The Blog world continues to expand. Here is a new from a soldier in Baghdad. "Boots on the Ground."
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Friday, October 24, 2003New Sheriff in Town
I am a Solder of the United States Army, currently serving in Baghdad, Iraq. My goal in making this site is to give people back home and abroad on the daily life for the American soldier here in Baghdad, Iraq. I dont think the media covers this place that well. I will have an unbias'd oppinion, so I'll even be critical toward what the US military does here in Iraq. However, I will also re-iterate, that alot of stories on the news dont always give the full true stories. Anyway, that is my goal, I hope I can get as many people as possable to visit this site.
Patrols
A few days ago M113s APCs and a Hmmwv drove by. Apparently, now they are starting to do patrols again. This I haven’t seen any armored vehicles move down through this neighborhood in awhile. I must reiterate that they are M113s, this is a light armored vehicle. To me, this just screams “Ambush me,” as I’m quite sure an RPG could quite easily pierce it. This is a city, it is very easy to ambush armor, haven’t they learned anything from previous wars, like the Soviets losing so much armor from Ambushes when they were busy taking Berlin, or Somalia. The only way I’d really feel comfortable doing a patrol in a armored vehicle, is if I was in a Bradley, RPGs aren’t effective against those, for the most part they’ll just bounce off. To my amazment, I found out that an IED exploded by a m1 Abrams, and somhow a piece of it’s shrapnel pierced the turret, these things are nearly invincible, it must have hit a soft spot.
A week ago, I was talking to an Iraqi that lives a few houses down the way. He can speak english extremely well, and he is very educated. He usually stops by for alittle bit and we talk about politics. He is wealthy, so he doesn’t need to work right now, but he doesn’t have anything to do, so he works with 1st Amored Division Military Police at some checkpoint. His job is to just translate for the Military Police. He was talking to me that the Iraqi people feared but didn’t respect the Iraqi Police before the regime went away, but now the people respect but don’t fear the Iraqi Police. He said his checkpoint used to get about 100 reports of car theft from Iraqis, now after the Iraqi Police have been around for alittle while, the car theft reports have gone down to about 2 a day for his checkpoint. Plus, a lot of criminals are afraid to commit crime because Iraqi Police have time and again just shot the criminals because the criminals were carrying weapons, so now they are starting to think twice about what they do. From being in Baghdad since May, I have noticed a huge change in Iraq, despite the attacks, there has been a lot of progress. When I’m doing guard in the morning, I watch these taxi cabs come by and stop at the houses of Iraqis and pick of their children who are wearing school uniforms and taking them off to school. Also you see big buses of all sorts packed with kids in school uniforms and driving off to school.
Posted by: Kevin / 12:09 AM
Saturday, October 25, 2003About Me
People have been starting to ask more about me and what my job over here in Iraq is. So I’ll explain, I’m a Infantryman (aka Grunt or Trigger Puller) in the United States Army. My job here in Iraq is mostly to provide security for this this small building in this nice residental area, about 5 others that do the same. We also have Iraqi guards that we have hired to help with security, such as posting them at barriers outside our building making sure only friendly vehicles can get inside, they are armed with AK-47s. On the other hand, my job before also has been going on raids. I myself have been on about 4 raids since I’ve been here. I am a m249 SAW gunner, which is a light machine gun, but I have been issued an M4 for raids and such, it’s not easy to be fast when you’re carrying a 20 pound machine gun around. I was born in Michigan, which I miss very much, I haven’t been home since last Christmas, and we left in March. Expecting to stay here for a year, though we haven’t ruled out maybe having to stay for a year and a half, like the 101st Airborne are having to do. Someone asked me how is it we have internet? Well, the military is having little areas set up with computers and phones for soldiers to goto so they can get a chance to e-mail or call their family. Plus, Iraqis are setting up a lot of internet cafes for soldiers inside their compounds. Currently, we are 7 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, usually it’s 8, but I guess Iraq has Daylight Savings before everyone else, so once the US hits daylight savings the time should go back to normal. Before the war, I was convinced the President was doing the right now, now I have a more moderate view about the war. I don’t think the President lied, and there are probably WMD buried under some rock somwhere, after all, any Iraqi I’ve talked to said they believe Saddam had WMD. But I do think this war was not necessary in that I don’t believe Iraq was a threat to us, however I think it is justified in saving 28 million people from a ruthless dictator. There are reasons why I like being in Iraq and reasons I don’t like it. For one, it is really interesting talking to people from another part of the world, and one thing I’ve notice, they aren’t all that different than us Americans. But also, home just seems so much like the perfect place after being here in Iraq, power goes out severals times a day, and many bombed out buildings from the bombings. However, here, I feel like I am making a difference, and that boosts morale for me and helps me to keep staying focused on what I have to do.
Posted by: Kevin / 1:04 PM
Some Baathist Iraqi Police
This is kind of funny, I was talking to some guys who came by from the 82nd Airborne who are also deployed to Iraq. I was told about this time they worked with Military Police. As they were driving around the city they spotted an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). They had to lock down the neighborhood immediately and have EOD (explosive experts) come and disarm the bomb. While they had stopped all traffic going in and out, all of a sudden a IP (Iraqi Police) car quickly drove up to the IED and the officer quickly got out of his cruiser and grabbed the IED and put it in the car and quickly drove off. They were all kinda stunned to see this and didn't do anything to stop the IP from getting away. Personally, I would have given a few warning shots and just lit the car up, or blow out it's tires and then chase him but it was really dumb to not have done anything and let him get away. So now that has got me thinking that there are probably some bad apples in the police that might be setting up IEDs.
Posted by: Kevin / 1:22 AM
Al Rasheed Hotel Attack
The Al Rasheed Hotel is somewhere about 1 or two miles away from my location. The occurred about 6am in the morning. My friends were woken up by 7 thundering booms that rattled the building. I went to sleep at about 3am, and hadn't gotten much sleep. So, I slept through the attack. My friends later told me about it and said they couldn't believe I slept right through it. Then later on I checked out the news, I was stunned to say the least. Stuff like this really pisses me off and makes me want to find out who did it and just shoot them. I would show no remorse at all for these scum bags. Being here and all, I guess it just makes me feel that every attack on americans feels so personal to me and I get really enraged and just want to kill.
Posted by: Kevin / 4:11 PM
Sunday, October 26, 2003Exciting Day
Well, another interesting thing has happened today. At about 9pm, while working on the computer, checking all my e-mail, I heard what can only be described as loud thumps, the sound of mortars getting shot out of tubes. 2 of them to be exact, and followed by 2 loud booms. Another attack on coalition forces I guess, it happened what appears to be within a mile from here. Probably 81mm Mortars, because it was too loud to be 60mm mortars and not loud enough to be 120mm mortars. Everyone scrambled around, running to their rooms to get their weapons and all ran onto the roof incase we were under attack. The guy we had on guard though said the attack took place alittle bit aways. We could see the dust cloud in the distance where the mortars fell. No one probably got hurt, and I doubt the news will cover it, since this does happen often, but not in this particular area. This is just attacks being carried out to try and cause as much chaos as possible hoping to get the USA to leave, and who can blame them? For so many years America has always cut and run when it's soldiers die, pathetic weak leaders we have. Despite many many resistance cells and fedayeen cells that get uncovered and arrested or killed, which we find these cells all the time, despite all the successes (you never hear about in the news) we've had in cracking down on these guys, they still manage to hit us. We can make this Iraq a great place, but it is going to take patience and time, and sadly, the American people I don't believe have the will to do it, we aren't the great generation like in WW2, it makes me sick.
Posted by: Kevin / 9:28 PM
Monday, October 27, 2003Bloody Baghdad
Well, I just caught wind of all the stuff that has been happening today. I'm shocked to say the least. A bombing at the Red Cross and bombings happening all over the place. How pathetic, I find it funny how they want to show how great their religion is by blowing up as many Iraqi civilians as they can on their holiday. All this is just making me really sick. You know all the democrats are going to use this situation for political leverage. Funny how none of them cowards have been bold enough to come and see Iraq for themselves, maybe then, they would have a different opinion about Iraq. This will probably get more Iraqis to see just how evil these terrorists are and that they just use religion as a recruiting tool for their own agenda. I can tell you one thing though, not a single Iraqi will tell you that Iraqis do this type of stuff, it is foreign terrorists that do this kind of stuff. Before I close this though, I want you to not let this give you a bad idea about Iraq. Right now, there has been ALOT of progress in this country. My Iraqi friend who works with the Military Police as a translator said they used to get 100 reports of car theft a day at their checkpoint alone. Ever since the introduction of Iraqi police, that number has dwindled down to 2 a day. The night time has become much more quiet and the electricity stays on much longer than it used to. Every Iraqi I talk to says everyone is getting really optimistic about the future of Iraq, and believe it will be the great nation it used to be. It is also really something to watch, a nation go from no government or social services to where it is now. I give it about 5 to 10 years before Iraq will become and light to all other Arab nations. And so it begins, now I'm starting to finally receive nasty letters about my site. How pathetic that someone because they disagree with the war, that they have to make personal attacks on me such as my writing. This is what I mean, this is why the democrats are going to fail the election, because instead of talking about policy they want to talk about someone's character. I consider myself a moderate, and I even voted for Gore. These attacks on our President is just absurd, and I can't wait till in the future people will realize that saving these people was the right thing to do. They are all just weak people. They want us to pull out, and usually it's them who want to help other nations. How hypocritical is this? We can't leave Iraq, the Iraqi people need us to stay there until our job is finished. Many soldiers wish they could come home right now, but they all also realize they still have a job to do. You people who sit there and criticize the soldiers because they are doing their job and volunteered to go fight is just pathetic. You have your priorities mixed up. You people are the very reason I posted us not being the greatest generation. It is because of your constant whining about how nothing is ever fair that I have a low confidence in the American people. I'm very glad it is just small minority doing all this. Don't kid yourselves, if the American people were all really against us helping Iraq, than there would be a HELL of alot more people demonstrating. It's just the small number of liberals who have never been outside our great country and think they know how the world works because they've been always taken care of their entire life.
Posted by: Kevin / 3:55 PM
Tuesday, October 28, 2003Thanks for the Support
Wow, I can't believe how much e-mail I have been literally flooded with today. I must have gotten more than 100 e-mails. So, my site must be starting to get really popular. I am not really sure if that is a good thing. I'm really sorry if I am not able to write all of you back, I just don't have the time. About 99.9% of all the e-mails I get are thanks and support for what we are doing over here. Of course there is that little .1% that always got something bad to say. Many people say we are heroes, but I think all of us look at this as just a job that needs to get done. Thank you so much for all the kind e-mails, and I will try to post everyday.
Posted by: Kevin / 1:39 AM
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