Audio car speakers targeted towards older customers tend to emphasize the treble range….

Bad Candy on October 11, 2007 at 10:51 PM

Not just Turkey. Remember, the United States military’s oath is to the Constitution, not the President or the Senate or the Supreme Court. This is not by accident.

I’ve been remiss in not mentioning this earlier, as it’s probably the most important recent trend in Iraq: the militias are suddenly becoming unpopular as the citizenry belat……

Thoughts on Mobilization

Am I the only one without a website? You are going thru the same crap I did, and I am active duty. We trained in the snow (FT McCoy) for our summer sand-box vacation. Alot has to do with your higher and highest leadership. A lot of decisions are made quickly and that was the only place that could fit us in so quickly, and it has been used ever since. But now, we are currently trying to lobby/negotiate/persuade the Army and our leaders for a more practical training site (already picked out) that also has better training. Good luck, and stay safe. God speed.

Step one, insert 30 round magazine and charge weapon;

Step two, point weapon in general direction of enemy and depress trigger;

Step three, hold trigger until magazine is empty;

Step four, Insh’allah, my enemy will fall.

Two things I don’t understand, though. First, since when is the Iraqi Army such a superior fighting force that they can take on Iranian-trained militias like the Mahdi Army and Badr Brigades and “bash heads together” at will?

– Allahpundit

Since they are now trained by us, that’s when. Remember Iraq’s elite guards? The Republican Guards and other secret service units he had? We militarily embarrassed the heck out of them. Yes Iran has a lot of military experience, but NOTHING compared to us.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/10/iraqi_security_force_4.php

crosspatch and gator hit all the highlights before I could. If you have a key area like Basra, and you are the IA, do you send your best, or do you send the unready? Right now it looks like I will be working with a division that is somewhat in the middle of all this. I’ll let you know when I get there.

Chin up, man! Don’t you remember how YOU helped keep MY morale up while I was in Afghanistan in ‘04-’05? Maybe it is my turn. If I ever get back to the Large Apple, I’m buying you a drink, ‘k?

Such enormously optimistic news Allah’s not sure if he should believe it or even mention it, because if it’s real, he may jinx it. Long has been the hope that what happened in the Anbar Awakening could also happen among……

I think you nailed it, AP, but there is a twist:

The grand strategy is a ruse to entice the infidel invaders to voluntarily leave Iraq. Plus the defeatocrats in the states will seize upon this good news to trumpet a withdraw. The twist: Maliki will consolidate power, he will ‘big tent’ the shias to the south, and the integrated military will be the police (hence the generals deal). If the peace and prosperity hold, the shia & cosmo Iraqis will not tolerate a return of fanatical gangsters to turn the streets red again. With Iran gasping & clutching the international ropes, national Iraqi attention now turns to the new threat – Turkey.

Has Sadr Ried finally overplayed his hand?

Fixed it for ya.

Look at the Kurds. They were at each others throats for years under the US umbrella. Then they got their act together and look how far they’ve come.

Peters point is that Blackwater is gouging America, irrespective of their behavior in Iraq. I have no way of personally knowing if they behave as badly as their detractors claim. But I think Ralph Peters has hit the problem squarely on the head.

georgej on October 12, 2007 at 6:00 AM

Sounds like you care more about $$$$ than you do about the troops. A lot more. Shame on you.

MB4 writes about the arrogance of Blackwater. Of course, he’s just repeating some anti-war “talking points” and anecdotal reporting.

georgej on October 12, 2007 at 6:00 AM

Excuse me!

It is not just arrogance, it is criminal behavior and their being an enemy of the U.S. Army!

These “anti-war “talking points” and anecdotal reporting” as you call them are from Lt. Col. Mike Tarsa commander of the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division and another Army Colonel!

So you are just repeating some silly goofiness.

You quote Peters as saying, “Congress must defy its campaign contributors and criminalize attempts to hire those in uniform away from their service during periods of war and conflict.”. That will never fly in a free country. Our Soldiers and Marines are not indentured serfs.

Yet…Ralph Peters had a very illuminating column last Friday (”Bribing the Troops to Quit”) that pointed out WHY they and the other Merc outfits are bad, not just for Iraq, but for the American taxpayer.

Peters says that we spend a lot of money training the spec ops people and vetting them, and then after their enlistment time is ending, we allow Blackwater to go head-hunting among our troops during a time of war and hire them away for a LOT MORE MONEY.

Peters says that this makes no sense. The government hiring of Blackwater and the other Mercs happens, as he notes, BECAUSE of a shortage of capable people available. Why the shortage? Because Blackwater has hired our people away in the first place.

So, not only do we taxpayers pay for the background checks and training as part of their training as soldiers, but then we pay MUCH, MUCH more to hire back people who used to work for us, but at a much, much higher price. Whew. What a vicious circle!

Peters solution?

Here’s what we need to do to right a wrong that borders on treason:

* Congress must defy its campaign contributors and criminalize attempts to hire those in uniform away from their service during periods of war and conflict.

* If a service member put in a full 20 years or more and retired, he or she should be free to take a job with any law-abiding firm. But any soldier short of 20 who accepts specialized training and a security clearance at government expense should have to wait two years after his or her discharge before moving to a related private-sector position.

* Defense contractors who hire young veterans with advanced skills or security clearances should have to reimburse the government 50 percent of their training and background investigation costs.

Non-compete agreements are common in business and industry. Why can’t they be designed to apply to this situation? Reimbursement clauses are common in the professional sports business. Why not here as well?

Peters point is that Blackwater is gouging America, irrespective of their behavior in Iraq. I have no way of personally knowing if they behave as badly as their detractors claim. But I think Ralph Peters has hit the problem squarely on the head.

Terrorists “are going to continue to be at war with us, no matter what the outcome in Iraq,” Mr. Giuliani said recently in New Hampshire. The night before, he said that “there are no sure things,” and that if the United States fails in Iraq, “we have to be ready for that, too.” In California a few days later, speaking of “the danger of focusing on Iraq too much,” he said that complete success there would not win the fight against terrorism, and that failure there would not lose it.”

The blackout on good news can’t be kept up much longer. ABC News (Charlie Gibson) appears to have broken with the MSM and has started reporting the good news out of Iraq.

There is NO anti-Bush spin possible here. Further, PEW just reported that confidence in the MSM is at an all time low, even among Democrats, but essentially NON-EXISTENT among Republicans.

If one starts looking at the print media’s profit and loss statements and their circulation numbers, they are starting to hurt. Lower circulation means lower advertising rates means lower profits, if not losses. This is washing through to the broadcast media as well. MSNBC is about dead, with viewership essentially non-existent. And if GE does NOT dump NBC next year, you can bet that MSNBC will be shuttered instead.

The conscious decision to attempt to manufacture consent against the war has not been a success, and I think they know it.

Yes, they still do the mindless casualty reports, KIA Americans without context as to what our troop’s mission was and if it succeeded. Some of them are certlainly reluctant to drop the anti-Bush, anti-war campaign, but pretty soon they aren’t going to have much choice.

I’m thinking the “insurgency” (as we knew it) is about over.

The POLITICAL struggle in Baghdad is going to take center stage. In retrospect, until the Grand Mosque bombing, sectarian violence among Iraqi’s was not excessive (or at least not as excessive as it was after the bombing). The bombing was a deliberate Al Qaeda ploy to turn Shia against Sunni, and it succeeded.

Remember, that for hundreds of years, Sunni and Shia have peacefully coexisted, even intermarried, in Iraq. While rivalries between Shia and Sunni existed, they didn’t turn (first) resentful until Saddam, and (second) extremely violent until the Grand Mosque was first bombed.

Al Qaeda has since become a monster in most Iraqi’s eyes.

As Victor Davis Hanson wrote:

“A common theme heard from analysts and intelligence officers is the abject irreligious nature of al Qaeda. It is not quite zealotry to cut off the fingers of smokers, take 14-year old “brides”, mutilate the dead, force bodies to remain unburied, and steal businesses, homes and cars. Those are verifiable incidents—in addition to the other often told rumors of the terrorists serving children up to their parents or the employment of former male prostitutes as Al Qaeda heads. We think of bin Ladenism as a perverted distortion of Islam, but on the street level it is more a cover for gasoline and food racketeering, petty theft, and murder by young criminally-minded youth.”

Victor Davis Hanson, “Impressions of Iraq—part II,” 10/7/2007, http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/2007/10/07/impressions_of_iraqpart_ii.php

And so, the Middle Eastern dictate of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is operative here. Our Golden Hour will be that time period between the eradication of Al Qaeda as any kind of threat and the completion of the training and integration of Iraqis into to their military and police forces.

I think Petraeus is counting on this:

“That said, Iraqis are trying to adopt much of the ethos of the American office corps, and thus a constant refrain in training is the need for them to get out, risk danger, and treat their subordinates with respect.

Many are doing just that—to such a degree entire units are starting to emerge that are probably better than any in the Arab Middle East. Surely one fear of Iraq’s neighbors is that if this country ever gets settled down, its army will be one of the most professional and competent in the region.”

[Ibid.]

IMHO, the emerging competence of Iraq Army, plus the beginning of a political maturity (evidence being the “truces” being formed between the Shia militias, and between the Shia-led government and the Sunnis) gives the Iraqi people the best shot at having a peaceful and prosperous country.

What I gleaned from Yon, Roggio, Hansen, and the others, about Iraq, is that our forces are starting to be seen LESS as “invaders” and “occupiers” and MORE as builders, trainers, and reliable partners.

Major John, I certainly hope my analysis is not naive, because if things are as I think they are, your job will be much easier and much safer.

Of course, it can all go south in a hurry. I hope that doesn’t happen. This process MUST NOT FAIL!

Blackwater USA guards shot at Iraqi civilians as they tried to drive away from a Baghdad square on Sept. 16, according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene, where they found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons.

Tarsa said they found no evidence to indicate that the Blackwater guards were provoked or entered into a confrontation. “I did not see anything that indicated they were fired upon,” said Tarsa, 42, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. He also said it appeared that several drivers had made U-turns and were moving away from Nisoor Square when their vehicles were hit by gunfire from Blackwater guards.
*
Blackwater Is Soaked

The colonel was furious. “Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers.”
The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company.
One military contractor, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution in his industry, recounted the story of a Blackwater operative who answered a Marine officer’s order to put his pistol on safety when entering a base post office by saying, “This is my safety,” and wiggling his trigger finger in the air. “Their attitude was, ‘We’re f—ing security; we don’t have to answer to anybody’.”