CB--maybe if you delayed your posts by a week or so you would be able to write more of what you were doing instead of doing "something." I have to admit, this is quickly becoming your new claim to fame! pretty funny!
My 2003 Iraq Blog is slowly going... http://www.cimoli.com/blog/cimoli_blog
I read flying in helicopters (in the daylight anyway) so I totally understand about saving your place before doing anything else. Not saving your place would be a sign of panic and in the famous worlds of Douglas Adams "DON'T PANIC"
Hi CB, I've been reading your blog for a few days now and have to say it's become one of my favorites. Thanks for doing what you do. It's really awe-inspiring to read the personal accounts of a real soldier in Iraq. It's so much different than what is the general accepted idea. People have become so immune. Whenever I heard (prior to reading your blog) that someone was killed in Iraq it was just like, "Oh man. Not again." But now, it just makes me speechless. Stay safe. You've got another person here rooting for your safe return home. Take care, Amina in New Jersey
Random musing 1: on Okinawa to this day they're still finding UXO from WWII. I remember the AFRTS PSAs preaching about how to proceed if you find any, or if the locals tell you about it. The PSAs were acting as if the UXO is still unstable enough to be dangerous, which I suppose it is.
Random musing 2: Every time I see the acronym "ICP", I keep thinking of "Insane Clown Posse", a rap group back here in the States.
Keep posting excatly as you are CB. You convey yourself as not only talking to each one of us but giving the feeling that we are there with you. A question I do have is how long before adapted to your surroundings? Reading in the vehicle there is one thisng but after mortars have gone off around you and calmly going back to where you last placed your bookmark is wild. How do you keep your nerves in check??
After an-Najaf bombing, the hell is going to Iraq. One can imagine the Saint Peter's basilica of Rome in danger of air strike? That is what is happen in Iraq. The U-S-A incident are one expression of this, only the visible portion of an iceberg.
Always remember that soldier are paid to kill ... and to die. Then, try hard to stay safe. No panic and no paranoia, of course.
Firing ports on a bradley are as useless as tits on a bull. They aren't used. There is nothing wrong with being on the inside of a Stryker and reading - although it says great things about how smooth a ride it must be compared to the back of an M2 where it would be impossible to read as well as cramped as hell.
So nothing wrong with CB reading. The HMMV driver reading was a different story, of course, and handled properly.
Putting kids in jail when they throw rocks, and their parents couldn't pick them up until 24hrs later? Good way to ensure less hatred for the occupation. The parents must have loved US Troops after that, and it must have convinced all the locals to support us. Kind of like how the Rodney King beating brought the LAPD and the minority communities in LA close together.
Whoever coined the term "common sense" deserves a severe beating.
The troops are there to guard oil wells and support George W. Bush's reelection. The Americans ironically yelling "support the troops" at peace protesters from their SUV's are the ones who put them there. I feel bad for the troops to a certain extent, but the fact that they hate and resent peace protesters makes me feel like they can sort this mess out for themselves. Good luck to you. Call us if you need us.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The overwhealmnig atack of the holy city of an-Najaf isn't a US "Putting Kids in Jail" strategy? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"CB": Finaly I agree with "these we'll defend":
"Putting kids in jail when they throw rocks, and their parents couldn't pick them up until 24hrs later? Good way to ensure less hatred for the occupation. The parents must have loved US Troops after that, and it must have convinced all the locals to support us. Kind of like how the Rodney King beating brought the LAPD and the minority communities in LA close together."
The holy city of an-Najaf is overwhealming atacked just now. Why? Try to think. Only becose Mr. George Nero Bush and his strangelove's neocon guys belives in the "Putting kids in the jail" strategy. He believes that by putting Moqtada Al Sadr, who they see as a kid, in the jail, or perhaps by killing the kid, Iraq will stay on peace and, of course, Mr. Nero Bush will win the US elections. What a perfect plan!
Then, Negroponte tell his puppet Allawi, a iraqi former Saddan guy and CIA operative that serves Negroponte's occupation forces, to put Moqtada Al Sadr in the jail. Or kill he. Simple like that. But, what happened?
Happened that he kid is grand-grand-grand-son of Ms. Babylon and Mr. Iman Ali. You see: Ms. Babylon is the ancient of all of the mothers of the whole world. And Iman Ali is the prophet of the Muslin World. And the kiD is a great troublemaker! Firt of all, he is predending to be a champion of Mohamad Ali. You know how Cassius Clay becomes Mohamad Ali? That's it. These man is a directly son of Mr. Iman Ali and Moqtada Al Sadr becomes his champion by the way of the neocon's perfect plan.
In April 04, Paul Bremer boosts the kid's pretensions, using the same "jailing kids" strategy. When 4 blackwaters got killed in Falluja, the same "jailing kids" strategy. The sunni-shiite uprising hells-up and boosts the defenders of the defiant Falluja, that becomes a model. And now, another dose of these strategy.
Allay is a brave man. He personaly shoots to dead six handcuffed prisoners a months ago. Negroponte is also a brave man. The latin american people knows it very well. But the task is too big for him. The Marines, as usual, are ordered to do the dirt job. The kid, that is not a silly one, run out and defends itself in Mohamad Ali house. Where? In the an-Najaf holy shrine of Imam Ali, indeed. Then, holy hell is going into an-Najaf. 500 lb bombs. F-16. AC-130. Bradleys. No civilian casualitys, of course, only "colateral damnage" of hundreds. You kwnow much better them me about the stuff.
The kudo militiamen is yong iraqis only several years more older than the U-S-A kids. But they have a heavy hardcord strategical back-up provided by the formers iraqi arm comanders and soldiers of the old divisions of the Republican Guard, the sunnis of Falujah and Ramadi. At least one year before the invasion, realizing that it is impossible to win a war against the US forces, they stockpilled lots and lots of weapons in all Iraq. They provided false intelligence to down the munber of the american troops. "The americans will be recevead by flowers", you remember this? And, whem invasion becomed, and US Army - despite under heavy fire - approaches to Bagdah, these divisions sudently desapeared in front of the american commander's eyes. There are storys about how they also made a lot of american money by doing the last. And, of course, iranian special forces, shiites like they, well trained they in the terrain. Well trained and no feared guys like "CB" show us in the 04 August stuff. These kids really know how throw rocks.
The holy city of an-Najaf had a kind of pope of the Muslin World. Ayatollah Al Sistani is his name. He is very cooperative with the americans and he had a very strong moral force over ordinary midle and pour class iraqi people. But, the guy flees away to London just in the early days befor the overwhealming attack. Head disease, he said. Who beleaved?
Try to think. Saddan himself take a bloodbath on an-Najaf. Bush father encourage the shiite uprising and let them to dead alone. The old Saddan guy Negroponte's puppet is trying to do the same. Who really is in charge of the situation? Allawi and his master Negroponte? Course not. Both by jailing or killing the kid, the americans will be overwhealming hated by the iraquis and the Muslin World. And, if the kid does'nt go to the jail ... Wow! What a bad example! Another Falluja, but a Falluja in the head of Iraq, the second city of the nation, and the most sacred one?
A former colonel and two formers generals of the Republican Guard said a couple of months ago, in an interview to "Asian Times" that by attacking Falluja and failing, the occupation had reached a point of no return. They were wrong. The real point of no return is reaching just now. By ataccking an-Najaf, Bush leaded the US Empire to the point of no return in the Midle Est mess.
Then, forgot the bullshits and try hard to returns alive to home.
THe mission comes first, and risking your life for the mission is what soldiers do - which means if jailing kids pisses off the local community then it is counter-productive and will lead to more rock-throwing and worse in the future.
I hear people all the time saying "bomb that mosque" and they can't understand why the military is being so circumspect about it. Many in the military (mostly junior EMs) feel the same way. "WE should just kick ass" the simple-minded or naive always say. But the mission isn't to get the one kid to stop throwing rocks - it is to create an environment where kids AND parents don't want to throw rocks. If jailing the kids helps the mission then great, but it doesn't pass the "smell" test to me. There is a time for overwhelming violence, a time for a show of force, and a time for civil affairs concerns to come first. With kids or with protests (even violent rock-throwing ones) civil affairs come first, not safety. The insurgent's best hope is that some "hard-core" no-nonsense types who don't understand the mission will get pissed and fire into a crowd.
One of the most helpful things in the success of our own revolution was the Boston Massacre. The British troops showed great restraint as they were provoked by the crowd, and finally they fired into the crowd when they got tired of dealing with the "rebels and traitors." They would tell you that their personal safety was at stake, that they wanted to teach the demonstrators a lesson, etc. In reality they created a bunch more American patriots overnight and the British lost the war. The truth of what happened is still lesser-known than the myth that the British "massacred" innocents that day. Patriot propagandists went into overdrive to convince their fellow colonists that the British were their enemy, that the redcoats were evil, etc. etc., and it worked so well that most history books repeat that story, although the crowd provoked the troops that day. Of course I love that the British did the wrong thing, but I'm for our troops and want victory so we should heed the lessons of history.
BTW Alvaro - No the "insurgents" aren't on the right side like the American Patriots were. They are bad guys trying to either install a fundamentalist regime or to restore Baathism. The point is that the US and the Iraqi govt is fighting them for the allegiance of the people, and jailing the people's kids doesn't help the side that should win - our side.
As for situational awareness in the back of a Stryker - there isn't any. Staying alert so that you can stare at the guy next to you? What purpose does that serve other than to ensure boredom? Reading informs the soldier's mind while also taking away his nervousness. I think reading is just fine as long as the troops are rushing down the ramp in good order .005 seconds after the ramp lowers.
And Alvaro - thanks for agreeing with me. It always makes it harder for me to make my point. You should give capitalism a try. No long discussions about dialetical materialism, and the shopping is great!
Point taken about the rock throwing. Then again, the prison capacity is probably not large enough to hold all the detainees. Non-lethal tech is probably more in order here, like maybe the sticky glue or bursts of pepper spray in industrial quantities, just to disperse them.
Better yet, let the ICP figure out what to do with them and just get the hell outta there, like CB's platoon DID.
__________________________________________________________________ CBFTW, When you first posted this, I tried to make a comment. I don't know what happened but I could not make a comment. Now it looks like I can. The one word that explains it all is APATHY. And if you become apathetic about your situation, you could get hurt. I know you can't run on adrenaline all the time but always be sharp no matter what,so that you don't get hurt and neither does your stryker and your buddies. I can't say all the things I had said prior to this because I lost it all - I may have put some of it under a previous post,if I was able to post at all. Stay Safe, that's the most important thing. Congrats again on your award. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, August 17th ET: I promised I would write to you but instead of sending things personally to your email, I thought I would tell a very small section of the story here -hopefully helping you also in understanding your father. I am from that generation. The Vietnam generation. My husband was a Captain of the Green Berets, Special Forces in Vietnam. He went to OCS and all the other schools, was a paratrouper, a ranger, an assasin and in his last two years, ran a camp teaching the South Vietnamese how to kill. He had been shot once and went back. At the end which his camp was overrun, he was blown up by one of those air bombs and we were sure he would not make it through alive the damage was excessive. My brother-in-law from Colorada, an air force Major flew over there to see him and assess his condition before they told the parents. I don't think they ever knew how much danger his life really was in but like an accident later on in life, he fought it and somehow survived. Of course, the army says he was discharged in 1969 when in fact, he wasn't discharged until 1971 - ie "advisor status was kept extremely secret." I recently gave my oldest son his father's briefcase that proves what I am saying is correct. He didn't have therapy, he was not befriefed and did not have "repatriation" process, something they have learned from the lessons of Vietnam. I did not know him when he was in Vietnam but meant him in the mid 1971"s when he returned home. He was relentless in his pursuit of me and I wanted nothing to do with him. He never left me alone. He was at my work, he was at my house when I got out of work and sooner or later he wore me down. I did not know how to handle him - I was only 17, going on 18, when I met him. I was afraid of him and as plans were being made for our wedding, I felt as if there was a big black cloud over my head that I could not shake. It was of course, my instinct. And I always say TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS. If you trust your instincts, you can never make the wrong decision. I made a bad mistake but I did not know why. A man could not go through the things he did without coming back more than just scarred and he was going to get worse. When we found out I was pregnant, things became horrific and my life and the life of my child were in great danger. I had no one to talk to; even my parents were like "you made your bed, now you have to sleep in it" even if it meant by loosing my life. His friends were not helpful to him or to me. Between the drinking, the pot, the parties, the motorcycles, his mental state got worse and worse and worse and my being in his wrath got worse for me. So let's bypass this and move on further. He would not get treatment and I was just a kid who really had no idea what to do and there was nothing I could do for him. He refused seeing a therapist - something they make you guys see now and he didn't write as therapy, instead reliving it all inside his head over and over and over again. Those years also showed vets going off and killing people at McDonalds and other freaky things. He was trained to kill and he was never untrained not to kill. As the years went by, his emotional state, his mental state deteriorated to the point that I finally had to do something about it and if he could not go for help, then I had to get him out of the house and away from our son or we'd go down with him. No one, including him, should have had to go through so much. Several years later in June of 1978, he was in a motorcycle accident, literally killed by another driver - a girl who just got her license. If he had only let go of the motorcycle, things would have turned out differently. She hit him a total of three times, the impact so bad that with his pelvis he literally forced the handlebars forward which had to be incomprehensible. The third hit caused him to go flying and the back of his head hit a stone wall killing him immediately by crushing the back of his head into the front of his head. When the paramedics and ambulance showed up at the scene, they didn't see a scratch on him, so immediately went to work on CPR and got his heart started and they did CPR all the way to the hospital. Once at the hospital - and at that day and age, all I can do is be thankful that this particular hospital was so far advanced. After he was put on life support, they then realized the extent of the damage. First was that fact he was brain dead and brain stem dead, Every bone in his body was broken. His testicles were the size of grapefruit. They drew on his body but I do not know why - somehow his spirit was still with him. (Later in years when returning to college in my mid thirties, I did my thesis on euthanasia - because from this moment on, I learned everything I possibly could about the human body, brain death, brain stem death, euthanasia, et al.) The accident happened on a Friday night in June of 1978. At that time, our son had already turned 5 and I was 2 months short of turning 25 and he was 2 months short of turning 31. On Sunday night as I was sitting there with another nurse (I had been shaking from the beginning Saturday morning and had already lost 7 pounds) she asked me about him, so I started with his classic features and everything that I knew. I remember wishing they would loosen the tape around his head holding in the respirator because it looked like it really hurt. Being an organ donor, I had his father sign the papers that morning. I was still vibrating at 10 pm that Sunday night and I could not manage anything worse than what I was doing right then and there. It was so hard to comprehend especially when he looked allright, had the IV's in, 80 units of blood poured into his body and now he was really swelling up. I remember standing there playing with his hair and it was still and hard (brain death causes that immediately) and I saw that they had taken a towel and wrapped it several times putting it under his head to make it look normal when his head actually ended right behind his ears.I was shocked. Although I had been in the medical field - as a patient - since the day I was born, this was something I didn't know anything about. While that nurse and I were sitting across the bed to each other, my shaking coffee cup in hand, around 10 pm, something really odd happened. All of a sudden, I felt this overwhelming peace (same feeling I had after the birth of our son when I went into cardiac and respiratory arrest and they thought I was just sleeping but that is another story.) That peace overwhelmed me and I stopped shaking - the nurse was like "What was that?" and in bounced his cousin who was going to spend the night there with me on watch came running in the room all white faced having experienced a weird feeling as he was coming up the dark stairs to get to where I was. The nurse and I looked at one another and then looked at my husband and we knew that it was then his soul left his body (I told you he was a fighter) sent a message to us, and to his cousin while in the darkened stairway and later I found it it reached other members of the family and our dog who wailed. I had stopped shaking but what I was looking at,was beginning to look really grotesque. The papers had been signed. You still think they are going to wake up and you breathe with the machine, holding your breath when they took the tube off and emptied it of the fluid that builds up. Today, every hospital has a transplant team but back then it was specialized so you had to wait for a transplant team. So that late Sunday night, after his fighting soul finally left letting us know it was okay (although it took me many months to recuperate from this and years to really accept it. Although I was going to spend the night again once his cousin arrived, they told us that the transplant team (they only did eyes and kidneys then; too bad for his heart was as strong as an ox) would not be there until Tuesday = that's two more days!! So they told us it was better if we did not come back and wait until the transplant team did their thing on Tuesday. So we left and I did not return after that. This was a man who had tried to kill me from the moment of our wedding, kill me while pregant with his child and kill the child while I was pregant. He was not the same when he came back from Vietnam. I guess dependng upon your situation, what you did,what you experienced, is different from all those that were there - his was horrendous and he was going insane because of it. But when I felt that overwhelming peace, he was telling me that things were okay, that he was at peace, and all is well with the world. On Tuesday, the transplant team arrived; he went into surgery for his kidneys and eyes, then shut off the machines. At around 4 pm we got the call it was over and it was then that I really broke down into shattered pieces. And there was the mortician there shoving books in my face to pick a casket and I wanted to rip his head off, so I asked his father to please choose for me, I just can't do it. Who in their right mind is ready for something like that at age 24???!!! Mortality is just that, CBTFW, you have no idea when it's going to rock your boat. I had already been through hell and back suffuring loss after loss by this time and it didn't end there, either. During the "family viewing" and because he was facing in such an angle, he was fairly bald and you could see all the marks on top of his head, so I brought that up to the mortician, so that next day when we went back for the wake, he had a full head of hair, his beard cut short and looking good and he looked like he was sleeping. Definitely a prettier picture than the last one I saw on Sunday night. He was quite a handsome man and finally at peace with the world. He didn't have any purple hearts in his drawer because he refused them while still in the service especially after his near death experience and the things he had to do in the service for which he was an "advisor" - a soldier who was not even accounted for but died nonetheless from his 6 years of tours in Vietnam. (Remember back then, when you did come home, all people did was protest against our heroes - ie antiwar sentiment. He came home an UNHERO and that was not right. With what he did over there, they should have retrained him not to kill before sending him out to the public, just like they did with many other vietman vets and expect them to live normal lives. Things are different now, thank God. I only wish this medium was available for him when he was humping his back. That is why it is so important for you to keep writing. Even if you sent it to your wife and give us the "other version" - at least someone will hold onto your words. I thought that his death was the worst thing that could ever happen to me but it really was just the begging. I have somewhere his screwball writings he would put on notes that were found in his closet when he could not sleep and it shows how deteriorated his emotional, mental and psycholigical damage that was done - something I hope all you boys and your families over there in Iraq and Afghanistan will be able to handle with the help of counselers, therapy, debriefings and repatriation. And when you do get home and have a hard time readjusting, don't be shy should you need that kind of help. It's there for you; use it for your own benefit. And as you write, and get it out of your system, whether MI is reading or not, get it out of your system for that is the ONLY way to avoid trouble later on in life. Writing is therapy and I would love to help you put it together so it comes out as a book - and yes, I'm the one who started all that and quite surprised how many people jumped on the bandwagon. You may be a soldier but you've found a gift from your experiences and every word, every cuss word, everything is worth saving, including the mundane shit. Writing is the best therapy in the world - don't go without it and I don't care who in the brass and other things reads it. It's your journal, not theirs, so please try to get comfortable with what you have done and let it come back, do not hold back, you are not comprimising anything, except your God-given talent, and you have every right to write the way you did before the BC called you into his office. The hell with them, you are doing a great service for your country and a new life for yourself.
My life didn't turn out the way I wanted it either. Now, I'm almost 51 years old, chronically ill, severely disabled and near the end of my rope and my life if I can't get a proper doctor to help keep me comfortable. My body is so terminally damaged, with polio as a premature infant still in the hospital, Rheumatic Fever when I was two and severe scoliosis before the 7th grade which sent me into Children's Hospital every Saturday for 6 years. When I had my first child, I went into cardiac and respirator arrest and if it was not for a nurse coming over to me to give me a shot so I would not develop milk for I was not breastfeeding, I would not be here today. In Today's day and age, those shots are not available anymore. Within seconds it would have been over but they brought me back only to suffer more. And I do suffer something awful.
Three and a half years later, my brother who was 1-1/2 years younger than me died. I was 28-1/2 and he was 27 and my heart broke but I was able to handle it better because of my circumstances several years before with my husband. I remarried an assole in 1984 who protented to be a nice guy and did so because he knew that I would never marry him if I knew the truth. After the birth of my second child I knew something was very very wrong with him. Because of the disease that finally hit me after that, something that had been with me all my life but didn't know about it, I got very sick and very week. Right now I am having a very hard time breathing and it's putting extra stress on my already damaged heart as well as my already damaged body. Five years ago, I was dating a kid I went to school with and whom lived in my neighborhood all my early years and fell madly in love with him. He was the love of my life. Due to medical malpractice, when I brought him home, on the third night, he got up from bed, took two steps into my bathroom, shut the door, turned on the light and was dead before he hit the floor. His pulmonary artery burst from the buildup of clots from his legs and at 4:25 am, even the EMT'S could do nothing for him. I was followed up to the hospital by a policeman but by the time I got there, the firemen EMT'S were long gone. Finally standing there in front of them all, knowing what they were doing was not going to make any different, I finally asked them to please call it and let him rest in peace. And they did because you can't get oxygen into a person who's lungs are full of blood. It was hard on them, it was hard on the paramedics to find someone so young in a situation like this, it really bothers them. I remember the doctor saying "why didn't they check his lungs?" Good question. Those doctors who caused his death should be released from their duties and it became an awful situation trying to fight for his rights after his death. His family didn't even include me in the preparations. It was the last time we made love; he had asked me to marry him and I loved him so much, of course I said yes. but he was dead several hours later. Life is sometimes not fair. About ten years ago, I had seen a lawyer to do a real living will and DO NOT RESISCITATE order. I also noted that with this disease that I could not give blood (I tried to after 9/11 and was not accepted), I cannot donate organs and on my chat site, I let those who are there the same thing before the summer started. I do not believe I have much time left and I am suffering terribly and in such gawdawful pain. I cannot breathe and I hardly breathe on my own anymore but have to think about it, so my time is very short, unless I can find a doctor who is willing to help me with the things I need to have and have done to make my life a little easier. I cannot walk anymore. So when you say you haven't thought about the future, you really should because that will benefit your wife and not leave her stranded. Our mortality is taken for granted and you never know what is going to happen or when but a person should always be prepared in case the inevitable happens. Mortalit is not a given. You never know when that snap of a finger is going to happen but you should be prepared for it in every aspect of your life. That's what I did. Now I am dying, and am in agony and pray the Lord takes me without too much suffering for I've had enough in this lifetime.
You know how fast you can be hurt, so you really need to be careful. I, for one, want to see you come home safe and sound. I will also accept posts you cannot put on your site, by either putting them on my site or preparing them for a book that you so rightly deserve. You have done nothing wrong, you have not compromised yourself or your fellow buddies, so it you have two posts, send one to your wife or to me, and post your nothings about nothing and something if that makes you comforable but I want you to know that whatever you do, I support whole heartedly. Forget the censure, anyone reading any and all your posts do not give away any secrets or information, so they have no real hold over you and with freedom of speech, you can say and do what you want and I hope you do that again. They do not have anything to complain about. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know and I'll make you anonymous, so MI and BC do not have to censure you. You have a "gift" and I would like to make sure you do not lose it because you're fearful of the blacklash. Nothing you have ever said has put anyone into any danger but your "new gift" should not be stifled. When you get back, you're whole life could be on a different tract, even though you hadn't realized it, but a path that will take you far; it's your destiny, CBFTW, so do not let it go to waste no matter how many people may be reading, no matter how many people may want to censure. Your comments can go on my site if you want and I'll keep them anonymous so that when you do get home, they will be ready for you to send out to book editors. Why not make money at something you are exceptionally good at? I'd like to see you go back to your original form but if you can't, I can carry it on my own weblog under anonymous and I'll be the only one who knows it's you. Think about that please and let me know whether you want to do this. I'll even change by internet name for your own safety. Talk this over with your wife and get back to me.
Continue to write always, irregardless, and I can pass your words on and no one will know it is you. I will protect you from the rest of the world so no one can say "don't write any more." You can still put your nothings on your site but send the real page either to your wife or to me so that when you get home, you'll have your work, cuss words and all, ready for you to send it. You have a gift, don't let anyone compromise it - for you have not compromised yourself or your teams in any post you have written. There are more people on your side than you realize and freedom of speece, even in the military, is your right.
God Bless and think about what I've said. Hugs, ~C
Sorry, I meant the terminal end of the "pacific ccean current".
Oh, and BTW, the "we drove around somewhere to do something" language you have to use now is hilarious. Just make a note of where you did that so that when you republish this stuff later, you can fill in the details how you would have wanted to, if it didn't mean compromising the mission. I'm sure there's a lot of cool details about how you got to "somewhere" so you could go do that "something".
Well, it's a tough act to follow that last comment, but I was going to say just one thing about unexploded ordinance: Guerrero Negro in Baja is at the terminal end of the pacific ocean and there's a beach there called Mamarillo beach. This place is a real treasure trove of junk. They've found all kinds of flotsam there: WWII floating mines, depth charges, all kinds of stuff. Plus a whole host of other things like notes in bottles, bodies, plus tons of random detritus. It's pretty cool down there. Except for the floating mines. Unless of course you sneak your M-1 down there and blow up any mines you come across from a distance. Then it's cool. Watch out for the Federales, though. They catch you with a gun, and it's all over for you.
I think I've discovered reasons why there may be posting gaps even at times when CB might not be actively engaged in "going places and doing things".
If I were maintaining a blog like this I'd want to read all the comments, and it's possible that on some days his entire available Internet time is absorbed in just catching up with comments and emails, reading.
Your writing never ceases to amaze me. You are one talented Bay Area Punx soldier. You blow the hell out of any of the other talent from that area. Im so glad you are still writing. You make the ARMY proud.
I love how war supporters are pretending they support the troops that were sent to do our government's bidding. Of course the troops have to go where they are sent and do what they are told. You idiots sitting on your couches watching Fox News were instrumental in sending them to this bogus war. I also don't blame the troops for believing they are fighting some sort of just cause. You have to believe that if you are going to put your life on the line. I direct my rath at the war supporters who yelled "support the troops" and other such bullsh*t at peace marchers when anyone can now see that we were right and you were wrong. Why not just admit it? You were nasty enough before and during the war, now admit we are in a bogus occupation. I can't believe that anyone thinks that the Iraqis are going to "nationalize" their oil. The U.S. has tried to undermine Hugo Chavez for doing exactly that in Venzueala and overthrew Mossadegh in Iran for the same reason, replacing him with the brutal Shah. The oil money will go in the pockets of large oil comanies and the politicians they own. Anyone who still believes this war is about liberation really needs to have their head examined. The troops will be abandoned to VA hospitals, with their complaints from the ravages of this war largely ignored. Just keep watching the O'Reilly factor and look the other way you punks.
I'm not sure I understand why people keep saying Iraq was for oil. Like the guy before me said, it's a nice side benefit, but that's it. First of all, from an economic perspective, going to war over oil doesn't make any financial sense, even if we were going to take Iraqi oil for free (which we're not...we're going to buy it at OPEC rates, just like everyone else). We only import a small amount of our oil consumption from the middle east anyway, and regardless, we buy whatever oil we want, and countries that have it are happy to sell it to us. War is insanely expensive (and BTW, uses goo-gobs of oil), and the opportunity cost of war vs. just buy oil at a higher price is not even on the same playing field, so thinking we went to war over oil is a very silly argument.
No, Iraq gave us a foothold. It was a Normandy invasion against the Islamists who control the Middle East. Oil we can buy (and we have, at much higher prices too), but regional stability (which we need more than oil) we have to enforce, and we need foothold in the region to do it. Why do you think we stayed in Europe after WWII? To keep the Soviets in check. We'll stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, so we don't have to transport troops and equipment to the region from Diego Garcia any more. The Middle East has caused alot of problems for alot of people over the last couple of hundred years, and we need a foothold in the region to do anything about it. Now we've got one. And, as a side benefit, some American companies will get some contracts in Iraq for oil (not all of them, though), and that very small percentage that we get from them will be stable, but, prob. at market rates. That's it.
Steve, it warms my heart to see you stridently support the Jeffersonian Democratic efforts of a Venezuelan patriot like Hugo Chavez. Now allow me to introduce this character to those who think for themselves:
About Iraq, to be brief: tanks as a means of scouting out WMDs was a dumb idea, no matter how you slice it. But it also does absolutely no good to be whining and recriminating about it now. Now that we ARE there, the job is to see to a clean end of it, meaning Iraqi sovereignty, Iraqi freedom, Iraqi strength, and most certainly, an ability to remind Iran's government that harboring al-Qaeda could prove hazardous to their health.
I think that Iraq will nationalize their oil right around the time the U.S. does. Stop kidding yourselves. Our government is in this for the cash and the neocons. To the rest of you, they are cannon fodder.
It was not a war for oil except in the sense that the middle east is vital to our national security because of oil production. But everybody, including Bush, understood that the war would be more expensive than buying oil on the market. In addition we always were going to give the Iraqis control of their oil production - it we wanted to steal oil it would make more sense to invade and occupy Saudi Arabia. Fewer people to fight us an most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi. No, this was not a war to steal Iraqi oil. It was stupid, but not for oil.
If it is true that Bush invaded to establish a "foothold" in the Middle East from which to threaten (or reform) other middle eastern countries then he should be impeached for being monumentally stupid.
1) we already had a "foothold" militarily - Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, with excellent port and air facilities and much better security. In modern warfare you don't invade Iraq when you want to threaten Iran or Syria. It costs you your Army in securing Iraq and you use up more material in supplying your "base" than your base can supply to another invasion. And obviously Iran has told us to F off more than usual lately, and trumpeted their nuclear programs brazenly while pouring money and infiltrators into Iraq. why? Because they know we are tied down. Establish a base my ass.
2) if we want to reform the Arab world we might want to employ a strategy that doesn't result in those not hostile to us beforehand becoming enraged against us. Populations that either supported us or were at least nuetral now despise us. Terrorist recruiting has skyrocketed. Chaos on Iraq has scared those who might have sought to overthrow their despotic regimes in favor of democracy - they see how hard it is to install and they also see how chaos and confusion might be worse than a dictatorship. This does seem to be the Neocon goal, and it was silly before and shown to be silly now. Duh. "Hey, be like me and be my friend. I'll show you by kicking your ass." Not a way to make friends and influence people.
And after all that, yes we can install a democracy in Iraq, or at least restore stability and put in a regime that might lead to democracy. We installed "democracy" in South Korea in a similiar way - it took decades before democracy took root - DECADES. And Koreans were always one people with a long tradition of being a nation - not like Iraq with Sunnis, Shias, Kurds, and tribal loyalties more important than national ones. So neocons who thought we could do it quickly are complete and utter morons. The President should be fired for listening to them and not realizing they were full of crap.
So the best thing now is NOT to pull out and leave chaos and "Iraqistan - the Iranian Ally" behind. It is to restore stability, to seek order from chaos, to turn over responsibility to the Iraqis and STAY until the government truly can stand on its own (not like in Vietnam were we knew the south would fall), and then and only then get the fuck out. It will have been a long, tough, bloody, and costly effort simply to get back to normalcy. Sure people will tell me how much better off the Iraqis are without Saddam, and how they will be much better off five years from now than they would have been if we had not invaded. I agree. I don't give a rat's ass. My question is, will we be better off? Hell no, but pulling out now would make it worse. Our national security would be damaged worse than it was in the invasion - we would "lose" in the eyes of potential enemies making conflict more likely. We would have huge chaos (worse than now) in a vital region where our oil supplies come from. We would have created a true breeding ground for terrorists, a far cry from Bush's call to depose Saddam to weaken terror. So it sucks but we must win. It is a giant shit sandwich and we are all going to have to take a bite. That doesn't mean we should compliment the damn cook.
The republican party says "stay the course" and accuses the left of wanting to lose. They also say that we were right to invade. The democratic party says "win the damn thing - change strategy if you have to, invite allies, do whatever, but win" and also says we were wrong to invade.
THink what you want. I'm voting Kerry, and I want my troops home AND a stable Iraq. I don't like shit sandwiches even if the cook tells me how good it is and how much worse it could have been.
Wrist rockets versus rocks. I guess it beats WMD exchanges or mortar battles. Maybe in a few months it can just migrate from the geological projectiles, to paintball, or super-soakers!
"Take that imperialist American!"
"Oh yeah? Take that kafarah al-fajarah!"
And then at the end of the day everyone sits down to some tea and lamb and couscous.
Better yet, make it a PS2 war. Best score gets control of the mosque.
Steve, You are a complete idiot and your facts are not only wrong, stupid, ignorance, but way out of line. We can produce 100 percent of our oil supply if we want. By buying the 20% puts money and other benetics into the hands of the middle eastern states via trade. We actually don't need them at all. We only do it so these countries can trade for other foodstuffs that they can't grow on their own. I really do hate stupid white men.
Secondly, this is not the forum for talking politics and debating issues - it's a site to help support and encourage this soldier - and others who also do it - to keep the morale up, building a friendship and caring for this young man in the middle of the war when he would like to be home with his wife but hasn't been able to get there do to stop-loss. We are here to share his life and his experiences and to let him know that we care about this young man, his family. It's a place for him to VENT and a place for us to read those vents. It's a place to say THANK YOU for your sacrifice and to let him know we are behind him ALL THE WAY!!!!
It's NOT a political site and your comments do NOT help at all!! Put them on another site that is more appropriate. THIS site is for CBFTW only and in letting him know we understand, some of us more than others, what he is going through. It's a site we wait for a daily post so that we know he's okay, to support him in every way, to give him our gratitude and love, to pray always for his safety.
So Steve, your rantings belong on a political site, not here, so unless you can write a note saying how much you appreciate this young man and all his comrades in arms, DO NOT POST HERE AGAIN. If you truly care about this young man and want to THANK HIM for doing what he is doing for US, then do THAT but DO NOT bring POLITICS into this website the CBFTW started as a journal to get things off his chest - it's a form of therapy.
SO, Steve, GO AWAY AND BUG SOMEONE ELSE. YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE. Hugs to CBFTW, ~C
i'm sure if cb doesn't want 'steve the socialist' here...he can tell him for himself. and "fuck off and die"??? don't you think that's a little narrowminded and mean? good lord, people. it's a blog for fuckssake.
to cb, keep writing if you feel like it. take care, if possible. aprildawn
CB - THIS IS FOR THE COMMENTATORS; NOT YOU, DARLIN'
April Dawn: That's right, it is a blog and if you've been on a lot of them, you'd see all kinds of comments, some so totally unruly and it doesn't necessarily have to be CBFTW to tell him off; it's also up to us. That's what the comments are all about. Geez girl, don't get your panties in a twist!!! and that's from one female to another. We need to police ourselves.
When Robbie (the post right before you said this - sure hope his name was robbie because I hate to lose this post just to check) said whathe did, I just about cracked up laughing AND girl, HE'S RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! This is about CBFTW, not about Steve and if Steve is saying or doing anything that stresses out CBFTW, then he absolutely does not belong here!!! It's really that simple and CB has better things to do than police his commentators. THAT JOB IS OURS!!!!!!!
AND IF ANYBODY SENDS CB ANY EMAIL PUTTING HIM DOWN OR BERRATING HIM, I WILL PERSONALLY CHOKE THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF ANYONE WHO DOES THAT TO OUR SOLDIER. Don't piss me off, folks, for I will find YOU!! We are here to understand, learn, give and take, support, encouragement, SHARE and build MORALE. TRY TO REMEMBER THAT, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!
May God Bless You CBFTW and yours till the end of days. Stay Sharp and Stay Safe!! You have our love, our respect and our thanks not only for fighting for your country but for sharing with us your life, however it may be.
Those who do not appreciate that can go to hell but mostly they are NOT TO POST OR EMAIL CBFTW (sure hope I have those initials right) and THAT is HOW bloggers POLICE THEMSELVES. If you don't like something, leave and go read something else more to your desire.
This soldier of ours does not need that crap from anyone and I'll be damned if anyone gives him a hard time or stresses him out and if someone does post something that is way out of line for this particular blog, others have the RIGHT to tell them to go away, they do not belong here. And those people better leave and go on a different site or a political site or a forum and be assoles there, not here. So in essence, I'm saying that Robbie is right and you, Aprildawn are wrong.
I was the wife of a US Army Captain, Green Berets, Special Forces. Do not push my buttons.
Why oh why won't he post and let us know he is okay?
CB - please post as often as possible even if all you have to say is "nothing today, perhaps more later." It reassures your many fans that have grown concerned about you.
It's been a few days and we are growing nervous. God bless you and keep you safe.
And God bless you too, CBFTW's wife. I know you and he are in this together.
Before I go and go search for Steve's comments, I do want to tell him a few things myself. WE ARE NOT THERE FOR OIL. We can supply 100% of our own oil if we had to PLUS we have so many other places to go for oil should we need it - such as Alaska and the governor of Alaska has already started to do just that WITHOUT PERMISSION from anyone because his state does not need permission to do so!! They know it's there and they are going after it. THE ONLY REASON THE UNITED STATES BUYS OIL FROM IRAQ, ET AL, IS THE FOOD FOR OIL PROGRAM. You cannot grow ANYTHING in that soil - or should I say desert? - nor is there clean water, cows for milk and many other countries are the same way. SO THAT THESE COUNTRIES CAN FLOURISH WITHOUT DYING, WE GIVE THEM WHAT THEY NEED IN TRADE. THIS IS NOT GEORGE BUSH'S POLICY, IT'S OUR GOVERNMENT'S POLICY AND JUST SO YOU'LL KNOW, STEVE, THE PRESIDENT CANNOT ORDER A WAR WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE SENATE. IT'S THE SENATORS WHO MAKE OR BREAK A LAW AND IT'S THE SENATORS WHO DECIDE. If the President is totally against something, he has a chance to VETO but not often just as the Senate gets the chance to veto anyone he would like to appoint to a job. Man, do you even know your history????????? The President doesn't move troops around, the PENTAGON does - whatever the President gets, he INHERITED from the ones before him, or any mess left behind by the previous president but it's the joint sessions of Congress that actually makes our rules and reulations and laws of this country. DAH - HA!! I have found that over the years that the people who speak ill speak out of IGNORANCE of the system and the facts. So Steve, it is up to you to start reading before you open your mouth again. AND STAY OFF THIS BLOG STUPID!!! I go through 1,000 blogs a day, I send info from one to another. A basic law class can teach you about the House and the Senate and the President. I'd suggest you do that, Steve! THIS BLOG IS NONPARTISAN. And to make good friends with this wonderful soldier of ours who is putting his life in danger for us!! The President did not put him there - all the people in the HOUSE and in the SENATE considered as the JOINT SESSIONS IN CONGRESS, The Pentagon and all the hundreds and thousands of small groups that each and every one of them are in plus the Cabinet whom they have to report to, all report to the President and from that information, he makes the best decision he can -----------but he didn't come up with that by himself. He didn't come up with the question nor the answer.
As examples: the other night Larry King Live interviewed President George Bush and his wife, Laura. Larry King mentioned that there were 4 dates set for him and (YUCK - had to say that) Senator Kerry to debate. HE DOESN'T KNOW THE DATES - SOMEONE ELSE SETS UP THOSE DATES - but he'll show up, of course. SOMEONE ELSE TAKES CARE OF HIS SCHEDULE plus he makes his own personal scedules. And as he said on Larry King Live "I don't know the dates but I can't wait to debate him." That man, our president, has the weight of the world on his shoulders and if you don't think so, you are very mistaken, Steve.
The President can fight for what he believes in, but if it's already a law voted on by the House, he can't change it. He cannot go to war without a vote from those same people and they voted for it and it's his job to keep up morale, to keep the people informed, and to POLITICALLY CORRECTLY go through channels to keep this world from blowing itself up with all these damn rogues out there with nukes.
The state has it's own laws and then you have Federal laws and they don't always equal out. They are not always the same just as different states have different laws and before you go from one state to another, you better know that state's laws, especially if it's different from your own state.
Ah, crap, now I've forgotten what my other examples are but I hope you get the point. And I believe it was me who also said that this is not the blog to discuss politics on but to give our soldier here a place where he can rant and rave and where we can sympathize, support him, encourage him, give him some morale, some insight and things like that WITHOUT DRIVING HIM FRIGGIN NUTS!!!!!!! It's that simple steve. Since he does have your email address to your name and you didn't leave it empty, the next note may go directly to you after I read all your posts and tell you that you are not welcome here. THIS IS A SOLDIER FIGHTING TO RETAIN YOUR FREEDOM - EVEN YOUR FREEDOM TO SAY STUPID STUFF!!! YOU SHOULD BE DAMN GRATEFUL for his and his family's sacrifice and for every troops ANYWHERE on this globe. IT'S THAT SIMPLE, STEVE.
We have come to love CB, his wife, his family, his friends, his buddies and his comrades in arms. We will continue to support him and THEM as long as he is over there doing good for HIS COUNTRY. You should be proud and grateful that he is doing this, that all the troops throughout the years have done this to keep us BETTER, FREE, SMARTER, PRIVILEGED, AND OH, SO MUCH MORE. Just compare OUR COUNTRY to ANY OTHER COUNTRY OUT THERE and you will find a humongous GAP between what they have and what we have. WE are so FAR ABOVE the oldest nations in History. These nations were developed long before Jesus came along - hundreds of millions of years ago and they haven't much improved either. BUT WE HAVE - BECAUSE OF THE FREEDOM we have. And also because of the FREEDOM we give others.
STEVE, DID YOU WATCH THE OPENING OF THE OLYMPICS?? WHO GOT THE MOST APPLAUSE OUT OF ALL THE NATIONS THAT ATTENTED??? If you don't know, let me tell you: AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ AND THE UNITED STATES. And although their countries don't have a pot to piss in, they got the applause because now they have a chance to survive but NOTHING can compare to the rights and the freedom we have here in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - and the whole world wants to come here; they all want to be an American, they all want to learn here. How do you think THESE FRIGGIN TERRORISTS are capable of doing what they do besides TERRORIZE?????? They learned all that stuff from us, they are unbelievably and scaringly savvy computerwise because they learned that in the united states of america. SO SHUT UP AND BE THANKFUL YOU LIVE IN A COUNTRY LIKE OURS AND DON'T, FOR ONE MINUTE, TAKE IT FOR GRANTED. "TO BE SAFE, ONE HAS TO BE INSECURE." and that's what we need to do. ~C
"this we'll defend said... Why oh why won't he post and let us know he is okay?"
I know, I feel the same way. He will when there's no bullshit to put up with.
CB, YOUR BEST BET IS NOT TO READ THE COMMENTS - EVER - AND JUST POST LIKE YOU WOULD A REGULAR JOURNAL AND LET US COMMENTATORS KNOW YOU'RE ALRIGHT AND ALSO LET US BE THE ONES TO POLICE ONE ANOTHER AND EVEN ARGUE - DON'T BE PART OF IT. JUST POST ONLY EVEN IF IT'S SOMETHING ABOUT NOTHING.
You have fans, here, man. WE love you and we care. Do not read email from people you do not know and do not read the comments, at least not now. JUST POST AND POST ONLY. Remove MAIL CALL. Hugs, ~C
OH.....AND STEVE..........AND OTHERS WHO THINK LIKE HIM AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE: Who am I? I'm someone with education; I'm just about brain dead by now, tho. I am an almost 51 year old woman who is severely ill and extremely severely physically disabled and live on a dirt road with nobody around, who can barely take care of herself and I live off of SSD which means I really don't live at all. Unfortunately some of us don't have all the freedoms of the world but I have running water, electricity, cable, tvs, remotes,dvds, computers, and all the wonderful things that make others want to come to America. Along with that, I have a great many online friends who respect what I have to say and how I say it and why I may say something.
That's the benefit of growing up in the UNITED STATES of AMERICA. I have two grown sons, one 30, one 20; they need to grow up, too. One is in Florida, one is in MA. I have done many things in my life and for 30 years I have been a medical counsellor - something I will always do all the years I breathe - and the other is helping a kid like CBFTW whom I believe is doing a pretty good job handling this war. WE ARE AT WAR and things are a lot different now. So before you speak Steve and others like you that I have read on here, know what you are talking about before you open your big mouths.
When CBFTW reads comments like yours, it upsets him and if it upsets him, it could disturb him so much that he could get hurt or killed. WE are NOT here to debate; we are here to support our AMERICAN SOLDIERSSSSSSSSS. ~C
I hope they don't cancel the cancellation of the cancel and you are just now on a plane going to make love with your wife.
Indeed, what a great idea! MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR! Who remember this?
By the way, there are in the commentors a lot of people that is trying to be the owners of your blog:
"Fulano! You haven't the right to post here!"
"Beltrano! Fuck off and die!"
There is just the "freedon of speach" that US Empire is given to iraqis and wants to give all the world, includind US country: one is free to speach but only if his speach is "Amen!"
And CB, if you aren't in that plane, please give us a few lines. The Bush's strangelovers neocons with their "jailling kids strategy" is leading the holly hell's upon Iraq just now and I'm going to be anxious.
Still pacing - right along with 91ghost. His wife posts here so if anything happened, I'm sure she'd tell us. Ladywhatever,you misread what I wrote...
All the love in the world is surrounding you CB...
and we'll wait...... I know he gets upset when he reads the posts and doesn't want to get involved in the partisan shit - I've read everything he has ever written and his comments to the comments, something he can't do anymore... too much stuff... but he came back, eh, ghost, that he did. CB came back... my suggestion to him to not read the posts was for his own good, because they do upset him; he has said so himself. There are 3 names on the tip of my tongue that make it very difficult for him....... and the emails he said that he gets are horrendous.....just trying to protect him..............and certainly not taking over either frenchie!! :-) AAAAAAAAFFFFFLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK
ok, time up. cb, something is better than nothing. (It would be nice if he was on a plane home but they already cancelled that again - unfortunately) Where in hell did all you new people come from??
I like the X-files Reference smokingman.
How many paces you want to jog tonight 91ghost?
Hugs to all. Hugs to CBFTW, his family, his wife and all the guys and gals at the FOB in Mosul!!! ~C
40 comments :
Well...that's as good a book as any to be reading. Ann Rice definitely has some "alternate lifestyle" leanings.
Seems like you all were just sort of hanging out until the next thing happened.
The thing with the grenade was kind of scary because you never know when they might explode. Old ordinance is just as dangerous as the new.
Keep safe. Glad that "somewhere doing something" was not as crazy this time.
You have definitely got to keep that opening line "went somewhere and did something" freaking hysterical.
CB--maybe if you delayed your posts by a week or so you would be able to write more of what you were doing instead of doing "something." I have to admit, this is quickly becoming your new claim to fame! pretty funny!
My 2003 Iraq Blog is slowly going...
http://www.cimoli.com/blog/cimoli_blog
I read flying in helicopters (in the daylight anyway) so I totally understand about saving your place before doing anything else. Not saving your place would be a sign of panic and in the famous worlds of Douglas Adams "DON'T PANIC"
Hi CB,
I've been reading your blog for a few days now and have to say it's become one of my favorites. Thanks for doing what you do. It's really awe-inspiring to read the personal accounts of a real soldier in Iraq. It's so much different than what is the general accepted idea. People have become so immune. Whenever I heard (prior to reading your blog) that someone was killed in Iraq it was just like, "Oh man. Not again." But now, it just makes me speechless. Stay safe. You've got another person here rooting for your safe return home.
Take care,
Amina in New Jersey
Random musing 1: on Okinawa to this day they're still finding UXO from WWII. I remember the AFRTS PSAs preaching about how to proceed if you find any, or if the locals tell you about it. The PSAs were acting as if the UXO is still unstable enough to be dangerous, which I suppose it is.
Random musing 2: Every time I see the acronym "ICP", I keep thinking of "Insane Clown Posse", a rap group back here in the States.
Glad to hear this trip to somewhere doing something, while having it's moments, ran a bit calmer.
To bad you didn't find those "shooters". Next time.
Cigsmokman: As ordnance ages it often becomes less and less stable depending on the type.
Keep posting excatly as you are CB. You convey yourself as not only talking to each one of us but giving the feeling that we are there with you. A question I do have is how long before adapted to your surroundings? Reading in the vehicle there is one thisng but after mortars have gone off around you and calmly going back to where you last placed your bookmark is wild. How do you keep your nerves in check??
"CB": don't be confidente.
After an-Najaf bombing, the hell is going to Iraq. One can imagine the Saint Peter's basilica of Rome in danger of air strike? That is what is happen in Iraq. The U-S-A incident are one expression of this, only the visible portion of an iceberg.
Always remember that soldier are paid to kill ... and to die. Then, try hard to stay safe. No panic and no paranoia, of course.
Aquele abraço!
Firing ports on a bradley are as useless as tits on a bull. They aren't used. There is nothing wrong with being on the inside of a Stryker and reading - although it says great things about how smooth a ride it must be compared to the back of an M2 where it would be impossible to read as well as cramped as hell.
So nothing wrong with CB reading. The HMMV driver reading was a different story, of course, and handled properly.
Putting kids in jail when they throw rocks, and their parents couldn't pick them up until 24hrs later? Good way to ensure less hatred for the occupation. The parents must have loved US Troops after that, and it must have convinced all the locals to support us. Kind of like how the Rodney King beating brought the LAPD and the minority communities in LA close together.
Whoever coined the term "common sense" deserves a severe beating.
The troops are there to guard oil wells and support George W. Bush's reelection. The Americans ironically yelling "support the troops" at peace protesters from their SUV's are the ones who put them there. I feel bad for the troops to a certain extent, but the fact that they hate and resent peace protesters makes me feel like they can sort this mess out for themselves. Good luck to you. Call us if you need us.
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The overwhealmnig atack of the holy city of an-Najaf isn't a US "Putting Kids in Jail" strategy?
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"CB": Finaly I agree with "these we'll defend":
"Putting kids in jail when they throw rocks, and their parents couldn't pick them up until 24hrs later? Good way to ensure less hatred for the occupation. The parents must have loved US Troops after that, and it must have convinced all the locals to support us. Kind of like how the Rodney King beating brought the LAPD and the minority communities in LA close together."
The holy city of an-Najaf is overwhealming atacked just now. Why? Try to think. Only becose Mr. George Nero Bush and his strangelove's neocon guys belives in the "Putting kids in the jail" strategy. He believes that by putting Moqtada Al Sadr, who they see as a kid, in the jail, or perhaps by killing the kid, Iraq will stay on peace and, of course, Mr. Nero Bush will win the US elections. What a perfect plan!
Then, Negroponte tell his puppet Allawi, a iraqi former Saddan guy and CIA operative that serves Negroponte's occupation forces, to put Moqtada Al Sadr in the jail. Or kill he. Simple like that. But, what happened?
Happened that he kid is grand-grand-grand-son of Ms. Babylon and Mr. Iman Ali. You see: Ms. Babylon is the ancient of all of the mothers of the whole world. And Iman Ali is the prophet of the Muslin World. And the kiD is a great troublemaker! Firt of all, he is predending to be a champion of Mohamad Ali. You know how Cassius Clay becomes Mohamad Ali? That's it. These man is a directly son of Mr. Iman Ali and Moqtada Al Sadr becomes his champion by the way of the neocon's perfect plan.
In April 04, Paul Bremer boosts the kid's pretensions, using the same "jailing kids" strategy. When 4 blackwaters got killed in Falluja, the same "jailing kids" strategy. The sunni-shiite uprising hells-up and boosts the defenders of the defiant Falluja, that becomes a model. And now, another dose of these strategy.
Allay is a brave man. He personaly shoots to dead six handcuffed prisoners a months ago. Negroponte is also a brave man. The latin american people knows it very well. But the task is too big for him. The Marines, as usual, are ordered to do the dirt job. The kid, that is not a silly one, run out and defends itself in Mohamad Ali house. Where? In the an-Najaf holy shrine of Imam Ali, indeed. Then, holy hell is going into an-Najaf. 500 lb bombs. F-16. AC-130. Bradleys. No civilian casualitys, of course, only "colateral damnage" of hundreds. You kwnow much better them me about the stuff.
The kudo militiamen is yong iraqis only several years more older than the U-S-A kids. But they have a heavy hardcord strategical back-up provided by the formers iraqi arm comanders and soldiers of the old divisions of the Republican Guard, the sunnis of Falujah and Ramadi. At least one year before the invasion, realizing that it is impossible to win a war against the US forces, they stockpilled lots and lots of weapons in all Iraq. They provided false intelligence to down the munber of the american troops. "The americans will be recevead by flowers", you remember this? And, whem invasion becomed, and US Army - despite under heavy fire - approaches to Bagdah, these divisions sudently desapeared in front of the american commander's eyes. There are storys about how they also made a lot of american money by doing the last. And, of course, iranian special forces, shiites like they, well trained they in the terrain. Well trained and no feared guys like "CB" show us in the 04 August stuff. These kids really know how throw rocks.
The holy city of an-Najaf had a kind of pope of the Muslin World. Ayatollah Al Sistani is his name. He is very cooperative with the americans and he had a very strong moral force over ordinary midle and pour class iraqi people. But, the guy flees away to London just in the early days befor the overwhealming attack. Head disease, he said. Who beleaved?
Try to think. Saddan himself take a bloodbath on an-Najaf. Bush father encourage the shiite uprising and let them to dead alone. The old Saddan guy Negroponte's puppet is trying to do the same. Who really is in charge of the situation? Allawi and his master Negroponte? Course not. Both by jailing or killing the kid, the americans will be overwhealming hated by the iraquis and the Muslin World. And, if the kid does'nt go to the jail ... Wow! What a bad example! Another Falluja, but a Falluja in the head of Iraq, the second city of the nation, and the most sacred one?
A former colonel and two formers generals of the Republican Guard said a couple of months ago, in an interview to "Asian Times" that by attacking Falluja and failing, the occupation had reached a point of no return. They were wrong. The real point of no return is reaching just now. By ataccking an-Najaf, Bush leaded the US Empire to the point of no return in the Midle Est mess.
Then, forgot the bullshits and try hard to returns alive to home.
Aquele abraço!
Álvaro Frota
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CIA+ALQAEDA+MOSSAD+BUSH = "CALL-THE-COPS-NUMBER"
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THe mission comes first, and risking your life for the mission is what soldiers do - which means if jailing kids pisses off the local community then it is counter-productive and will lead to more rock-throwing and worse in the future.
I hear people all the time saying "bomb that mosque" and they can't understand why the military is being so circumspect about it. Many in the military (mostly junior EMs) feel the same way. "WE should just kick ass" the simple-minded or naive always say. But the mission isn't to get the one kid to stop throwing rocks - it is to create an environment where kids AND parents don't want to throw rocks. If jailing the kids helps the mission then great, but it doesn't pass the "smell" test to me. There is a time for overwhelming violence, a time for a show of force, and a time for civil affairs concerns to come first. With kids or with protests (even violent rock-throwing ones) civil affairs come first, not safety. The insurgent's best hope is that some "hard-core" no-nonsense types who don't understand the mission will get pissed and fire into a crowd.
One of the most helpful things in the success of our own revolution was the Boston Massacre. The British troops showed great restraint as they were provoked by the crowd, and finally they fired into the crowd when they got tired of dealing with the "rebels and traitors." They would tell you that their personal safety was at stake, that they wanted to teach the demonstrators a lesson, etc. In reality they created a bunch more American patriots overnight and the British lost the war. The truth of what happened is still lesser-known than the myth that the British "massacred" innocents that day. Patriot propagandists went into overdrive to convince their fellow colonists that the British were their enemy, that the redcoats were evil, etc. etc., and it worked so well that most history books repeat that story, although the crowd provoked the troops that day. Of course I love that the British did the wrong thing, but I'm for our troops and want victory so we should heed the lessons of history.
BTW Alvaro - No the "insurgents" aren't on the right side like the American Patriots were. They are bad guys trying to either install a fundamentalist regime or to restore Baathism. The point is that the US and the Iraqi govt is fighting them for the allegiance of the people, and jailing the people's kids doesn't help the side that should win - our side.
As for situational awareness in the back of a Stryker - there isn't any. Staying alert so that you can stare at the guy next to you? What purpose does that serve other than to ensure boredom? Reading informs the soldier's mind while also taking away his nervousness. I think reading is just fine as long as the troops are rushing down the ramp in good order .005 seconds after the ramp lowers.
And Alvaro - thanks for agreeing with me. It always makes it harder for me to make my point. You should give capitalism a try. No long discussions about dialetical materialism, and the shopping is great!
Point taken about the rock throwing. Then again, the prison capacity is probably not large enough to hold all the detainees. Non-lethal tech is probably more in order here, like maybe the sticky glue or bursts of pepper spray in industrial quantities, just to disperse them.
Better yet, let the ICP figure out what to do with them and just get the hell outta there, like CB's platoon DID.
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CBFTW, When you first posted this, I tried to make a comment. I don't know what happened but I could not make a comment. Now it looks like I can. The one word that explains it all is APATHY. And if you become apathetic about your situation, you could get hurt. I know you can't run on adrenaline all the time but always be sharp no matter what,so that you don't get hurt and neither does your stryker and your buddies. I can't say all the things I had said prior to this because I lost it all - I may have put some of it under a previous post,if I was able to post at all. Stay Safe, that's the most important thing. Congrats again on your award.
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Tuesday, August 17th ET: I promised I would write to you but instead of sending things personally to your email, I thought I would tell a very small section of the story here -hopefully helping you also in understanding your father. I am from that generation. The Vietnam generation. My husband was a Captain of the Green Berets, Special Forces in Vietnam. He went to OCS and all the other schools, was a paratrouper, a ranger, an assasin and in his last two years, ran a camp teaching the South Vietnamese how to kill. He had been shot once and went back. At the end which his camp was overrun, he was blown up by one of those air bombs and we were sure he would not make it through alive the damage was excessive. My brother-in-law from Colorada, an air force Major flew over there to see him and assess his condition before they told the parents. I don't think they ever knew how much danger his life really was in but like an accident later on in life, he fought it and somehow survived. Of course, the army says he was discharged in 1969 when in fact, he wasn't discharged until 1971 - ie "advisor status was kept extremely secret." I recently gave my oldest son his father's briefcase that proves what I am saying is correct. He didn't have therapy, he was not befriefed and did not have "repatriation" process, something they have learned from the lessons of Vietnam. I did not know him when he was in Vietnam but meant him in the mid 1971"s when he returned home. He was relentless in his pursuit of me and I wanted nothing to do with him. He never left me alone. He was at my work, he was at my house when I got out of work and sooner or later he wore me down. I did not know how to handle him - I was only 17, going on 18, when I met him. I was afraid of him and as plans were being made for our wedding, I felt as if there was a big black cloud over my head that I could not shake. It was of course, my instinct. And I always say TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS. If you trust your instincts, you can never make the wrong decision. I made a bad mistake but I did not know why. A man could not go through the things he did without coming back more than just scarred and he was going to get worse. When we found out I was pregnant, things became horrific and my life and the life of my child were in great danger. I had no one to talk to; even my parents were like "you made your bed, now you have to sleep in it" even if it meant by loosing my life. His friends were not helpful to him or to me. Between the drinking, the pot, the parties, the motorcycles, his mental state got worse and worse and worse and my being in his wrath got worse for me. So let's bypass this and move on further. He would not get treatment and I was just a kid who really had no idea what to do and there was nothing I could do for him. He refused seeing a therapist - something they make you guys see now and he didn't write as therapy, instead reliving it all inside his head over and over and over again. Those years also showed vets going off and killing people at McDonalds and other freaky things. He was trained to kill and he was never untrained not to kill. As the years went by, his emotional state, his mental state deteriorated to the point that I finally had to do something about it and if he could not go for help, then I had to get him out of the house and away from our son or we'd go down with him. No one, including him, should have had to go through so much. Several years later in June of 1978, he was in a motorcycle accident, literally killed by another driver - a girl who just got her license. If he had only let go of the motorcycle, things would have turned out differently. She hit him a total of three times, the impact so bad that with his pelvis he literally forced the handlebars forward which had to be incomprehensible. The third hit caused him to go flying and the back of his head hit a stone wall killing him immediately by crushing the back of his head into the front of his head. When the paramedics and ambulance showed up at the scene, they didn't see a scratch on him, so immediately went to work on CPR and got his heart started and they did CPR all the way to the hospital. Once at the hospital - and at that day and age, all I can do is be thankful that this particular hospital was so far advanced. After he was put on life support, they then realized the extent of the damage. First was that fact he was brain dead and brain stem dead, Every bone in his body was broken. His testicles were the size of grapefruit. They drew on his body but I do not know why - somehow his spirit was still with him. (Later in years when returning to college in my mid thirties, I did my thesis on euthanasia - because from this moment on, I learned everything I possibly could about the human body, brain death, brain stem death, euthanasia, et al.) The accident happened on a Friday night in June of 1978. At that time, our son had already turned 5 and I was 2 months short of turning 25 and he was 2 months short of turning 31. On Sunday night as I was sitting there with another nurse (I had been shaking from the beginning Saturday morning and had already lost 7 pounds) she asked me about him, so I started with his classic features and everything that I knew. I remember wishing they would loosen the tape around his head holding in the respirator because it looked like it really hurt. Being an organ donor, I had his father sign the papers that morning. I was still vibrating at 10 pm that Sunday night and I could not manage anything worse than what I was doing right then and there. It was so hard to comprehend especially when he looked allright, had the IV's in, 80 units of blood poured into his body and now he was really swelling up. I remember standing there playing with his hair and it was still and hard (brain death causes that immediately) and I saw that they had taken a towel and wrapped it several times putting it under his head to make it look normal when his head actually ended right behind his ears.I was shocked. Although I had been in the medical field - as a patient - since the day I was born, this was something I didn't know anything about. While that nurse and I were sitting across the bed to each other, my shaking coffee cup in hand, around 10 pm, something really odd happened. All of a sudden, I felt this overwhelming peace (same feeling I had after the birth of our son when I went into cardiac and respiratory arrest and they thought I was just sleeping but that is another story.) That peace overwhelmed me and I stopped shaking - the nurse was like "What was that?" and in bounced his cousin who was going to spend the night there with me on watch came running in the room all white faced having experienced a weird feeling as he was coming up the dark stairs to get to where I was. The nurse and I looked at one another and then looked at my husband and we knew that it was then his soul left his body (I told you he was a fighter) sent a message to us, and to his cousin while in the darkened stairway and later I found it it reached other members of the family and our dog who wailed. I had stopped shaking but what I was looking at,was beginning to look really grotesque. The papers had been signed. You still think they are going to wake up and you breathe with the machine, holding your breath when they took the tube off and emptied it of the fluid that builds up. Today, every hospital has a transplant team but back then it was specialized so you had to wait for a transplant team. So that late Sunday night, after his fighting soul finally left letting us know it was okay (although it took me many months to recuperate from this and years to really accept it. Although I was going to spend the night again once his cousin arrived, they told us that the transplant team (they only did eyes and kidneys then; too bad for his heart was as strong as an ox) would not be there until Tuesday = that's two more days!! So they told us it was better if we did not come back and wait until the transplant team did their thing on Tuesday. So we left and I did not return after that. This was a man who had tried to kill me from the moment of our wedding, kill me while pregant with his child and kill the child while I was pregant. He was not the same when he came back from Vietnam. I guess dependng upon your situation, what you did,what you experienced, is different from all those that were there - his was horrendous and he was going insane because of it. But when I felt that overwhelming peace, he was telling me that things were okay, that he was at peace, and all is well with the world. On Tuesday, the transplant team arrived; he went into surgery for his kidneys and eyes, then shut off the machines. At around 4 pm we got the call it was over and it was then that I really broke down into shattered pieces. And there was the mortician there shoving books in my face to pick a casket and I wanted to rip his head off, so I asked his father to please choose for me, I just can't do it. Who in their right mind is ready for something like that at age 24???!!! Mortality is just that, CBTFW, you have no idea when it's going to rock your boat. I had already been through hell and back suffuring loss after loss by this time and it didn't end there, either. During the "family viewing" and because he was facing in such an angle, he was fairly bald and you could see all the marks on top of his head, so I brought that up to the mortician, so that next day when we went back for the wake, he had a full head of hair, his beard cut short and looking good and he looked like he was sleeping. Definitely a prettier picture than the last one I saw on Sunday night. He was quite a handsome man and finally at peace with the world. He didn't have any purple hearts in his drawer because he refused them while still in the service especially after his near death experience and the things he had to do in the service for which he was an "advisor" - a soldier who was not even accounted for but died nonetheless from his 6 years of tours in Vietnam. (Remember back then, when you did come home, all people did was protest against our heroes - ie antiwar sentiment. He came home an UNHERO and that was not right. With what he did over there, they should have retrained him not to kill before sending him out to the public, just like they did with many other vietman vets and expect them to live normal lives. Things are different now, thank God. I only wish this medium was available for him when he was humping his back. That is why it is so important for you to keep writing. Even if you sent it to your wife and give us the "other version" - at least someone will hold onto your words. I thought that his death was the worst thing that could ever happen to me but it really was just the begging. I have somewhere his screwball writings he would put on notes that were found in his closet when he could not sleep and it shows how deteriorated his emotional, mental and psycholigical damage that was done - something I hope all you boys and your families over there in Iraq and Afghanistan will be able to handle with the help of counselers, therapy, debriefings and repatriation. And when you do get home and have a hard time readjusting, don't be shy should you need that kind of help. It's there for you; use it for your own benefit. And as you write, and get it out of your system, whether MI is reading or not, get it out of your system for that is the ONLY way to avoid trouble later on in life. Writing is therapy and I would love to help you put it together so it comes out as a book - and yes, I'm the one who started all that and quite surprised how many people jumped on the bandwagon. You may be a soldier but you've found a gift from your experiences and every word, every cuss word, everything is worth saving, including the mundane shit. Writing is the best therapy in the world - don't go without it and I don't care who in the brass and other things reads it. It's your journal, not theirs, so please try to get comfortable with what you have done and let it come back, do not hold back, you are not comprimising anything, except your God-given talent, and you have every right to write the way you did before the BC called you into his office. The hell with them, you are doing a great service for your country and a new life for yourself.
My life didn't turn out the way I wanted it either. Now, I'm almost 51 years old, chronically ill, severely disabled and near the end of my rope and my life if I can't get a proper doctor to help keep me comfortable. My body is so terminally damaged, with polio as a premature infant still in the hospital, Rheumatic Fever when I was two and severe scoliosis before the 7th grade which sent me into Children's Hospital every Saturday for 6 years. When I had my first child, I went into cardiac and respirator arrest and if it was not for a nurse coming over to me to give me a shot so I would not develop milk for I was not breastfeeding, I would not be here today. In Today's day and age, those shots are not available anymore. Within seconds it would have been over but they brought me back only to suffer more. And I do suffer something awful.
Three and a half years later, my brother who was 1-1/2 years younger than me died. I was 28-1/2 and he was 27 and my heart broke but I was able to handle it better because of my circumstances several years before with my husband. I remarried an assole in 1984 who protented to be a nice guy and did so because he knew that I would never marry him if I knew the truth. After the birth of my second child I knew something was very very wrong with him. Because of the disease that finally hit me after that, something that had been with me all my life but didn't know about it, I got very sick and very week. Right now I am having a very hard time breathing and it's putting extra stress on my already damaged heart as well as my already damaged body. Five years ago, I was dating a kid I went to school with and whom lived in my neighborhood all my early years and fell madly in love with him. He was the love of my life. Due to medical malpractice, when I brought him home, on the third night, he got up from bed, took two steps into my bathroom, shut the door, turned on the light and was dead before he hit the floor. His pulmonary artery burst from the buildup of clots from his legs and at 4:25 am, even the EMT'S could do nothing for him. I was followed up to the hospital by a policeman but by the time I got there, the firemen EMT'S were long gone. Finally standing there in front of them all, knowing what they were doing was not going to make any different, I finally asked them to please call it and let him rest in peace. And they did because you can't get oxygen into a person who's lungs are full of blood. It was hard on them, it was hard on the paramedics to find someone so young in a situation like this, it really bothers them. I remember the doctor saying "why didn't they check his lungs?" Good question. Those doctors who caused his death should be released from their duties and it became an awful situation trying to fight for his rights after his death. His family didn't even include me in the preparations. It was the last time we made love; he had asked me to marry him and I loved him so much, of course I said yes. but he was dead several hours later. Life is sometimes not fair. About ten years ago, I had seen a lawyer to do a real living will and DO NOT RESISCITATE order. I also noted that with this disease that I could not give blood (I tried to after 9/11 and was not accepted), I cannot donate organs and on my chat site, I let those who are there the same thing before the summer started. I do not believe I have much time left and I am suffering terribly and in such gawdawful pain. I cannot breathe and I hardly breathe on my own anymore but have to think about it, so my time is very short, unless I can find a doctor who is willing to help me with the things I need to have and have done to make my life a little easier. I cannot walk anymore. So when you say you haven't thought about the future, you really should because that will benefit your wife and not leave her stranded. Our mortality is taken for granted and you never know what is going to happen or when but a person should always be prepared in case the inevitable happens. Mortalit is not a given. You never know when that snap of a finger is going to happen but you should be prepared for it in every aspect of your life. That's what I did. Now I am dying, and am in agony and pray the Lord takes me without too much suffering for I've had enough in this lifetime.
You know how fast you can be hurt, so you really need to be careful. I, for one, want to see you come home safe and sound. I will also accept posts you cannot put on your site, by either putting them on my site or preparing them for a book that you so rightly deserve. You have done nothing wrong, you have not compromised yourself or your fellow buddies, so it you have two posts, send one to your wife or to me, and post your nothings about nothing and something if that makes you comforable but I want you to know that whatever you do, I support whole heartedly. Forget the censure, anyone reading any and all your posts do not give away any secrets or information, so they have no real hold over you and with freedom of speech, you can say and do what you want and I hope you do that again. They do not have anything to complain about. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know and I'll make you anonymous, so MI and BC do not have to censure you. You have a "gift" and I would like to make sure you do not lose it because you're fearful of the blacklash. Nothing you have ever said has put anyone into any danger but your "new gift" should not be stifled. When you get back, you're whole life could be on a different tract, even though you hadn't realized it, but a path that will take you far; it's your destiny, CBFTW, so do not let it go to waste no matter how many people may be reading, no matter how many people may want to censure. Your comments can go on my site if you want and I'll keep them anonymous so that when you do get home, they will be ready for you to send out to book editors. Why not make money at something you are exceptionally good at? I'd like to see you go back to your original form but if you can't, I can carry it on my own weblog under anonymous and I'll be the only one who knows it's you. Think about that please and let me know whether you want to do this. I'll even change by internet name for your own safety. Talk this over with your wife and get back to me.
Continue to write always, irregardless, and I can pass your words on and no one will know it is you. I will protect you from the rest of the world so no one can say "don't write any more." You can still put your nothings on your site but send the real page either to your wife or to me so that when you get home, you'll have your work, cuss words and all, ready for you to send it. You have a gift, don't let anyone compromise it - for you have not compromised yourself or your teams in any post you have written. There are more people on your side than you realize and freedom of speece, even in the military, is your right.
God Bless and think about what I've said.
Hugs,
~C
Sorry, I meant the terminal end of the "pacific ccean current".
Oh, and BTW, the "we drove around somewhere to do something" language you have to use now is hilarious. Just make a note of where you did that so that when you republish this stuff later, you can fill in the details how you would have wanted to, if it didn't mean compromising the mission. I'm sure there's a lot of cool details about how you got to "somewhere" so you could go do that "something".
My last post got deleted:
Well, it's a tough act to follow that last comment, but I was going to say just one thing about unexploded ordinance: Guerrero Negro in Baja is at the terminal end of the pacific ocean and there's a beach there called Mamarillo beach. This place is a real treasure trove of junk. They've found all kinds of flotsam there: WWII floating mines, depth charges, all kinds of stuff. Plus a whole host of other things like notes in bottles, bodies, plus tons of random detritus. It's pretty cool down there. Except for the floating mines. Unless of course you sneak your M-1 down there and blow up any mines you come across from a distance. Then it's cool. Watch out for the Federales, though. They catch you with a gun, and it's all over for you.
I think I've discovered reasons why there may be posting gaps even at times when CB might not be actively engaged in "going places and doing things".
If I were maintaining a blog like this I'd want to read all the comments, and it's possible that on some days his entire available Internet time is absorbed in just catching up with comments and emails, reading.
Some of the comments are HUGE, too.
sorry..........
Your writing never ceases to amaze me. You are one talented Bay Area Punx soldier. You blow the hell out of any of the other talent from that area. Im so glad you are still writing. You make the ARMY proud.
Stay safe sweetie. WE LOVE YOU!
xxxoooooooo
*hugs for your wife too*
I love how war supporters are pretending they support the troops that were sent to do our government's bidding. Of course the troops have to go where they are sent and do what they are told. You idiots sitting on your couches watching Fox News were instrumental in sending them to this bogus war. I also don't blame the troops for believing they are fighting some sort of just cause. You have to believe that if you are going to put your life on the line. I direct my rath at the war supporters who yelled "support the troops" and other such bullsh*t at peace marchers when anyone can now see that we were right and you were wrong. Why not just admit it? You were nasty enough before and during the war, now admit we are in a bogus occupation.
I can't believe that anyone thinks that the Iraqis are going to "nationalize" their oil. The U.S. has tried to undermine Hugo Chavez for doing exactly that in Venzueala and overthrew Mossadegh in Iran for the same reason, replacing him with the brutal Shah. The oil money will go in the pockets of large oil comanies and the politicians they own. Anyone who still believes this war is about liberation really needs to have their head examined. The troops will be abandoned to VA hospitals, with their complaints from the ravages of this war largely ignored. Just keep watching the O'Reilly factor and look the other way you punks.
I'm not sure I understand why people keep saying Iraq was for oil. Like the guy before me said, it's a nice side benefit, but that's it. First of all, from an economic perspective, going to war over oil doesn't make any financial sense, even if we were going to take Iraqi oil for free (which we're not...we're going to buy it at OPEC rates, just like everyone else). We only import a small amount of our oil consumption from the middle east anyway, and regardless, we buy whatever oil we want, and countries that have it are happy to sell it to us. War is insanely expensive (and BTW, uses goo-gobs of oil), and the opportunity cost of war vs. just buy oil at a higher price is not even on the same playing field, so thinking we went to war over oil is a very silly argument.
No, Iraq gave us a foothold. It was a Normandy invasion against the Islamists who control the Middle East. Oil we can buy (and we have, at much higher prices too), but regional stability (which we need more than oil) we have to enforce, and we need foothold in the region to do it. Why do you think we stayed in Europe after WWII? To keep the Soviets in check. We'll stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, so we don't have to transport troops and equipment to the region from Diego Garcia any more. The Middle East has caused alot of problems for alot of people over the last couple of hundred years, and we need a foothold in the region to do anything about it. Now we've got one. And, as a side benefit, some American companies will get some contracts in Iraq for oil (not all of them, though), and that very small percentage that we get from them will be stable, but, prob. at market rates. That's it.
Steve, it warms my heart to see you stridently support the Jeffersonian Democratic efforts of a Venezuelan patriot like Hugo Chavez. Now allow me to introduce this character to those who think for themselves:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0301/p07s01-woam.html
About Iraq, to be brief: tanks as a means of scouting out WMDs was a dumb idea, no matter how you slice it. But it also does absolutely no good to be whining and recriminating about it now. Now that we ARE there, the job is to see to a clean end of it, meaning Iraqi sovereignty, Iraqi freedom, Iraqi strength, and most certainly, an ability to remind Iran's government that harboring al-Qaeda could prove hazardous to their health.
Felows: try to understant this:
http://www.iraq-war.ru/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=19401
Remember that nor russians nor brazilians eats babies as brakefast. It is only opion matter.
The "jailling kids" estrategy never even winned in History. Why such will be winn in Iraq?
And why note?
busc+cia+alqaeda+mossad=call-cops-number?
Then, lets hope CB is fine.
Aquele abraço
Álvaro Frota
I think that Iraq will nationalize their oil right around the time the U.S. does. Stop kidding yourselves. Our government is in this for the cash and the neocons. To the rest of you, they are cannon fodder.
It was not a war for oil except in the sense that the middle east is vital to our national security because of oil production. But everybody, including Bush, understood that the war would be more expensive than buying oil on the market. In addition we always were going to give the Iraqis control of their oil production - it we wanted to steal oil it would make more sense to invade and occupy Saudi Arabia. Fewer people to fight us an most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi. No, this was not a war to steal Iraqi oil. It was stupid, but not for oil.
If it is true that Bush invaded to establish a "foothold" in the Middle East from which to threaten (or reform) other middle eastern countries then he should be impeached for being monumentally stupid.
1) we already had a "foothold" militarily - Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, with excellent port and air facilities and much better security. In modern warfare you don't invade Iraq when you want to threaten Iran or Syria. It costs you your Army in securing Iraq and you use up more material in supplying your "base" than your base can supply to another invasion. And obviously Iran has told us to F off more than usual lately, and trumpeted their nuclear programs brazenly while pouring money and infiltrators into Iraq. why? Because they know we are tied down. Establish a base my ass.
2) if we want to reform the Arab world we might want to employ a strategy that doesn't result in those not hostile to us beforehand becoming enraged against us. Populations that either supported us or were at least nuetral now despise us. Terrorist recruiting has skyrocketed. Chaos on Iraq has scared those who might have sought to overthrow their despotic regimes in favor of democracy - they see how hard it is to install and they also see how chaos and confusion might be worse than a dictatorship. This does seem to be the Neocon goal, and it was silly before and shown to be silly now. Duh. "Hey, be like me and be my friend. I'll show you by kicking your ass." Not a way to make friends and influence people.
And after all that, yes we can install a democracy in Iraq, or at least restore stability and put in a regime that might lead to democracy. We installed "democracy" in South Korea in a similiar way - it took decades before democracy took root - DECADES. And Koreans were always one people with a long tradition of being a nation - not like Iraq with Sunnis, Shias, Kurds, and tribal loyalties more important than national ones. So neocons who thought we could do it quickly are complete and utter morons. The President should be fired for listening to them and not realizing they were full of crap.
So the best thing now is NOT to pull out and leave chaos and "Iraqistan - the Iranian Ally" behind. It is to restore stability, to seek order from chaos, to turn over responsibility to the Iraqis and STAY until the government truly can stand on its own (not like in Vietnam were we knew the south would fall), and then and only then get the fuck out. It will have been a long, tough, bloody, and costly effort simply to get back to normalcy. Sure people will tell me how much better off the Iraqis are without Saddam, and how they will be much better off five years from now than they would have been if we had not invaded. I agree. I don't give a rat's ass. My question is, will we be better off? Hell no, but pulling out now would make it worse. Our national security would be damaged worse than it was in the invasion - we would "lose" in the eyes of potential enemies making conflict more likely. We would have huge chaos (worse than now) in a vital region where our oil supplies come from. We would have created a true breeding ground for terrorists, a far cry from Bush's call to depose Saddam to weaken terror. So it sucks but we must win. It is a giant shit sandwich and we are all going to have to take a bite. That doesn't mean we should compliment the damn cook.
The republican party says "stay the course" and accuses the left of wanting to lose. They also say that we were right to invade. The democratic party says "win the damn thing - change strategy if you have to, invite allies, do whatever, but win" and also says we were wrong to invade.
THink what you want. I'm voting Kerry, and I want my troops home AND a stable Iraq. I don't like shit sandwiches even if the cook tells me how good it is and how much worse it could have been.
Wrist rockets versus rocks. I guess it beats WMD exchanges or mortar battles. Maybe in a few months it can just migrate from the geological projectiles, to paintball, or super-soakers!
"Take that imperialist American!"
"Oh yeah? Take that kafarah al-fajarah!"
And then at the end of the day everyone sits down to some tea and lamb and couscous.
Better yet, make it a PS2 war. Best score gets control of the mosque.
Steve,
You are a complete idiot and your facts are not only wrong, stupid, ignorance, but way out of line. We can produce 100 percent of our oil supply if we want. By buying the 20% puts money and other benetics into the hands of the middle eastern states via trade. We actually don't need them at all. We only do it so these countries can trade for other foodstuffs that they can't grow on their own. I really do hate stupid white men.
Secondly, this is not the forum for talking politics and debating issues - it's a site to help support and encourage this soldier - and others who also do it - to keep the morale up, building a friendship and caring for this young man in the middle of the war when he would like to be home with his wife but hasn't been able to get there do to stop-loss. We are here to share his life and his experiences and to let him know that we care about this young man, his family. It's a place for him to VENT and a place for us to read those vents. It's a place to say THANK YOU for your sacrifice and to let him know we are behind him ALL THE WAY!!!!
It's NOT a political site and your comments do NOT help at all!! Put them on another site that is more appropriate. THIS site is for CBFTW only and in letting him know we understand, some of us more than others, what he is going through. It's a site we wait for a daily post so that we know he's okay, to support him in every way, to give him our gratitude and love, to pray always for his safety.
So Steve, your rantings belong on a political site, not here, so unless you can write a note saying how much you appreciate this young man and all his comrades in arms, DO NOT POST HERE AGAIN. If you truly care about this young man and want to THANK HIM for doing what he is doing for US, then do THAT but DO NOT bring POLITICS into this website the CBFTW started as a journal to get things off his chest - it's a form of therapy.
SO, Steve, GO AWAY AND BUG SOMEONE ELSE. YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE.
Hugs to CBFTW,
~C
i'm sure if cb doesn't want 'steve the socialist' here...he can tell him for himself. and "fuck off and die"??? don't you think that's a little narrowminded and mean?
good lord, people. it's a blog for fuckssake.
to cb, keep writing if you feel like it. take care, if possible.
aprildawn
CB - THIS IS FOR THE COMMENTATORS; NOT YOU, DARLIN'
April Dawn: That's right, it is a blog and if you've been on a lot of them, you'd see all kinds of comments, some so totally unruly and it doesn't necessarily have to be CBFTW to tell him off; it's also up to us. That's what the comments are all about. Geez girl, don't get your panties in a twist!!! and that's from one female to another. We need to police ourselves.
When Robbie (the post right before you said this - sure hope his name was robbie because I hate to lose this post just to check) said whathe did, I just about cracked up laughing AND girl, HE'S RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! This is about CBFTW, not about Steve and if Steve is saying or doing anything that stresses out CBFTW, then he absolutely does not belong here!!! It's really that simple and CB has better things to do than police his commentators. THAT JOB IS OURS!!!!!!!
AND IF ANYBODY SENDS CB ANY EMAIL PUTTING HIM DOWN OR BERRATING HIM, I WILL PERSONALLY CHOKE THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF ANYONE WHO DOES THAT TO OUR SOLDIER. Don't piss me off, folks, for I will find YOU!!
We are here to understand, learn, give and take, support, encouragement, SHARE and build MORALE. TRY TO REMEMBER THAT, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!
May God Bless You CBFTW and yours till the end of days. Stay Sharp and Stay Safe!! You have our love, our respect and our thanks not only for fighting for your country but for sharing with us your life, however it may be.
Those who do not appreciate that can go to hell but mostly they are NOT TO POST OR EMAIL CBFTW (sure hope I have those initials right) and THAT is HOW bloggers POLICE THEMSELVES. If you don't like something, leave and go read something else more to your desire.
This soldier of ours does not need that crap from anyone and I'll be damned if anyone gives him a hard time or stresses him out and if someone does post something that is way out of line for this particular blog, others have the RIGHT to tell them to go away, they do not belong here. And those people better leave and go on a different site or a political site or a forum and be assoles there, not here. So in essence, I'm saying that Robbie is right and you, Aprildawn are wrong.
I was the wife of a US Army Captain, Green Berets, Special Forces.
Do not push my buttons.
CINDY CALLAHAN
BARRINGTON NH
~C
Why oh why won't he post and let us know he is okay?
CB - please post as often as possible even if all you have to say is "nothing today, perhaps more later." It reassures your many fans that have grown concerned about you.
It's been a few days and we are growing nervous. God bless you and keep you safe.
And God bless you too, CBFTW's wife. I know you and he are in this together.
Before I go and go search for Steve's comments, I do want to tell him a few things myself. WE ARE NOT THERE FOR OIL. We can supply 100% of our own oil if we had to PLUS we have so many other places to go for oil should we need it - such as Alaska and the governor of Alaska has already started to do just that WITHOUT PERMISSION from anyone because his state does not need permission to do so!! They know it's there and they are going after it. THE ONLY REASON THE UNITED STATES BUYS OIL FROM IRAQ, ET AL, IS THE FOOD FOR OIL PROGRAM. You cannot grow ANYTHING in that soil - or should I say desert? - nor is there clean water, cows for milk and many other countries are the same way. SO THAT THESE COUNTRIES CAN FLOURISH WITHOUT DYING, WE GIVE THEM WHAT THEY NEED IN TRADE. THIS IS NOT GEORGE BUSH'S POLICY, IT'S OUR GOVERNMENT'S POLICY AND JUST SO YOU'LL KNOW, STEVE, THE PRESIDENT CANNOT ORDER A WAR WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE SENATE. IT'S THE SENATORS WHO MAKE OR BREAK A LAW AND IT'S THE SENATORS WHO DECIDE. If the President is totally against something, he has a chance to VETO but not often just as the Senate gets the chance to veto anyone he would like to appoint to a job. Man, do you even know your history????????? The President doesn't move troops around, the PENTAGON does - whatever the President gets, he INHERITED from the ones before him, or any mess left behind by the previous president but it's the joint sessions of Congress that actually makes our rules and reulations and laws of this country. DAH - HA!! I have found that over the years that the people who speak ill speak out of IGNORANCE of the system and the facts. So Steve, it is up to you to start reading before you open your mouth again. AND STAY OFF THIS BLOG STUPID!!! I go through 1,000 blogs a day, I send info from one to another. A basic law class can teach you about the House and the Senate and the President. I'd suggest you do that, Steve! THIS BLOG IS NONPARTISAN. And to make good friends with this wonderful soldier of ours who is putting his life in danger for us!! The President did not put him there - all the people in the HOUSE and in the SENATE considered as the JOINT SESSIONS IN CONGRESS, The Pentagon and all the hundreds and thousands of small groups that each and every one of them are in plus the Cabinet whom they have to report to, all report to the President and from that information, he makes the best decision he can -----------but he didn't come up with that by himself. He didn't come up with the question nor the answer.
As examples: the other night Larry King Live interviewed President George Bush and his wife, Laura. Larry King mentioned that there were 4 dates set for him and (YUCK - had to say that) Senator Kerry to debate. HE DOESN'T KNOW THE DATES - SOMEONE ELSE SETS UP THOSE DATES - but he'll show up, of course. SOMEONE ELSE TAKES CARE OF HIS SCHEDULE plus he makes his own personal scedules. And as he said on Larry King Live "I don't know the dates but I can't wait to debate him." That man, our president, has the weight of the world on his shoulders and if you don't think so, you are very mistaken, Steve.
The President can fight for what he believes in, but if it's already a law voted on by the House, he can't change it. He cannot go to war without a vote from those same people and they voted for it and it's his job to keep up morale, to keep the people informed, and to POLITICALLY CORRECTLY go through channels to keep this world from blowing itself up with all these damn rogues out there with nukes.
The state has it's own laws and then you have Federal laws and they don't always equal out. They are not always the same just as different states have different laws and before you go from one state to another, you better know that state's laws, especially if it's different from your own state.
Ah, crap, now I've forgotten what my other examples are but I hope you get the point. And I believe it was me who also said that this is not the blog to discuss politics on but to give our soldier here a place where he can rant and rave and where we can sympathize, support him, encourage him, give him some morale, some insight and things like that WITHOUT DRIVING HIM FRIGGIN NUTS!!!!!!! It's that simple steve. Since he does have your email address to your name and you didn't leave it empty, the next note may go directly to you after I read all your posts and tell you that you are not welcome here. THIS IS A SOLDIER FIGHTING TO RETAIN YOUR FREEDOM - EVEN YOUR FREEDOM TO SAY STUPID STUFF!!! YOU SHOULD BE DAMN GRATEFUL for his and his family's sacrifice and for every troops ANYWHERE on this globe. IT'S THAT SIMPLE, STEVE.
We have come to love CB, his wife, his family, his friends, his buddies and his comrades in arms. We will continue to support him and THEM as long as he is over there doing good for HIS COUNTRY. You should be proud and grateful that he is doing this, that all the troops throughout the years have done this to keep us BETTER, FREE, SMARTER, PRIVILEGED, AND OH, SO MUCH MORE. Just compare OUR COUNTRY to ANY OTHER COUNTRY OUT THERE and you will find a humongous GAP between what they have and what we have. WE are so FAR ABOVE the oldest nations in History. These nations were developed long before Jesus came along - hundreds of millions of years ago and they haven't much improved either. BUT WE HAVE - BECAUSE OF THE FREEDOM we have. And also because of the FREEDOM we give others.
STEVE, DID YOU WATCH THE OPENING OF THE OLYMPICS?? WHO GOT THE MOST APPLAUSE OUT OF ALL THE NATIONS THAT ATTENTED??? If you don't know, let me tell you: AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ AND THE UNITED STATES. And although their countries don't have a pot to piss in, they got the applause because now they have a chance to survive but NOTHING can compare to the rights and the freedom we have here in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - and the whole world wants to come here; they all want to be an American, they all want to learn here. How do you think THESE FRIGGIN TERRORISTS are capable of doing what they do besides TERRORIZE?????? They learned all that stuff from us, they are unbelievably and scaringly savvy computerwise because they learned that in the united states of america. SO SHUT UP AND BE THANKFUL YOU LIVE IN A COUNTRY LIKE OURS AND DON'T, FOR ONE MINUTE, TAKE IT FOR GRANTED. "TO BE SAFE, ONE HAS TO BE INSECURE." and that's what we need to do.
~C
"this we'll defend said...
Why oh why won't he post and let us know he is okay?"
I know, I feel the same way. He will when there's no bullshit to put up with.
CB, YOUR BEST BET IS NOT TO READ THE COMMENTS - EVER - AND JUST POST LIKE YOU WOULD A REGULAR JOURNAL AND LET US COMMENTATORS KNOW YOU'RE ALRIGHT AND ALSO LET US BE THE ONES TO POLICE ONE ANOTHER AND EVEN ARGUE - DON'T BE PART OF IT. JUST POST ONLY EVEN IF IT'S SOMETHING ABOUT NOTHING.
You have fans, here, man. WE love you and we care. Do not read email from people you do not know and do not read the comments, at least not now. JUST POST AND POST ONLY. Remove MAIL CALL.
Hugs,
~C
OH.....AND STEVE..........AND OTHERS WHO THINK LIKE HIM AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE: Who am I? I'm someone with education; I'm just about brain dead by now, tho. I am an almost 51 year old woman who is severely ill and extremely severely physically disabled and live on a dirt road with nobody around, who can barely take care of herself and I live off of SSD which means I really don't live at all. Unfortunately some of us don't have all the freedoms of the world but I have running water, electricity, cable, tvs, remotes,dvds, computers, and all the wonderful things that make others want to come to America. Along with that, I have a great many online friends who respect what I have to say and how I say it and why I may say something.
That's the benefit of growing up in the UNITED STATES of AMERICA. I have two grown sons, one 30, one 20; they need to grow up, too. One is in Florida, one is in MA. I have done many things in my life and for 30 years I have been a medical counsellor - something I will always do all the years I breathe - and the other is helping a kid like CBFTW whom I believe is doing a pretty good job handling this war. WE ARE AT WAR and things are a lot different now. So before you speak Steve and others like you that I have read on here, know what you are talking about before you open your big mouths.
When CBFTW reads comments like yours, it upsets him and if it upsets him, it could disturb him so much that he could get hurt or killed. WE are NOT here to debate; we are here to support our AMERICAN SOLDIERSSSSSSSSS.
~C
CB:
I hope they don't cancel the cancellation of the cancel and you are just now on a plane going to make love with your wife.
Indeed, what a great idea! MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR! Who remember this?
By the way, there are in the commentors a lot of people that is trying to be the owners of your blog:
"Fulano! You haven't the right to post here!"
"Beltrano! Fuck off and die!"
There is just the "freedon of speach" that US Empire is given to iraqis and wants to give all the world, includind US country: one is free to speach but only if his speach is "Amen!"
And CB, if you aren't in that plane, please give us a few lines. The Bush's strangelovers neocons with their "jailling kids strategy" is leading the holly hell's upon Iraq just now and I'm going to be anxious.
Hope you fine, and
Aquele abraço!
Álvaro Frota
Still pacing - right along with 91ghost. His wife posts here so if anything happened, I'm sure she'd tell us. Ladywhatever,you misread what I wrote...
All the love in the world is surrounding you CB...
and we'll wait...... I know he gets upset when he reads the posts and doesn't want to get involved in the partisan shit - I've read everything he has ever written and his comments to the comments, something he can't do anymore... too much stuff... but he came back, eh, ghost, that he did. CB came back... my suggestion to him to not read the posts was for his own good, because they do upset him; he has said so himself. There are 3 names on the tip of my tongue that make it very difficult for him....... and the emails he said that he gets are horrendous.....just trying to protect him..............and certainly not taking over either frenchie!! :-)
AAAAAAAAFFFFFLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK
ok, time up. cb, something is better than nothing. (It would be nice if he was on a plane home but they already cancelled that again - unfortunately) Where in hell did all you new people come from??
I like the X-files Reference smokingman.
How many paces you want to jog tonight 91ghost?
Hugs to all. Hugs to CBFTW, his family, his wife and all the guys and gals at the FOB in Mosul!!!
~C
Well done. I'm with you 100% from the states.
Wish you a safe journey home.
-Cheers,
Rod
Just so you know I came by and not have to hear your shit while on patrol. ha ha ha?
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