I am going out of town for the weekend.
I am going out of town for a long weekend and I will be back on here blogging next Tuesday.
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February 26, 2009
February 25, 2009
Why am I smiling?
To this day i do not know why I was smiling in this picture. Not all of the time in Iraq is non-stop action as the news portrayed it. It is 90% boredom and 10% organized chaos. A horrible head on semi collision happened right outside of our base. We were the first to arrive on scene. There were four casualties and I was the only infantryman on the scene with more advanced medical training; therefore I had to treat all these guys. I still feel guilty about the guy I couldn't save. He died at my knee. Iraqis notoriously do not wear their seat belts and this guy had severe internal bleeding, multiple broken bones, and some kind of head trauma. Well at least we saved the other three...
Maybe it was since I was new to Iraq and it was the first time Iraqi blood touched my skin... Disgusting...
(FYI: I ran out of latex gloves)
The Scariest Thing About Bobs...
The Scariest Thing About Bobs is not that they were trying to kill as as we were protecting them. The scariest thing about Bob is that he brings you delicious tea every time you see him. You are always told not to eat anything from anyone except for food provided by the military in combat. One guy in Baghdad was poisoned by a kind stranger while I was in Iraq. No, but seriously Bob was too smart to poison you on our own base however, all of the bobs were western educated. As a matter of fact most of the bobs were older (mid 40's) had PhD's from ivy league schools and spent a lot of time in the United States. These terrorists learned everything they know, right in our back yard. WTF has our government been doing to stop this kind of stuff?
So what about BOB?
Well, over the course of my year long vacation, on the beach with no water, I learned that many of the Bobs were not Iranian or Iraqi. The Bobs were Canadian, British, French, Russian, Turkish, Polish, and there were even American Bobs! I found this out very interestingly by chance. I happened to be the sentry one day to the main entrance to Camp Ashraf. A woman approached me and started to speak English! Wow, this was weird... She showed me her Drivers License and US Passport, and I was in shock! I asked her how she got into Iraq and I found out that she illegally crossed the border into Iraq (no big surprise there). I really didn't care that she was there illegally at this point. Then she said to me " I want to see my brother, he is in here". I asked her if he was a soldier, no I think he is with those other guys. OMFG there are American BOBS! Wow... Well I promptly and seized her drivers license as evidence, detained her, and reported it up the chain of command. In return I was ordered to make her leave. Unbelievable!
The Peoples Mujaheddin of Iran (PMOI)
We were kept in the dark about our primary mission in Iraq up until we got to our base Camp Ashraf. Camp Ashraf, before the Iraq War, was a staging and training ground for these terrorists and the Iraqi Republican Guard. At the beginning of the war the Air force bombed the piss out of two other PMOI installations further south in Iraq. After this happened the PMOI quickly surrendered to the Multinational Forces (It was more than just the US, UK and Aussies back then). So the Multinational force had a problem; What do you do with terrorists? They surrendered, and they did not want to fight against western nations, however they were accused of all sorts of war crimes. They are still trying to overthrow the government of Iran, but since we took all their toys away (tanks, guns, artillery,and heavy equipment), how are the PMOI going to take over a chicken coop, let alone another nation. Anyways, another problem happened; half of the PMOI defected from the PMOI to the United States. So now we had two groups of BOBS:X-PMOI and full blown PMOI (BOB was slang for the PMOI since they were technically not Haj'is). So the military imprisoned the defector BOBS, and semi caged the other BOBS. What harm could the other BOBS do, we had all of their toys right? WRONG! They tried to kill us on a few occasions in hope that they could prove that "they were in danger" therefore they should have their toys back. Here is a picture of a 155 US artillery round rigged as an IED. We were lucky!
WOW... Some people really do not get it..
It is sad that there are so many dense people in our country and on campus. I recently was published in the daily regarding a veterans benefits issue. Here are the links to the original article and my opinion column.
http://www.mndaily.com/2009/02/22/yellow-ribbon-program-burdens-universities
http://www.mndaily.com/2009/02/23/universities-should-pay-veterans#comment-7922
February 22, 2009
Well Obama Destroyed the Evidence...
My Blackberry just told me I received a message and it was a comment on my blog. I usually come on and test the links to make sure they are still working. I just found out that the link from the war spending blog is dead. It is sort of funny the page is being re written by the Obama administration.
February 17, 2009
How Did Defense Spending Attribute to the Fall of the Economy?
If you want to see some great BS published by the bush administration check this out.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/defense.aspx
Bush spent 584 BILLION on defense spending in fiscal year 2008. The former president even boasts that defense spending increased 62% since 2001, that is an increase of 362 BILLION DOLLARS! More money is being wasted in Iraq than is imaginable. I have pictures of guard towers that were constructed by civilian contractors that weren't much more than tree houses. These towers could not even support the weight of our sandbags or ballistic plates. Imagine having to fight for your life in a tree house constructed by your little brother. Scary thought huh? Guess how much these forts cost the government? They constructed 10 of these towers $25000 a piece. My good CPU died on me today and I will post the pics later. I'll come back to some of W's other claims of success posted on his website later.
February 16, 2009
If you voted for Bush a Yellow Ribbon is not going to make up for it!
I think this is a common sentiment amongst combat veterans. Take those stupid F-ing yellow ribbons off of your car! Nothing says that you really care less about professional soldiers than slapping a 10 dollar magnet on the back of your car. The magnet might make you feel better that we're getting our limbs blown and shot off, but it just illustrates what a lazy dumb ass you really are! How about you take the time to do something meaningful for a soldier or marine? You could send somebody a letter in a combat zone thanking them, it will only cost you a stamp. I know it is hard to think about what to write and it takes some effort, but you can do it! How about sending a care package to a stranger? Once again time, effort and a little dough but you can do it! Or what about supporting veterans legislation? Everyone supports the troops but nobody wants to give combat vets what we have earned. Check these links out.
http://images.cafepress.com/product/78110890v3_240x240_Front.jpg
We were not operating in Iran...
I'll let the picture speak for itself. This is a picture of a Blue Force Tracker mounted in a HMMWV. It is basically a communications device with a interactive GPS and map display. The LIGHT Blue dot is my truck and the line on the map is the Iraq border with Iran. What do you think?
Will will go after those who harbor terrorists!
Bush said, "Will will go after those who harbor terrorists!". Does the American population know that we are harboring terrorists in Iraq? Go ahead and google PMOI or MEK Army. It is a group of terrorist that are trying overthrow Iran. So one might ask, so how do you you know that? Well it was my bases primary mission to protect these A$$holes. I can tell you that nothing gave me more of a warm fuzzy than knowing that there was a good chance I could get killed or wounded protecting terrorists. Oh, wait is that vomit in my mouth? More to come on these turds...
We are here as liberators!
I wonder why the Iraqis forgot that we were liberating them? Is it because we took anything that had value or is it because we took over palaces with little strategic value? What kind of message did this send to the Iraqi people. Here are some pictures from Camp Victory Iraq. In the pictures you can see where our military's top brass in Iraq live. Then you can look what I lived in.. Do you think the Joes were jealous? I don't want to sound ungrateful for my unreliable electricity, or my sweltering tent, however what kind of example are these leaders of the military setting for their soldiers? It's like the fat star belly sneaches on the beaches... Literally.. Please Note the fat belly and the stars on them. LMFAO
http://www.ngb.army.mil/news/archives/2008/04/images/041708-troops_vigilant-full.jpg
http://www.1af.acc.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/070719-F-5121F-011.jpg
Well It's O-Dark-30... At least I slept tonight
I killed myself during PT, then I passed out. PT, booze, or prescription drugs seem to be the only things that can help me sleep ever since I came home from my last tour in Iraq. This brings me to the topic of the former administrations support (or lack of) for the troops. Bush and his republican allies voted repeatedly against veterans legislation. Does anyone else find it ironic that somebody would start a war, then not help the people who fought in it, while claiming that the nation supports the troops? With all the mental health and physical disabilities my cohort has endured you would think there would actually be some kind of support.
Here are a couple good articles:
February 15, 2009
Wohooo! Pictures
I finally got the picture to be the correct size on the blog. I will be back on later tonight after some PT (Physical Training for you civilians).
