Monthly Archive for October, 2006

the best new rule this season

Published
by
Shelly
on October 25, 2006
in New Rules
. 3 Comments

From the October 20 episode of Real Time… (Emphasis is mine.)

And finally, New Rule, in two parts: A) You can’t call yourself a think tank if all your ideas are stupid. And B), if you’re someone from one of the think tanks that dreamed up the Iraq War, and who predicted that we’d be greeted as liberators, and that we wouldn’t need a lot of troops, and that Iraqi oil would pay for the war, that the WMD’s would be found, that the looting wasn’t problematic, and the mission was accomplished, that the insurgency was in its last throes, that things would get better after the people voted, after the government was formed, after we got Saddam, after we got his kids, after we got Zarqawi, and that the whole bloody mess wouldn’t turn into a civil war…you have to stop making predictions!

(You can read the rest there.)

Of course, his final “New Rules” all throughout this season have been cool (all the ones from last month have been excellent, IMO); but the above one takes the cake so far, I say.

all is well in leaf-town

Published
by
Shelly
on October 15, 2006
in Sportiness
. 3 Comments

How ’bout Mats Sundin’s 500th career goal?

Emphasis mine…

Mats Sundin has performed some amazing feats among 499 regular-season goals, but how about a game-winning, short-handed, overtime hat trick, milestone for No. 500?

Yes, the Maple Leafs’ Swedish captain did it in style last night, slaying the Calgary Flames 5-4 with Darcy Tucker in the penalty box. It seemed the Leafs were doomed at that stage, only to have Sundin break out and wire his third of the night past Miikka Kiprusoff.

He became the 35th National Hockey Leaguer to reach 500, first to do it in a Leafs sweater, and he tied Dave Keon for second in team history with 365 goals. The Leafs bench emptied in joy and the ovation from 19,338 at the Air Canada Centre crowd stayed right through Sundin’s first-star introduction. The visibly emotional Sundin lingered on the ice and clapped along in recognition of their salute.

That was a beautiful sight to behold. :) And personally? I couldn’t think of a better way to reach 500. Yay!

655,000 iraqi deaths?!

Published
by
Shelly
on October 11, 2006
in News and Views
. 1 Comment

Study Claims Iraq’s ‘Excess’ Death Toll Has Reached 655,000

At the moment, the Iraq Body Count website pins the number of Iraqi deaths at between 43,000 and 48,000 (approximately). From my past reading, most in the US government or in the military accept their count as fairly accurate. They’re probably going to blow off these new findings, like they did a couple of years ago, when it was suggested that around 100,000 Iraqis had died in the first eighteen months of the war.

a secret letter from iraq

Published
by
Shelly
on October 7, 2006
in News and Views
. 1 Comment

Time magazine has published an anonymous letter from a US soldier stationed in Iraq.

Some of the good parts…

Most Surreal Moment — Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels.

Midgets?! Wow. It almost sounds like something one would read in a novel. But then, there’s plenty of that (only they’re dwarfs, not midgets) on Little People, Big World

Most Profound Man in Iraq — an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied “Yes, you.”

Zoinks! But then, the US troops are foreign to Iraqis, so it makes total sense.

Worst City in al-Anbar Province — Ramadi, hands down. The provincial capital of 400,000 people. Lots and lots of insurgents killed in there since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small arms. We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers (much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news. We have as many attacks out here in the west as Baghdad. Yet, Baghdad has 7 million people, we have just 1.2 million. Per capita, al-Anbar province is the most violent place in Iraq by several orders of magnitude. I suppose it was no accident that the Marines were assigned this area in 2003.

There doesn’t seem to be hardly any coverage of Ramadi in the news here, either.

But then, I must confess, I’ve been slacking off in my news reading. So it’s possible there’s been small tidbits of coverage here and there; but I’ve not seen any of it.

Worst E-Mail Message — “The Walking Blood Bank is Activated. We need blood type A+ stat.” I always head down to the surgical unit as soon as I get these messages, but I never give blood — there’s always about 80 Marines in line, night or day.

Oh, dear. :(

Biggest Surprise — Iraqi Police. All local guys. I never figured that we’d get a police force established in the cities in al-Anbar. I estimated that insurgents would kill the first few, scaring off the rest. Well, insurgents did kill the first few, but the cops kept on coming. The insurgents continue to target the police, killing them in their homes and on the streets, but the cops won’t give up. Absolutely incredible tenacity. The insurgents know that the police are far better at finding them than we are — and they are finding them. Now, if we could just get them out of the habit of beating prisoners to a pulp . . .

Amen to that last part. Every soldier who does that sort of thing gives all the other ones who aren’t a part of any of it a bad name.

Greatest Vindication — Stocking up on outrageous quantities of Diet Coke from the chow hall in spite of the derision from my men on such hoarding, then having a 122mm rocket blast apart the giant shipping container that held all of the soda for the chow hall. Yep, you can’t buy experience.

Heh.

Favorite Iraqi TV Show — Oprah. I have no idea. They all have satellite TV.

Hee!

Coolest Insurgent Act — Stealing almost $7 million from the main bank in Ramadi in broad daylight, then, upon exiting, waving to the Marines in the combat outpost right next to the bank, who had no clue of what was going on. The Marines waved back. Too cool.

Holy crap. *shakes head in disbelief*

Highest Unit Re-enlistment Rate — Any outfit that has been in Iraq recently. All the danger, all the hardship, all the time away from home, all the horror, all the frustrations with the fight here — all are outweighed by the desire for young men to be part of a band of brothers who will die for one another. They found what they were looking for when they enlisted out of high school. Man for man, they now have more combat experience than any Marines in the history of our Corps.

Yeah, they found what they were looking for…and then some, it seems.

Biggest Hassle — High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and “battlefield” tours (we take them to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our briefs and commentary seem to have no affect on their preconceived notions of what’s going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that they’ve been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here.

Biggest Outrage — Practically anything said by talking heads on TV about the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted. Biggest Offender: Bill O’Reilly.

I’m not surprised O’Reilly’s views are the most slanted, to this guy. I’m also not surprised this soldier considers the views of the “talking heads on TV” to be “grossly simplistic”.

Saddest Moment — Having an infantry battalion commander hand me the dog tags of one of my Marines who had just been killed while on a mission with his unit. Hit by a 60mm mortar. He was a great Marine. I felt crushed for a long time afterward. His picture now hangs at the entrance to our section area. We’ll carry it home with us when we leave in February.

May that Marine rest in peace. That had to suck. :(

Happiest Moment — Well, it wasn’t in Iraq. There are no truly happy moments here. It was back in California when I was able to hold my family again while home on leave during July.

Most Common Thought — Home. Always thinking of home, of my great wife and the kids. Wondering how everyone else is getting along. Regretting that I don’t write more. Yep, always thinking of home.

Sigh. Very sobering thoughts, those.