Video: The Iraqi Army in training? Update: Afghan?
posted at 9:24 pm on November 1, 2007 by Allahpundit
It’s making the rounds on the nutroots blogs but the guy who uploaded it hasn’t uploaded anything else, which makes me suspicious. What say you, military readers? Are Iraqis typically this raw in training or is there more to this than meets the eye, i.e. some sort of goof for the camera? If the former, then Abizaid’s estimate sounds about right.
Which isn’t to say some of these guys can’t handle themselves quite well when they need to.
Update: Patrick Ishmael e-mails to say Break.com is pimping this as Afghan. I knew it was sketchy.
Blowback
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I got this from my brother when he got back from kuwait. I Think he got it over there
William Amos on November 1, 2007 at 9:26 PM
How long ago?
Allahpundit on November 1, 2007 at 9:28 PM
Yeah, that’s pretty much how ALL new recruits begin.
Tony737 on November 1, 2007 at 9:29 PM
Not too long the 29th. Hes been back since the end of september but on leave. Will have to ask him where he got it but he was asking me to forward it to Hotair. I told him I wasnt sure you’d take a file in an email
William Amos on November 1, 2007 at 9:31 PM
I take it back he sent me a bunch of stuff on the 39th. This he sent me on the 26th
William Amos on November 1, 2007 at 9:32 PM
THOSE ARE AFGHAN NATIONAL ARMY
That video was ripped from Live Leak TRUST ME
Win Win Win on November 1, 2007 at 9:35 PM
Most NATO troops will say ANA is ok, but they start out will little or no training
Win Win Win on November 1, 2007 at 9:36 PM
Why is it a big deal if recruits on the other side of the world dont know how to do jumping jacks? Maybe they dont do jumping jacks in Iraq. If you had never seen anyone do them before, and youd never done them before, dont you think it might take a little bit to get the hang of it?
So someone please explain to me how this means they are ‘raw’. If this was Americans, then yes, but my point is we are assuming they are like us, i.e. that they grew up doing jumping jacks, when they are very different.
kaltes on November 1, 2007 at 9:37 PM
I guess my brother got sent this as he labels them “Iraqis”
again was his first day back on base and Im sure he had a lot of stuff in his emails
William Amos on November 1, 2007 at 9:38 PM
Yeah, I’m not too surprised. Uncoordinated but only in that they’ve never done this routine, a routine we here learn fairly early on. I went through the same type of thing when I went to my first Ball Room dance class with the simple cha-cha.
What I was surprised at was a comment made in the current Totten article that gyms are opening up all over in Iraq and am curious if that is at all related to the emphasis our troops place on excerise and pushing the envelope with being physically fit.
Dusty on November 1, 2007 at 9:42 PM
Dear me I guess you have never in football practice.
mjkazee on November 1, 2007 at 9:43 PM
The Drill Instructor is too kind.
It looks more like The 1st Islamic Special Olympics.
I want to see what they do with their “Get down and give me 20!” punishment push ups.
Do they go sideways?
profitsbeard on November 1, 2007 at 9:45 PM
my son has been doing jumping jacks since kindergarten and could have been one of those guys in the video. Gets his athletic ability from his mother.
ctmom on November 1, 2007 at 9:45 PM
If these are Iraqis, there’s something in the water in the Middle East.
amerpundit on November 1, 2007 at 9:46 PM
1. As others have mentioned, those are Afghanis.
2. Yes, poor Iraqis have almost no cultural history of exercise for its own sake. They wear uniforms in irregular, individual ways, have discipline problems, take irregular leave and sometimes show up late.
But they also fight like mad when properly led and motivated, and die in terrible numbers in one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Poking fun at them in a good-natured way is one thing. Deriding them as less than men because they can’t do jumping jacks like US Marines is shameful. Real ethnocentric meanspiritedness, the type of thing the left is supposed to abhor, as ostensible “liberals.”
BillINDC on November 1, 2007 at 9:47 PM
I think the ladies of the Isreali defense force could take these guys. No problemo.
TheSitRep on November 1, 2007 at 9:49 PM
I could care less about their familiarity with calisthenics. Let me see how they shoot, or how they respond to being shot at, and then I’ll be a bit more willing to pass judgment on them.
Bob Owens on November 1, 2007 at 9:50 PM
It reminds me of when I went for a run on stop-over in my travel through the IZ in Baghdad. Some Iraqi guards saw me exercising, and sort of started to mimic the American and do makeshift calisthenics and run a little bit. They looked awkward, to say the least. Is the response to sneer at them for it? If one think guys like this can’t fight and kill the enemy because they haven’t grown up in a society bored enough to hit Ballys as a hobby, one would be wrong. Ditto Bob Owens.
BillINDC on November 1, 2007 at 9:54 PM
BTW, my scorn is directed at the “nutroots blogs” that this is apparently giving material to, not any particular commentary on this thread.
BillINDC on November 1, 2007 at 10:01 PM
Damn, where is Jack LaLane when you need him?
sweeper on November 1, 2007 at 10:09 PM
So fake. I mean, look at the guy 3rd from the left. Please.
BJ* on November 1, 2007 at 10:10 PM
or even Richard Simmons
sweeper on November 1, 2007 at 10:12 PM
It could say something to their ability to be taught though. If you can’t train someone to do jumping jacks, how can you train them to act as a cohesive group?
These guys should be able to do jumping jacks together. It isn’t hard. It’s about them listening and learning. If they can’t learn to do a jumping jack, they can’t learn much of anything in my estimation.
ThackerAgency on November 1, 2007 at 10:17 PM
Dear Bill ~ I think your ardent defense should carry the caveat, “After they’ve been doing jumping jacks for a while…” For those of you who have never been there, not everyone is as co-ordinated as Richard Simmons when they hit boot camp. You would NOT have wanted to see Kcruella, myself and a good number of our platoon the first week or so in Parris Island.
The Bolshoi we weren’t.
tree hugging sister on November 1, 2007 at 10:18 PM
THose are ANA. God help me, right next to a B-hut too.
I would love to see some of the fighting nutrooters try to handle what the average ANA soldier ends up dealing with…
As Bill said above, the Iraqis do emulate our better behaviors. Whether I feel like it or not, I damn well will have to do PT at least 5 days a week while making sure the IA sees this, and joins in if possible.
major john on November 1, 2007 at 10:20 PM
You should take your estimator in for a calibration check. I think maybe your comparability belt is squeaky. Or maybe it’s a blown proportional seal. You’ll only know after you open it up.
I just hope you don’t throw a logic rod before you get there.
The Apologist on November 1, 2007 at 10:27 PM
The Apologist on November 1, 2007 at 10:27 PM
Walking takes more coordination than a jumping jack because you actually have to move somewhere.
ThackerAgency on November 1, 2007 at 10:31 PM
Thacker, have you dealt with the ANA much? I kinda sorta trusted them with my life on occasion, and I don’t give a damn if they can do jumping jacks or not. They can move under fire, and they can get through or out of ambushes – that’ll do for me, thanks.
major john on November 1, 2007 at 10:34 PM
Well major john, what is our purpose of being there then? How do you train a group of people who can’t learn?
If this is the best they can be trained, I guess I’ll be in the bring our guys home camp then because they can’t be trained by us. They must be OK by themselves.
I’m not trying to disparage anyone. But if you want to turn someone into a wide receiver, they might need to be able to be taught how to catch – no matter how fast they might be.
ThackerAgency on November 1, 2007 at 10:44 PM
No reason to bust on these guys, ya know? Maybe it’s their first day. Maybe it’s a prank. Don’t let the nutroots make us believe that this means the war is a lost cause. It’s not, we, along with our Allies, are winning.
Tony737 on November 1, 2007 at 10:51 PM
Can’t do jumping jacks like US Marines?
They can’t do jumping jacks like first day inductees at Fort Dix F’ing New Jersey! Cub Scouts do better jumping jacks.
I don’t think they are being degraded as “less than men”. I find them to be quite endearing. If any of the networks ever hire me to do a comedy show I will hire them and pay them very good money and make them celebraties.
MB4 on November 1, 2007 at 10:53 PM
You may have just won a cigar!
MB4 on November 1, 2007 at 10:55 PM
And that’s possible. I understand that these are the guys ON OUR SIDE. I appreciate and respect that. I understand that they risk their lives to join our guys. I appreciate that they bring things to the table that our guys need (like local knowledge).
I’m just saying that they need to be teachable too if we are to work together with them effectively enough.
ThackerAgency on November 1, 2007 at 10:58 PM
I don’t think it is a prank. A couple of the guys are doing OK. A couple of guys on the left are doing them very coordinated and one is even in time with the instructors. It could be a first day thing. Sort of a ‘before and after’ deal.
ThackerAgency on November 1, 2007 at 11:00 PM
Very special forces.
BadgerHawk on November 1, 2007 at 11:00 PM
Judging by the what looks like DCU pants the PT leader on the left is wearing (you only get a brief glimps), unless this is the AF training these guys you can date this video to – before the Army switched to their ACUs (late 2005?). And on the 19 second mark you can see most of a couple mountain in the back ground, so this is probably either in northern Iraq, or Afghanistan. I’d bet Afghanistan by looking at thier uniforms.
Kuwaitis were wearing a pattern very similar to our Marine’s new desert uniform (with their own markings and ranks of course) when I was there at the beginning of my tour this past April. I’d say this was in Afghanistan.
El Guapo on November 1, 2007 at 11:02 PM
I hope you know it’s just good natured fun poking.
BadgerHawk on November 1, 2007 at 11:04 PM
Maybe they are the screw-ups.
MB4 on November 1, 2007 at 11:08 PM
Too true. This proves my point that liberals think the entire world is just like their neighborhood and the worse that the world gets is like the bad part of town.
- The Cat
MirCat on November 1, 2007 at 11:09 PM
I never had nearly that much fun at Ft Dix.
MB4 on November 1, 2007 at 11:09 PM
A lot of these guys, ESPECIALLY the terrorists, still use the “spray and pay” tactic. “Whatever the bullet hits, it is Allah’s will.” (Thus, the very high civilian casualty rate in urban fighting, plus they hide in the crowds) A very hard habbit/custom/ideology/theology to get them to break and to train them to rely on their own skills and not Allahs will. I really did not mean for that to rhyme. It is almost like asking them to stop trusting in Allah.
El Guapo on November 1, 2007 at 11:10 PM
Interesting. I wonder if Iraqi doctors use the same philosophy. Iraqi surgeons? Iraqi engineers?
MB4 on November 1, 2007 at 11:14 PM
No crap. If you horsed around like that, everyone would have to do extra for punishment. 100 – 4 count, anyone messes up, the count starts over! And some dumb @$$ always does that extra one at the end. $%*&er! But then again, looking back, things like that I laugh about now.
El Guapo on November 1, 2007 at 11:16 PM
LOL God I sure hope not!
El Guapo on November 1, 2007 at 11:17 PM
All I can say is that one should not view this video through the rose-colored lenses of a Western perspective. Not everyone has grown up with calisthenics.
NPP on November 2, 2007 at 1:55 AM
This Video is a lot better Allah, check it out.
Win Win Win on November 2, 2007 at 2:14 AM
PT, good for you, good for me,
OORAH!
TheSitRep on November 2, 2007 at 5:10 AM
As I said in another comment: poking fun is ok, as a lot of humor comes from goofing on our allies, who many find “endearing” when they encounter new things and do them in a particularly goofy fashion. I think a lot of it is funny myself.
My ire is related to AP saying the nutroots are ragging on these guys, as in the IA are a joke and so are our efforts to train them.
Again, this is ANA (or cops, I’m not sure), not IA, but the same rule applies. That may be their first day, and you CAN train basic things like that to a certain extent. But you might take video at their 10th day and find something to laugh at. They don’t train exactly as easily as Americans. But they’ll shoot and go into battle.
And to see a few second clip of some goofy local national new recruits that have never done PT before and make some sweeping judgments on whether they can fight the bad guys is just silly.
BillINDC on November 2, 2007 at 5:38 AM
Looks like the Pilates class for the Daily Kos staff.
peacenprosperity on November 2, 2007 at 6:19 AM
PT really isn’t part of their culture. I mean that for the whole of the Middle East, not just Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever. At the Army Captain’s Career Course (formerally OAC), we had a number of foreign students from Middle Eastern countries. None of them could do a lick of PT.
BohicaTwentyTwo on November 2, 2007 at 8:41 AM
Yeah, but can they jump through flaming hoops?
Pablo on November 2, 2007 at 8:58 AM
AP, can we have the mincing jihadi video back for a little side-by-side comparison?
BTW, I’d hate to think what my own jumping jacks would look like these days.
TexasDan on November 2, 2007 at 9:46 AM
[TexasDan on November 2, 2007 at 9:46 AM]
Ditto, on the last one. Sat here last night thinking “Can I still do that?” and didn’t want to find out.
Dusty on November 2, 2007 at 10:12 AM
Oh … puh-leeeeze.
The guy in the middle is doing the Iggy Shuffle ferpetesake.
Anybody who believes this is even remotely legit is an idiot who probably believes heat doesn’t make steel pliable.
Come. On.
No kidding.
Professor Blather on November 2, 2007 at 3:59 PM