caitlyn
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Joined: 12/22/2004
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Our relative, the army Colonal is on leave from Iraq, here for two weeks. We had a wonderful party for him ... everyone who is anyone in our family was there.
Late in the evening, when all the wives, etc ... were off talking about whatever they talk about, I sat with the men and listened as they discussed the war. They let me stay ... I was wearing a tight top. 
Some casual observations, directly from a man at the front (and certainly not a Republican man, rest assured). All these points are what was presented by the Colonal.
The men on the ground still have a lot of faith in the mission, don't think we are losing the war, and want to stay.
You never see any media outside the green zone. The troops laugh at the stories we are being given by the press, because they are so obviously bullshit, so as to be laughable.
There are two types of IED's. One is the home made type and is really not a threat. It might blow of a tire or mess up a transmission, but isn't a real danger to men inside armored hummers. As a side note, the Colonal insisted that unarmored hummers are not allowed outside the green zone. The second type of IED is imported from Iran and is very dangerous. Most of the cobat casualties are from these types.
The troops are glad that Rummy is gone, and believe it or not, are pretty much glad that the Democrats are in control of Congres, because they believe this will lead to more troops. These troops would be used to secure the Iran/Iraq border and drastically cut down on the very dangerous imported IED's.
This part baffled me, and to be honest, I'm having a hard time buying it ... but this post is about raw data, not anyone's opinion (other than the Colonal's, of course). Only about half of the American casualties are from combat operations. About 20% are training accidents that would happen even if these troops were not in Iraq. 10% are just stupidity, like driving around in a hummer with the windows down (this seems like a combatl casualty to me, but again, this is just presentation of information). 15% are troops engaging in things they shouldn't be doing ... the Colonal mentioned there were a lot of "Kelly's Hero's" in Iraq. 5% were suicides, which I find most distressing.
There is no civil war in Iraq, according to the Colonal, and if the press would get out in harms way, they would know this. He says what is going on is strictly urban gang warfare, much like the Crips and Bloods. Again, I'm not sure I buy this, but the information is, what it is.
Iraqi troops torture just about any prisoner they capture. American troops try to stop it, but all that does is make the Iraqi troops not bring them in. I'm making the assumption that the same applies to British troops, but that was never mentioned in the discussion.
American civilians are making mad jack in Iraq, and that is really pissing off our troops. The Colonal mentioned that many of his support staff was being used as combat troops and that civilians were taking their place.
He said that there have been no instances of Iraqi's using children as terrorist bombers. Iraqi's have a lot of love for their children and he doubts that children will ever be used to attack soldiers. Not so for women. He said that women very rarely know they are going to be bombers. They are told to take the car to the market and end up being in an explosive vehicle.
A long topic of discussion was corruption within the Iraqi forces. He categorized them as very brave, but very porly trained and very corrupt. He is dead set against pushing them towards quick self governing, and he insists that they are not even close to ready.
He said the lack of body armor is complete bullshit and always has been ... period. He said that most of the letters home bitching about body armor, were guys trying to get out and finding almost anything to gripe about. He said that the press keeps counting guys inside tanks, not wearing body armor when they make their calculations, and that nobody wears body armor in a tank.
That's about all that I can remember before the Crown took hold. It was an interesting night.
As a disclaimer, I'm sure some will flame away ... but to repeat, this is a presentation of information taken from a conversation from someone that is actually there, and in no way a presentation of anyone's opinion on any of this ... especially mine.
I'm sure I'll get flamed anyway.
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Evening With a Colonal - 
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