This might be too long, but it gives good intel from someone that seems to know what they are talking about.
US Weapons:
1) The M-16 rifle:
Thumbs down. Chronic jamming problems with the talcum powder like sand over there. The sand is everywhere. Jordan says you feel filthy 2 minutes after coming out of the shower. The M-4 carbine version is more popular because it’s lighter and shorter, but it has jamming problems also. They lack the ability to mount the various optical gunsights and weapons lights on the picatinny rails, but the weapon itself is not great in a desert environment. They all hate the 5.56mm (.223) round. Poor penetration on the cinderblock structure common over there and even torso hits can’t be reliably counted on to put the enemy down.
Fun fact: Random autopsies on dead insurgents show
a high level of opiate use.
2) The M243 SAW (squad assault weapon): .223 cal. Drum fed light machine gun.
Big thumbs down. Universally considered a piece of shit. Chronic jamming problems, most of which require partial disassembly (that’s fun in the middle of a firefight).
3) The M9 Beretta 9mm:
Mixed bag. Good gun, performs well in desert environment; but they all hate the 9mm cartridge. The use of handguns for self-defense is actually fairly common. Same old story on the 9mm: Bad guys hit multiple times and still in the fight.
4) Mossberg 12ga. Military shotgun:
Works well, used frequently for clearing houses to good effect.
5) The M240 Machine Gun: 7.62 NATO (.308) cal. belt fed machine gun, developed to replace the old M-60 (what a beautiful weapon that was!!) Thumbs up. Accurate, reliable, and the 7.62 round puts ‘em down. Originally
developed as a vehicle mounted weapon, more and more are being dismounted and taken into the field by infantry. The 7.62
round chews up the structure over there.
6) The M2 50 cal heavy machine gun:
Thumbs way, way up. ”Ma Deuce” is still worth her considerable weight in gold. The ultimate fight stopper – puts their dicks in the dirt very time. The most coveted weapon in-theater.
7) The .45 pistol:
Thumbs up. Still the best pistol around out there. Everybody authorized to carry a sidearm is trying to get their hands on one. With few exceptions, can reliably be expected to put ‘em down with a torso hit. The special ops guys (who are doing most of the pistol work) use the HK military model and supposedly love it. The old government model .45’s are being re-issued en masse.
The M-14:
Thumbs up. They are being re-issued in bulk, mostly in a
modified version to special ops guys. Modifications include lightweight Kevlar stocks and low power red dot or ACOG sights. Very reliable in the sandy environment, and they love the 7.62 round.
9) The Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle:
Thumbs way up. Spectacular range and accuracy and hits like a freight train. Used frequently to take out vehicle suicide bombers (we actually stop a lot of them) and barricaded enemy. It is definitely here to stay.
10) The M24 sniper rifle:
Thumbs up. Mostly in .308 but some in 300 win mag. Heavily modified Remington 700’s. Great performance. Snipers have been used heavily to great effect. Rumor has it a marine sniper on his third tour in Anbar province has actually exceeded (name removed) record for confirmed kills with OVER 100.
11) The new body
armor:
Thumbs up. Relatively light at approx. 6 lbs.and can reliably be expected to soak up small shrapnel and even will stop an AK-47 round. The bad news: Hot as shit to wear, almost unbearable in the summer heat (which averages over 120 degrees). Also, the enemy now goes for head shots whenever possible. All the bullshit about the “old” body armor making our guys vulnerable to the IED’s was a non-starter. The IED explosions are enormous and body armor doesn’t make any difference at all in most cases.
12) Night Vision and Infrared Equipment:
Thumbs way up. Spectacular performance. Our guys see in the dark and own the night, period. Very little enemy action after evening prayers. More and more enemy being whacked at night during movement by our hunter-killer teams. We’ve all seen the videos.
13) Lights:
Thumbs up. Most of the weapon mounted and personal lights
are Surefire’s, and the troops love ‘em. Invaluable for night urban operations. Jordan carried a $34 Surefire G2 on a neck lanyard and loved it. I can’t help but notice that most of the good fighting weapons and ordnance are 50 or more years old!! With all our technology, it’s the WWII and Vietnam era weapons that everybody wants!! The infantry fighting is frequent, up close and brutal. No quarter is given or shown.
Bad guy weapons:
1) Mostly AK47’s. The entire country is an arsenal. Works better in the desert than the M16 and the .308 Russian round kills reliably. PKM belt fed light machine guns are also common and effective. Luckily, the enemy mostly shoots like shit. Undisciplined “spray and pray” type fire. However, they are seeing more and more precision weapons, especially sniper rifles. (Iran, again)
2) The RPG:
Probably the infantry weapon
most feared by our guys. Simple, reliable and as common as dogshit. The enemy responded to our up-armored Humvees by aiming at the windshields, often at point blank range. Still killing a lot of our guys.
3) The IED:
The biggest killer of all. Can be anything from old Soviet anti-armor mines to jury rigged artillery shells. A lot found in Jordan’s area were in abandoned cars. The enemy would take 2 or 3 155 mm artillery shells and wire them together. Most were detonated by cell phone and the explosions are enormous. You’re not safe in any vehicle, even an M1 tank. Driving is by far the most dangerous thing our guys do over there. Lately, they are much more sophisticated “shape charges” (Iranian) specifically designed to penetrate armor. Fact: Most of the readymade IED’s are supplied by Iran, who is also providing terrorists (Hezbollah types) to train the insurgents in
their use and tactics. That’s why the attacks have been so deadly lately. Their concealment methods are ingenious, the latest being shape charges, in Styrofoam containers spray painted to look like the cinderblocks that litter all Iraqi roads. We find about 40% before they detonate, and the bomb disposal guys are unsung heroes of this war.
4) Mortars and rockets:
Very prevalent. The soviet era 122mm rockets (with an 18km range) are becoming more prevalent. One of Jordan’s NCO’s lost a leg to one. These weapons cause a lot of damage “inside the wire”. Jordan’s base was hit almost daily his entire time there by mortar and rocket fire, often at night to disrupt sleep patterns and cause fatigue (It did). More of a psychological weapon than anything else. The enemy mortar teams would jump out of vehicles, fire a few rounds, and then haul ass in a matter of seconds.
Fun fact:
Captured enemy have apparently marveled at the marksmanship of our guys and how hard they fight. They are apparently told in Jihad school that the Americans rely solely on technology, and can be easily beaten in close quarters combat for their lack of toughness. Let’s just say they know better now.
Bad guy technology:
Simple yet effective. Most communication is by cell and satellite phones and also by email on laptops. They use handheld GPS units for navigation and “Google Earth” for overhead views of our positions. Their weapons are good, if not fancy, and prevalent. Their explosives and bomb technology is TOP OF THE LINE. Night vision is rare. They are very careless with their equipment and the captured GPS units and laptops are treasure troves of Intel when
captured.
Who are the bad guys? Most of the carnage is caused by the Zarqawi Al Qaeda group. They operate mostly in Anbar province (Fallujah and Ramadi). These are mostly “foreigners” , non-Iraqi Sunni Arab Jihadists from all over the Muslim world (and Europe). Most enter Iraq through Syria (with, of course, the knowledge and complicity of the Syrian govt.), and then travel down the “rat line” which is the trail of towns along the Euphrates River that we’ve been hitting hard for the last few months.
Some are virtually untrained young Jihadists that often end up as suicide bombers or in various “sacrifice squads”. Most, however, are hard core terrorists from all the usual suspects (Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas etc.). These are the guys running around murdering civilians en masse and cutting heads off.
The Chechens (many of whom are Caucasian) are supposedly the most ruthless and the best fighters. They have been fighting the Russians for years. In the Baghdad area and south, most of the insurgents are Iranian inspired (and led) Iraqi Shiites. The Iranian Shiia have been very adept at infiltrating the Iraqi local govt’s, the police forces and the Army. They have had a massive spy and agitator network there since the Iran-Iraq war in the early 80’s. Most of the Saddam loyalists were killed, captured, or gave up long ago.
Bad Guy Tactics: When they are engaged on an infantry level they get their asses kicked every time! Brave, but stupid. Suicidal Banzai-type charges were very common earlier in the war and still occur. They will literally sacrifice 8-10 man teams in suicide squads by sending them screaming and firing AK’s and RPG’s directly at our bases just to probe the defenses.
They get mowed down like grass every time (see the M2 and M240 above). Jordan’s base was hit like this often.
When engaged, they have a tendency to flee to the same building, probably for what they think will be a glorious last stand. Instead, we call in air and that’s the end of that more often than not. These hole-ups are referred to as Alpha Whiskey Romeo’s (Allah’s Waiting Room). We have the laser guided ground-air thing down to a science. The fast mover’s, mostly Marine F-18’s, are taking an ever increasing toll on the enemy. When caught out in the open, the helicopter gunships and AC-130 Spectre Gunships cut them to ribbons with cannon and rocket fire, especially at night. Interestingly, artillery is hardly used at all.
Fun facts:
The enemy death toll is supposedly between 45-50 thousand. That is why we’re seeing less and less infantry attacks and more IED, suicide bomber shit. The new strategy is just simple: attrition.
The insurgent tactic most frustrating is their use of civilian non-combatants as cover. They know we do all we can to avoid civilian casualties and therefore schools, hospitals and especially Mosques are locations where they meet, stage for attacks, cache weapons, and ammo and flee to when engaged. They have absolutely no regard whatsoever for inflicting civilian casualties. They will terrorize locals and murder without hesitation anyone believed to be sympathetic to the Americans or the new Iraqi govt. Kidnapping of family members, especially children, is common to influence people they are trying to influence but can’t reach, such as local govt. officials, clerics, tribal leaders, etc.
The first things our guys are told is “don’t get captured”. They know that if captured they will be tortured and beheaded on the internet. Zarqawi openly offers bounties for anyone who brings him a live American serviceman. This motivates the criminal element who otherwise don’t give a shit about the war. A lot of the beheading victims were actually kidnapped by common criminals and sold to Zarqawi.
As such, for our guys, every fight is to the death. Surrender is not an option. The Iraqi’s are a mixed bag. Some fight well; others aren’t worth a damn. Most do okay with American support. Finding leaders is hard, but they are getting better.
It is widely viewed that Zarqawi’s use of suicide bombers, en masse, against the civilian population was a serious tactical mistake. Many Iraqi’s were galvanized and the caliber of recruits in the Army and the police forces went right up, along with their motivation. It also led to an exponential increase in good intel because the Iraqi’s are sick of the insurgent attacks against civilians. The Kurds are solidly pro-American and fearless fighters.
Morale:
According to Jordan, morale among our guys is very high. They not only believe that they are winning, but that they are winning decisively. They are stunned and dismayed by what they see in the American press, whom they almost universally view as against them. The embedded reporters are despised and distrusted. They are inflicting casualties at a
rate of 20-1 and then see shit like “Are we losing in Iraq” on TV and the print media.
For the most part, they are satisfied with their equipment, food, and leadership. Bottom line though, and they all say this, is that there are not enough guys there to drive the final stake through the heart of the insurgency, primarily because there aren’t enough troops in-theater to shut down the borders with Iran and Syria. The Iranians and the Syrians just can’t stand the thought of Iraq being an American ally (with, of course, permanent US bases there).
Frank Pickton
RRT Erbil/ DynCorp
HHB 2/3 FA 1-1 AD
FOB Warrior, Iraq
There is this email going around for the last 5 years or so, that tells you what the signs of a stroke are, or the one that tells you to cough when you are having a heart attack.
Do you get this email everyday?
I do…
It seems like I am the only one that has gotten this email from 150 people already.
Should I be worried, that there are 150 people worried that I am going to have a stroke or a heart attack?
I look at the thread of people that are on the “forward list” and there are like 1 or 2 or maybe 3.
Like I said, thanks for thinking about me when you forward the email, but after 150 times I get it. really.
for any of you healthy people out there who want to know what to look for when my face drops, or I cannot talk or when my arms go numb, and my tongue is swirling, here is what to do.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions: S *Ask the individual to SMILE. T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (I.e. It is sunny out today.) R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS. If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. New Sign of a Stroke ——– Stick out Your Tongue NOTE: Another ’sign’ of a stroke is this: Ask the person to ’stick’ out his tongue. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other,that is also an indication of a stroke. A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to Monty and 10 other people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
Long lines. People are too young. The place is full of drunken assholes.Everyone sings all the words to the songs while moving their head side to side. Every song is their favorite song. >shoot me now<
BUT< the number one reason is that no one sits down. They all stand up and waive their arms and dance. You have to stand with them or get trampled, or worse yet look at some fat ass in front of you al night.
I am going to the Black Eyed Peas concert because someone gave me the tickets.
I am having anxiety sweats over it…
Tell me why I am going again? I could be home playing the BEP’s on my 1000 watt “K” speakers. With No butts in my face. I can be sitting down too.
I swear it is the same assholes that stand up the whole game at a football game, or the people that turn around in the pew at church and shake your hand after they just went to the bathroom.
Yes, lent is stupid. There are enough reasons to stop yourself from doing things you want to do but know you should not.
You have new years resolutions, you have interventions, you have a mirror in your bathroom.
There are plenty of reasons to quit shit, so why do we need lent. There is some kind of religious significance, but like most of these things like not eating meat on Friday, they real reason just gets lost.
Lent is really like a retry.
If you quit something for new years and fail, you just RETRY at lent.
Think about it again. You have to agree that Lent is Stupid.
A 25 year old Jewish girl tells her Mom that she has missed her period for 2 months. Very worried, the mother goes to the drugstore and buys a pregnancy kit. The test result shows that the girl is pregnant.
Shouting and crying, the mother says, “Who was the pig that did this to you? I want to know!”
Without answering, the girl picks up the phone and makes a call. Half an hour later, a Mercedes stops in front of their house. A mature and distinguished man with gray hair and wearing a yarmulke steps out of the car and enters the house. He sits in the living room with the father, mother, and the girl and tells them,
“Good morning. Your daughter has informed me of the problem. I can’t marry her because of my personal family situation but I’ll take charge. I will pay all costs and provide for your daughter for the rest of her life.
“Additionally, if a girl is born, I will bequeath two retail furniture stores, a deli, a condo in Miami , and a $1,000,000 bank account.”
“If a boy is born, my legacy will be a chain of jewelry stores and a $25,000,000 bank account.
“However, if there is a miscarriage, I’m not sure what to do. What do you suggest?”
All choked up at this point, the mother, who had remained silent until now, placed a hand firmly on the man’s shoulder and tells him,
Fascinating! This is absolutely incredible! Totally frightening!
Goes to show why women spend a lot of money on makeup and clothes! The photo below was taken at a competition in June 2008. The competition was between 9 women for best makeover. They had every possible beauty treatment available to them over a period of 12 hours before the contest.
Look at the before and after photos. Conclusion: There are no ugly women, only poor women.
A woman goes to the doctor, beaten black and blue.
Doctor: “What happened?”
Woman: “Doctor, I don’t know what to do. Every time my husband comes home drunk he beats me to a pulp.”
Doctor: “I have a real good medicine for that. When your husband comes home drunk, just take a glass of sweet tea and start garg ling with it. Just gargle and gargle.”
Two weeks later the woman comes back to the doctor looking fresh and reborn.
Woman: “Doctor, that was a brilliant idea! Every time my husband came home drunk, I gargled with sweet tea. I gargled and gargled, and nothing happened!”
Doctor: “You see how keeping your mouth shut helps
A man was sitting on a blanket at the beach. He had no arms and no legs.
> Three women were walking past and felt sorry for the poor man.
> The first woman said ‘Have you ever had a hug?’
> The man said ‘No,’ so she gave him a hug and walked on.
> The second woman said, ‘Have you ever had a kiss?’
> The man said, ‘No,’ so she gave him a kiss and walked on.
>
> The third woman came to him and whispered, ‘Have you ever been f**ked?’
> The fellow’s eyes lit up and with a big grin he said, ‘No.’
> She said, ‘Well you will be when the tide comes in.’
>
> WOMEN ARE LIKE THAT YOU KNOW..
When i was a kid, I thumbed or hitchhiked everyday that I did not have a car. if I had a car I picked someone up everyday. You could not pass someone if they were hitchhiking. My friend Kurt Bestick got injured in a motorcycle accident and he hitchhiked everyday. i always had to pick him up. No matter where he said he was going, I said i was going right by there and i would drop him off at his destination.
The point here is that if you see someone with their thumb out today, it is just weird and in most cases they are weird and strange. I do not think anybody would pick up anybody thumbing nowadays. Would you?
I was thinking about this the other day, and you can definitely stereotype sports fans.
I know people hate stereotyping, especially if you are being placed in a category. But IT WORKS with few exceptions.
First of all when you think of stereotypes, you tell me if these are not true.
Jews like Chinese food
Blacks smoke menthol cigarettes
Irish drink too much
Italian men love themselves and fool around
Chinese like RED
Middle easterners own gas stations and drive cabs
Indians own 7-11’s and jewelry stores. American Indians are unemployed and drink way too much.
I could go on and on, but you get the point. Stereo types work. admit it.
So here are how the stereotypes for sports breakdown
FOOTBALL- Men mostly, a few tough woman who like to hang with tough guys. working class people like football. Dedicated and spririted. tend to be on the loud side. Rock & Rollers mostly. people who want to watch it live in any condition even better in bad conditions. Coffee of choice Dunkin Donuts. drink of choice BEER
BASEBALL- men and woman ( pink hats) and Gays. Cerebral types, liberal. patient. not your typical sports fan. People into stats and stuff that will fill their boring days and lives. Coffee of choice starbucks. Played it once when they were kids, Stopped at TEE BALL, so they know the game. Only want to go to game as an event and in good weather. wine drinkers.
HOCKEY- You love it if you played it, or if your kid plays it. Your head is not on right. You could snap at any moment. Hockey people should be watched closely. Rabid fans. Low income, big hair for woman and hairy chests and wife beater tees for the men ( could also work for the hockey woman). coffee of choice has booze in it. probably jamison. drink of choice boilermakers.
BASKETBALL- Rich people like it. Black people like it, but do not attend it. Jews Love Basketball. Fans are more fair weather than any other sport. Basketball is the closet sport to big time wrestling. It is a staged event at the college and pro level. beverage of choice is chinese tea. Champagne and Colt 45
NASCAR- couples, rednecks,wealthy & white You like your coffee like your woman, strong and black. Drink of choice. anything….
SOCCER- you are a forenier who does not speak english, or someone gave your kids the tickets and you had to go. Coffee of choice is tea. You can’t drink and drive a mini van and if you are a foregnior, you cant buy your favorite drink in this country.
TENNIS-Your a HOMO, you drink Chai
GOLF – You play it and if you are watching it, it is raining out, or you are at the bar in the clubhouse. If you are at the event, someone gave you a pass to a corpoate tent. You drink gin or vodka skipping the coffee all together
So you see I was right. I know I am right, and if you are in one of those categories, you are denying it right now, but you know in your heart I am right.
Raise your right hand and tell me you like tennis and that you do not have gay tendencies. ( John T put your hand down, and your racket)
I really hate this holiday. It is another of the hallmark holidays made up to buy more cards.
It is definitely a holiday for woman. Guys do not give a shit. Take my word for it.
For you woman out there, the only reason guys buy you shit and take you to dinner is to get in your pants later on. Do not fall for it.
The big presents are of course the over priced roses. boxes of chocolate and the dinner out.
It is time to stop the obligation of this ridiculous holiday.
take it from me. In my life everyday is Valentines Day. A day does not go by that I do not tell my wife how much I love and adore her. She is the most beautiful woman I know, and the smartest and kindest and most caring woman I know. I would be lost without her, and I honestly think about her all day. I cannot wait to get home to see her every day, and if she is not there, I am truly disappointed.
So unlike all the rest of you, that have forgotten how important it is to just be with someone you love, then go out and buy some chocolates and a dozen roses and then try to slip one in her when you go to bed at night.
What I hope you will do, is come home, give her a bear hug and look her in the eye and tell her how much she means to you. That is better than the chocolates, I promise.
I would buy the spousal unit anything I could within my means to make her happy, but what I am going to do is buy her a funny card and a serious card and write something from the heart inside and crossout all the “hallmark” dribble, then we will sit on the couch and watch some TV. Something we both like.
“If all goes well, I will see what happens after. I hope I don’t regret not getting the chocolates.”
What a fraud. I saw on TV the other night that he has changed his affiliation to independent in the wake of the Scott Brown trouncing of Coakley and the democrats.
Now I do not mind Tim, he seems like a nice guy, but geez why is he jumping from a sinking ship.
Apparently if you are a democrat now ( even in massachusetts) you are toxic.
Noboody wants to associated with Obama and a party that is reeling.
But for Christ sakes Tim. To abandon your party ( family) in a time if crisis to further your own political aspirations, comes off desperate and pathetic.
I see that Patches is not going to run agiain. HMMM!!! WHY?
Because he wants to try something else? NO because he knows that he will not win. The Kennedy name does not get you an automatic seat for life in government any longer.
Could this be the beginning of the end for Barney Frank? We can only hope so.
Sometimes, I do not understand fashion. Now you know that I do know fashion. I went to college for fashion and graduated with a degree in fashion merchandising and retail management. ( little known fact)
What I do not get is woman’s sunglasses.????
Who came up with the idea that giant bug eyed sunglasses look good?
Woman cannot get glasses big enough.
Hey Ladies!!!! They look stupid and so do you wearing them. Honest.
The only good thing, is that fashion changes and what goes around comes around. So it should not be long now before the sunglasses start to shrink and we can see woman’s faces again.
While I am at it, the next trend that has to stop is kids who want to look ghetto.
Kids that wear their ball caps crooked with the brim all flat. This looks stupid. It has to go.
It has to go the way of the pants pulled down below their ass cheeks.
My mom is a wise woman. even in her 80’s. she once told me that if you want to know what fashion will be for kids, go to the dowager neighborhoods in the city and see what the young black kids are featuring, and wait a year, and all the rich white kids in the malls will be buying it up and making the retailers billions. You know something. She is right.
Just because it is fashion doesn’t mean it looks good. Those rectangular “Buddy Holly” eyeglasses got to go too.
I cannot tell you how many times people have sent me that email of tiger woods wife nude.
I guess I always believed it. Why not. It looks like her and she was a model, and it was before they got married.
out of curiosity I checked Snopes.com and it is in fact not true.
It is true that he cheated on her. So now the poor woman has her husband cheat on her and everybody in america thinks that they have seen her nude on an email. She deserves a HUGE alimony settlement.
I have to start checking the validity of the emails I pass on more often.
Some one explain to me what the fascination is.
Why is it that all woman want to go to Europe.
95% of all straight men could care less.
It is defiantly a chick thing.
Ireland and England are not Europe. They speak our language…. So they do not count. I do not want to go there either.
So what is the fascination for woman?
They don’t speak English. The signs are in another language.
the food sucks
the bathrooms suck
They do not like Americans. ( blame this on all the New yorkers that have ruined it for all the rest of us)
All you can do is look at old buildings and go to Museums.
Why wouldn’t you want to see America first? or go to the Caribbean?
The M-14:
