Discussion Thread - NUKE's war diary

[NorthSideSox72]

Since Nuke's war diary thread is a closed thread, I am opening up a seperate, unpinned thread for general discussion. You can ask Nuke questions, reply to his entries, etc.

[southsider2k5]

Hey Nuke, I saw you on here today and was curious about the perseption of things over there among you guys and the general populous.

 

What is the initial impressions on results of the troop surge? Is is helping, hurting, no difference?

 

How is the training of Iraqi's going? Are the desertion rates, and the stories of them not learning accurate at all?

 

How is the infrastructure work going? Are things like streets, oil industry, schools etc getting built?

 

Anything else you want to throw out there?

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Hey Nuke, I saw you on here today and was curious about the perseption of things over there among you guys and the general populous.

 

What is the initial impressions on results of the troop surge? Is is helping, hurting, no difference?

 

How is the training of Iraqi's going? Are the desertion rates, and the stories of them not learning accurate at all?

 

How is the infrastructure work going? Are things like streets, oil industry, schools etc getting built?

 

Anything else you want to throw out there?

 

 

I think we got pretty fortunate. The area we are responsible for is fairly quiet, however the area to the immediate east of ours is like the wild west. Every time we have to go over there to help out for whatever reason something crazy happens.

 

As for the surge, I'm reserving judgement. It actually seems to be working because the violence has dropped off somewhat but then that could very well be because guys like Al Sadr told his goons to lay low for a while till the heat's off. Who knows.

 

The Iraqi's that my platoon goes out with are pretty good guys. They seem genuinely interested in doing their job, they're pretty good shots and they are fairly aggressive when something goes wrong. The biggest problem we have is communication, for obvious reasons, but when we have time to sit down and hash things out with the terp and them then it goes fairly well.

 

Infrastructure work is very frustrating for us. We've been been getting a lot of complaints from the locals about lack of power but when we make arrangements with the local power workers to go fix something they blow us off and dont show up. The place seems to have running water but sewage is still, in many places, still in the streets (yuck!). The homes are almost all run down and look terrible. There's also a good many abandonded homes ( which make for great observation posts for us when we're out on a cordon and search ). I guess many people have packed up and moved away since the war began.

 

Our own living conditions are fairly good. I think I mentioned them in the diary thread so I wont be redundant. Uhh, what else? Our mail has been kinda hit or miss. Some stuff takes less than a week to get here and other stuff takes 2-3 weeks. I can't think of anything else really at the moment. Anyone has anything they want to ask I'll answer.

[Balta1701]

Nuke...if there's anything that your unit could use, like something random that you'd like to be able to hand out to the locals or some random supply/niceity that you guys don't get, let us know.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Nuke...if there's anything that your unit could use, like something random that you'd like to be able to hand out to the locals or some random supply/niceity that you guys don't get, let us know.

 

It's very nice of you guys to be thinking of us like that. At the moment, however, I have more snacks, baby wipes, toiletries, gatorade mix, books and magazines than I know what to do with. Anything edible I want I can just go and raid the dining facility anytime I want and I bought a small fridge that I have fully stocked with drinks ( no alcohol allowed unfortunately ). In fact, aside from paying for internet access I haven't had a need to even spend any money here. This time around is a far cry from the initial push up through here, in fact, I dare say I'm living pretty large for being in a combat zone.

[Controlled Chaos]

Nuke,

 

The terrorists see themselves as martyrs if they die fighting the infidels or in a sucide bombing. They get their virgins and live forever in paradise or whatever.

 

How do the Iraqi army feel about dying for the country? Is there honor in defending their country? Do most of the Iraqi army believe in what they are fighting for or is it more or less a job for them?

[SleepyWhiteSox]

savage...

[kapkomet]

savage...

WTF are you talking about?

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Nuke,

 

The terrorists see themselves as martyrs if they die fighting the infidels or in a sucide bombing. They get their virgins and live forever in paradise or whatever.

 

How do the Iraqi army feel about dying for the country? Is there honor in defending their country? Do most of the Iraqi army believe in what they are fighting for or is it more or less a job for them?

 

 

These guys have no illusions about how dangerous their job is and if you were to ask them, they'd get VERY passionate about wanting to make a difference. That goes for most of them. Obviously you're going to have a few that are just there for a paycheck and a few that are actually spies for the bad guys but overall they're really great people who want to make Iraq a better place.

 

WTF are you talking about?

 

 

He's good. It's a chat crew thing.

[kapkomet]

allrighty then... I was trying to figure out where the hell that came from.

[SleepyWhiteSox]

...

[southsider2k5]

Hey Nuke, does Iran get mentioned at all over there? Are the playing any kind of a role in the insurgency from what you guys can see?

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Hey Nuke, does Iran get mentioned at all over there? Are the playing any kind of a role in the insurgency from what you guys can see?

 

 

We strongly suspect that they have ties to the Shiite militias around here and also that they are designing and building the EFP's that can penetrate heavy armor. Lately, though, that has kind of dried up around here after the latest confrontation with them. Hopefully it stays that way. Seems like the local insurgents are getting more hard up for material because they have been using empty fire extinguishers filled with homemade explosives rather than actual ordinance. In my diary I detailed how we found a whole lot of them.

[Texsox]

"IN GREEN ZONE, SCOUTINGS MERITS REBUILDING"

 

BAGHDAD: Karar Smilee has a friend in Canada. The

12-year-old Iraqui boy doesn't know his friend's name

and hasn't seen his face, but he's a friend,

nonetheless, Krar said.

"I met him on the Internet. I like the Internet,"

he said Thursday after receiving a patch for his

participation in the Internet jamboree in October

along with other Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts from

around the world.

U.S. forces and Iraqis are working to rebuild the

once robust Scouting organization in Iraq, starting

with a group of elementary puplis in the heavily

protected Green Zone of Baghdad.

"The Iraqis are going through a very difficult time

and want to see the light at the end of the tunnel,"

said Nima Motashar, president of the Green Zone

Council of Iraqi Scouts.

"There are more than 6 million students in Iraqi.

We know how active kids can be, so we are trying to

teach them first, Scout values," from being

trustworthy to friendly, brave, clean and loyal to

Iraq and not to its sects, he said.

"Second, we neeed to keep these kids away from

troubles and teach them some good things for their

future during their summer holiday through Scout

camps," Motashar said. "So our objective is that to

build a free and secure nation, we need to put the

future generation onto the right track."

Iraq once was a leader in Middle Eastern Scouting,

U.S. officials said. An orginization was created in

1921 by British military personnel stationed here, and

Iraqi Scouts became members of the World Organization

of the Scout Movement and the World Association of

Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 1922.

Under former President Saddam Hussein, the program

faltered and eventually disappeared. It was

resurrected in 2004 under the old Coalition

Provisional Authority.

The Green Zone Council of Iraqi Scouts is branching

out to all of Iraq's 18 provinces and working to

regain admission into the World Organization of the

Scout Movement.

[Controlled Chaos]

Nuke, regarding the bomb makers being let go. Can you elaborate anymore on that? How is that f***in possible? I mean with the evidence you provided, how can the brass over there allow them back on the streets. We are holding people in Gitmo for less than that, so what gives? Are they going to give up some intelligence or something. I just can't fathom any scenario that these bomb makers should have been let go. Their release will most likely result in more death. Godspeed!!

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Nuke, regarding the bomb makers being let go. Can you elaborate anymore on that? How is that f***in possible? I mean with the evidence you provided, how can the brass over there allow them back on the streets. We are holding people in Gitmo for less than that, so what gives? Are they going to give up some intelligence or something. I just can't fathom any scenario that these bomb makers should have been let go. Their release will most likely result in more death. Godspeed!!

 

 

That story had a happy ending that I forgot to write about. Basically what happened was that the decision to let them go had already been made. However, in the last couple of days before their scheduled release there were no less than 4 more IED's found in sector that had already been planted which were made of fire extinguishers filled with explosive material. That finally convinced the incompetent boobs who run things around here that they needed to be put away for a while.

[Texsox]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/05/0...reut/index.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. Army is tightening restrictions on soldiers' blogs and other Web site postings to ensure sensitive information about military operations does not make it onto public forums.

 

Soldiers in war zones are already subject to restrictions on blogging and public posts. But the Army's new regulation could affect service members who have returned from war zones and started blogs about their combat experiences.

 

Under a new directive issued in April, soldiers must consult with their immediate supervisor and an officer responsible for what's known within the military as operational security, or OPSEC, for a review of planned publications.

 

Reviews will be needed for Web site postings, blog postings, discussions on Internet information forums and discussions on Internet message boards, according to the Army directive.

 

E-mail that will be published in a public forum is also subject to review under the regulation. But Army officers said personal e-mails will not be reviewed, calling that impractical.

 

"We're not asking that people not blog but that people be cognizant of OPSEC," said Army spokesman Paul Boyce.

 

Blogs, short for Web logs, are journal-style Web sites where people publish their diaries or thoughts, talk about current events or link to other stories or pictures.

 

Their popularity has grown in recent years, including among service members and their families who often use blogs to post pictures from the war zone and link to stories about Iraq.

 

I guess they don't like unbiased, first person, descriptions and accounts.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/05/0...reut/index.html

I guess they don't like unbiased, first person, descriptions and accounts.

 

no comment.

 

[Texsox]

Once again we seem to be trying to help a country who doesn't want to help themselves or us. It that scenario, no matter what we do, when we leave it's chaos all over again.

[SoxFan1]

"We called in EOD to blow it and then raided the house where the wire led back to. Nobody was home except for a dog ( which we shot ) so we turned the place upside down. The command wire led to a breaker switch. We took video of it and then destroyed it with our shotgun. After that, we exfilled the area and returned to base."

 

This disturbed me a bit.

[Texsox]

"We called in EOD to blow it and then raided the house where the wire led back to. Nobody was home except for a dog ( which we shot ) so we turned the place upside down. The command wire led to a breaker switch. We took video of it and then destroyed it with our shotgun. After that, we exfilled the area and returned to base."

 

This disturbed me a bit.

 

boys will be boys . . .

[SoxFan1]

boys will be boys . . .

Aren't dogs a man's best friend?

[Texsox]

Aren't dogs a man's best friend?

American dogs are man's best friend, not Iraqi dogs . . .

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

American dogs are man's best friend, not Iraqi dogs . . .

 

 

This Iraqi dog was standing 3 feet in front of us as we opened the door to the roof of this house and it gave us a dirty look. That was pretty much all I needed at that point cause we were half expecting a firefight in there.

 

 

Once again we seem to be trying to help a country who doesn't want to help themselves or us. It that scenario, no matter what we do, when we leave it's chaos all over again.

 

 

That was our assessment as well.

[Texsox]

That was our assessment as well.

 

I'm becoming convinced it doesn't matter if we leave in six months or six years, they will fall back to life as usual and what they are comfortable and familiar.