Iraqi Army) had some business to do. That was a five minute drive each way -- no big deal. Later on in the day, I sent them out to escort maintenance recovery assets to recover a broken down vehicle. I definitely prefer sending out maintenance assets when it is for something other than an IED strike. :)

Other than that, it was a quiet day for us. Outside our area of operations, there were a couple things that caught my attention.

The first was a VBIED that blew up today north of our area of operations, but the only people who died were two people inside the vehicle. This could be another embarrassing case of premature detonation, but we don't know for sure. Hard to say. :)

There was also an explosion in Baqubah last night, but there wasn't any evidence of an IED strike on a main road, and no friendly patrols reported being attacked by an IED. This was, coincidentally, during a window of time when one of our high tech, magic electronic warfare devices was in use. This particular magic electronic warfare device is specifically designed to prematurely detonate IEDs. The intent, of course, is to make the IED go boom instead of the insurgents making it go boom at the time and place of their choosing. The explosion could have been anything, though, so we don't have enough information at hand to definitively say that it was a prematurely detonated IED.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Food contract

2005-08-19T13:46:00.000-05:00

We are nicely moved in and settled into our new S1 shop, although there were some minor glitches in the air conditioning. The room temperature was a balmy 34 degrees centigrade (a little over 93 degrees Fahrenheit) when I left to assume duty in the TOC today.

My shift in the TOC was pretty uneventful. I don't do the nightly Frago anymore because I'm not on the graveyard shift, which is nice. Today, however, Brigade issued it a little earlier than they usually do, so I quickly knocked out our Battalion Frago. Yes, I probably made the night a little more boring for the graveyard shift Battle CPT. Oh well. :)

In other news, there is the possibility that we may lose our contracted chow hall, which is excessively disappointing. We eat very well here, with hot meals prepared by contracted foreign laborers (I think they're from India). However, the contract may not get renewed and we are currently in the middle of a battle to either renew or, at the very least, extend it.

If we lose our contract, then our cooks will go back to cooking and stop doing whatever else they have been up to. It will also very likely mean MREs for lunch, which means that if I am going to keep up my streak of 0 MREs eaten the entire deployment, I am going to have to either skip lunch or else start making some care package requests for ramen noodles and microwave lunches. :) It will also have a minor impact on troop to task requirements for the companies because they may have to start giving up soldiers for KP.

At least we won't be in suspense for long -- the last day for contracted food is next week.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Moving

2005-08-18T13:27:00.000-05:00

Today my S1 shop got evicted from the nice office we had next to the TOC. The powers that be decided to make a separate office for the S3 plans section, and so my shop got bumped to a different building. Our office is about the same size and has equivalent connectivity, so our existence won't be too different. I will miss working one door down from the TOC because I liked being close by when not "on duty."

The S3 plans section is looking forward to their new office too, except for one tiny detail: we don't have an S3 plans section. Oops. Basically, the office will sit empty until we have to do a marathon planning session for a major operation (which has happened a grand total of 3 or 4 times during the entire deployment). :)

The new office is a lot cleaner and more organized than the old one. We took the same office used by the previous unit's S1 shop, and there was a lot of clutter on the shelves when we got there. We'll see how long we can keep it this way. :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Body armor plates

2005-08-17T04:28:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, everyone in the task force got issued a new set of body armor plates to wear inside our vests. The news was greeted in some circles with groans because the new plates are heavier. :) In our little corner of Iraq, there isn't enough shooting going on to impress upon soldiers a sense of their own mortality I guess.

I never wrote about it because it wasn't particularly notable. This isn't the first time that we received a new piece of equipment. From an administrative standpoint, it was something of a hassle because we had to get each soldier's plate size so that we could receive the appropriate number of each new plate.

However, I recently saw a segment on CNN (broadcast on AFN) covering this story, and they presented it from the angle that the new body armor plates somehow imply a deficiency in the old body armor plates. This is absolutely silly. We aren't getting new plates because the old ones were bad, we're getting them because the new ones are BETTER. The Army is authorized to make improvements and then issue those improvements to soldiers.

The segment implied that because the insurgents are so clever and have shown themselves to be so good at defeating our current body armor, the Pentagon is now scrambling to issue the new body armor to soldiers. Good grief. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to realize that in the eternal struggle between weaponry and armor that weaponry has the decisive advantage. You can always make a bigger bomb or a higher caliber weapon to defeat an armor package, whether that armor goes on a soldier or on a vehicle. But to suggest that the new armor plates are somehow in response to the clever insurgents is silly in my opinion. I promise that as soon as these "new" plates got approved, somebody went to work on making a newer, better armor plate. That's how it works.

Well, gotta run -- almost time to assume duty.

Be safe, drink water.

Phil

Constitution extension

2005-08-16T02:26:00.000-05:00

I was hoping that the draft Constitution would be announced yesterday, but it seems that we'll have to wait another week (or longer). In the grand scheme of things, pushing the announcement one week to the right is not particularly significant. What is important is whether or not the Iraqi people ratify the proposed Constitution in the referendum scheduled for October 15th. Delaying the initial announcement by a week won't impact the timeline of the referendum, and if it results in a better product that is more likely to pass then I'm all for it.

If, on the other hand, the proposed Constitution is rejected by 2/3 of voters in 3 provinces, we start the whole process all over again. I'd much rather wait a week for a better product than receive an inferior product on time. It's the old principle of if you don't have enough time to do it right, you'll really be hurting to find time to do it over. I don't think anybody wants to do this over -- let's just take a little bit of extra time and do it right.

Keep in mind that it took us several years before we had our own Constitution. Democracy is hard work.

Incidentally, here is Phil's weak, poorly thought-out solution to the federalism issue. Apply federalism to Kurdistan because they have been ruling themselves for the last 10 years and doing a fine job of it. Don't do it for Shiites in the south because (1) they don't have experience in self-rule, (2) it would alienate the Sunnis who would, as a block, vote against the Constitution even though 90% of them don't even know what Federalism is, and (3) the Shiites, as the majority, will undoubtedly dominate any democratic government in Iraq, so they don't particularly need self-rule in their region -- they'll rule the central government. The Kurds get what they want (relative autonomy in the north), the Sunni Arabs avoid what they really don't want (getting completely shut out of the picture in the oil-rich north and south), and the Shiites make a small concession but don't really lose anything substantial. The only thing they lose out on is the chance to stick it to the Sunni Arabs in terms of oil revenues. And I really hope that that isn't their primary motivation because if it is, the Constitution will have a tough time passing in the four provinces where Sunni Arabs are in the majority.

That has been a sticking point in the debate, so we'll see if any of the Iraqi delegates forming the Constitution read this blog... :)

Be safe, drink water.

Phil