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E6Hotel

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Posts posted by E6Hotel

  1. Posted

    Hey all, sorry for dragging this thread back.  Just wanted to say thanks for the well-wishes and clarify that despite my attempt at humor I won't be an Air Marshal.  Packing heat at all times is just a "fringe benefit" (?) of being a special agent.  

    wink_o.gif

    As some things never change, Semper Fi

  4. Posted

    Took off my cammies today for the last time as an active-duty Marine.  

    sad_o.gif  

    The good news is that after completing a screening process that took 2.5 years, I'm waiting on an Academy class seat with a Federal law enforcement agency that will remain nameless.  I'm sure everyone will sleep better knowing that soon I'll be authorized to carry a firearm aboard airplanes.

    smile_o.gif

    Semper Fi

  5. Posted

    I think you have a recurring flaw in your arguments and that's that you assume that all countries in the world want to be like USA. It is not at all true and especially not in the Mid East. And this is a fact that has to be considered when forming a government in Iraq.

    I don't think everyone wants to be like us.  I do think, however, that the west enjoys some freedoms that are inherently "good."  It's not a flaw, it's a difference in perspective.  From my limited point of view I don't believe that given a choice, people will elect to be repressed, persecuted and killed due to differing religious beliefs.  

    Call me wacky.

    It's why I was speculating about whether separation of church and state can be implemented (or even grasped) in the middle east.  From a historical perspective, the idea is pretty radical.

    It's a tough choice. Either you enforce a government that they don't like or you let them choose a government that doesn't like you.

    Who are "they?"  The Shi'ites, who would probably like to kill the minority for decades of repression?  The Sunnis?  I'm sure they'd love to live under a fundamentalist Shi'ite government.  The Kurds would probably be happy with not being massacred.

    It's actually an easy choice -- we provide conditions that enable the Iraqis to build a government designed to serve its citizens and not the other way around.  We've got the easy part.  It's going to be up to the Iraqis to step up and get the job done.

    Semper Fi

  6. Posted

    it was due to the american presency in ME and the support to Israel
    No, more likely because your support of the democracy Israel. Also 11/9 is really a problem for your society, not for SA. The violence and opposition they have problems with are due to their close cooperation and friendship with the US.

    As sarcasm obviously > you, (heh) let me be clear:  9/11 was due to OBL's resentment of our presence in Saudi Arabia.  Full stop.  Even Yassir Arafat has told him to stop trying to connect AQ with Palestine.  Our support of Israel as a motive for OBL is a fairly transparent attempt to widen his support base.

    You can use Saudi Arabia as an example of integrated church and state, but I don't think it's accurate to use it as an example of a population happy with their government.  In any case, it's not a theocracy so the point is kinda moot.

    Semper Fi

  7. Posted

    And the people are quite content with it. Thanks to Saddam, Iraq had a secular orientation so other considerations will have to be taken into account.

    Now I'm confused.  Wasn't 9/11 due to our support of repressive middle eastern regimes like Saudi Arabia?

    Semper Fi

  8. Posted

    These were not killed during raids. And the number of patrols have greatly been reduced. Central Baghdad, especially the university area is no longer patroled.

    [Lumbergh] Ummm, yeahhh, wellll, I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there, Bob. [/Lumbergh]

    Quote[/b] ]Thousands of suspected Iraqi fighters were detained over the six-week period, many temporarily, in hundreds of U.S. military raids, most of them conducted in the dead of night.

    Washington Post

    Quote[/b] ]In a 24-hour period ending Tuesday afternoon, soldiers conducted 58 raids across the country and detained 176 people, military officers said.

    Washington Post yet again

    Although you're correct in that the KIA's are not from raids, there is a heightened level of activity now to exploit intelligence being received.

    Semper Fi

  9. Posted

    You mean peaceful countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE etc etc?

    They are not democracies, their people are happy with the government and they do not separate church and state.

    I was thinking specifically about Iran.  Aren't Kuwait, Saudia Arabia and the UAE plutocracies?

    Semper Fi

  12. Posted

    A constitution can look in any way. Saddam's Iraq had a constitution that said Saddam was the ultimate ruler.

    Exactly.  The mere existence of a constitution isn't enough, the ground rules laid out are what matters.  With three antagonistic ethnic factions in Iraq, I can only see two options:

    1)  A strongman who rules through terror, or

    2)  Separation of church and state.

    It will be interesting to see if such a Western idea as 2) can be implemented.

    Semper Fi

  13. Posted

    No, I'm talking "democratic" in the sense of allowing the people choose their form of government as they see fit and not as America sees fit. This includes choosing an islamic fundamentalist dictatorship. Or an anarchy, should it be desired by the people.

    The last thing in the world Iraq needs is "democracy," at least from the standpoint of the Kurds and the Sunnis.  What is needed is majority rule, subject to minority rights.  This is where that "Constitution" thingie comes into play.

    Semper Fi

  14. Posted

    The war was unbloody for the americans but definetly not for the Iraqis. DO YOU SERIOUSLY CALL THOUSANDS CIVILLIANS CASUALTIES HELP!

    In comparison with the millions of people who died because of Saddam's regime, it's the lesser of two evils.

    DO YOU REALY TELL ME THAT PREVENTING A WAR MEANS THAT WE DID NOT WANT TO HELP THE IRAQIS.

    No.  However, war was the only way to take Saddam down.  I suppose we could've waited for Queasy to take the reins, but given his track record I really didn't consider him an improvement.

    2 soldiers dead per day. Yeah things are really calming down, and infrastructure is improving (still no secured water and electricity even in Bagdad)

    Actually, it's around .58 soldiers KIA per day as of 31 July.  Speaking as former cannon fodder, any KIA is too many, but that's still a very low death rate.

    Initially a large amount of your troops should have been sent back to the US end of July...they will stay (oh they stay because things are actually running so well that they intend to stay for holiday in Iraq)!

    We'll stay until the job is done, I hope.

    If we want to help we do it! We dont need the US to allow us to give aid to Iraq.

    I believe we've already asked Germany and India (among others) to contribute.  What's the hold-up?

    Semper Fi

  15. Posted

    Also he claimed that the US indeed had a plan for post-war Iraq, but that it didn't survive first contact with reality.

    No plan survives first contact.  Take Fallujah, for example.  After the Army revamped its approach, things calmed down a bit.  

    From the admittedly pro-U.S. mayor:

    Quote[/b] ]"The tension is reducing every day," he said. "We are seeing a change. People are starting to realize that the soldiers are not here to occupy Fallujah forever -- they're here to help us rebuild."

    From an admittedly not pro-U.S. taxi driver who had a foot shot off by U.S. soldiers:

    Quote[/b] ]He said that U.S. soldiers have visited his house four times -- to apologize, to provide a medical check-up and twice to assess damages to his property. "They've changed my opinions," said Saleh, 41, who hobbles around on crutches. "I used to hate them, but now I realize they made a mistake and they really want to help us."

    BTW, an aside about the demonstration that claimed said foot:

    Quote[/b] ]Many residents believed that the demonstrators were unarmed, although local leaders concede that a handful of Hussein loyalists who had infiltrated the demonstration might have shot at the soldiers.

    Washington Post

    The problem is not that things aren't getting better.  The problem is that things aren't getting better fast enough.

    Quote[/b] ]The Americans must provide humanitarian aid, job opportunities, good salaries, said Ali Abdul-Jabbar Wahid, a former captain in the Iraqi army. If they do these things, we will hoist them up on our shoulders.

    MSNBC

    My opinion is that it doesn't matter whose troops occupy Iraq -- U.S. or U.N. -- the Iraqis will rightfully be suspicious of motives.  The trick now is to prove those motives (i.e. stealing oil) wrong, which will take time.  It's only been three months.

    Semper Fi

  16. Posted

    The Marines did a bang up job in Somalia.  It only went to hell in a handbasket when the Rangers and Delta came in and declared 'war' on MF Aidid.

    The problem wasn't with the troops, it was with mission creep.  When the objective changed from providing security for humanitarian relief to going after the warlords, that's when things went haywire.  Considering the nature of the mission the Rangers and Delta were, if not the best men for the job, at least as good as anyone.

    Of course, the warlords were the reason for the famine so IMO they should have been targeted.  I think it's fairly obvious we lost our political will too early after taking relatively light losses during a successful snatch mission.

    Semper Fi

  17. Posted

    how many troops exactly ? if it's the same thing at the 10 already there which have been "helping" the french special troops to the evacuation of the expats , then the TBA better let more liberia die or let the nearby UN troops stationed in sierra leone do the job

    Actually the Liberian embassy was reinforced with a 41-man FAST platoon.  This was after a FAST squad was used to provide security for the initial military assessment team.

    As far as how many troops, it depends on the orders.  A MEU consists of a ground combat element (an infantry battalion with light/heavy armor, recon, engineers and arty), an air combat element (rotary and fixed-wing) and a combat service support element (the pogues).

    A Marine Expeditionary Unit is a beautiful thing.  smile_o.gif  

    we're already overly stretched in the region in matter of logistics and support equipment ,now if the US admnistration wants a part of its army to parasit our forces ......

    A MEU can self-sustain for 60 days.  Shouldn't be a problem; however, you may want to post extra guards on the chow.

    Semper Fi

  18. Posted

    Excuse me but has anybody heard that the pictures were NOT shown at Iraqi television ?

    It looks like the ones who wanted to see the pics will not see them until saturday. All the world sees the pics, but not the ones in Iraq. Funny, he ?

    Oh and the newspapers wich will most likely show the pictures in Iraq will be sold on saturday. Why ?

    Friday is celebrating day for Muslims in Iraq and there will be no newspaper. Looks like USA was more concerned to convince the rest of the world but not the people in Iraq.

    Or not.

    Quote[/b] ]Debating Matters of Life and Death in a Baghdad Barbershop

    By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

    BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 24 — As soon as the photographs of Uday and Qusay Hussein appeared on the television screen tonight, arguments erupted in the Zein Barbershop downtown.

    The entire article ran two pages -- pasting the whole thing seemed pointless.

    Semper Fi

  19. Posted

    Now that I stop to think about it, a smaller-scale SOCOM operation would've been better regardless of whether the objective was to eliminate or capture U&Q. Perhaps there were availablility constraints.

    This assumes that we knew exactly how many people were in the villa and surrounding area.  As it turns out there weren't very many.  On the other hand, WHAT IF a small Delta team had been sent in against 100 or 200 Fedayeen and/or RG troops?  Eagle Claw II, anyone?

    An overwhelming show of force could have been intended to actually prevent a gunfight.    

    And you're serious about CS being classified as a chemical weapon?

    Deathly serious, again based on my experiences.  I have no idea what ROE's the raid soldiers were using.  

    Hm, IMO it'd do a lot of good to re-think that policy.

    Mine, too.  But I just work here.

    Semper Fi

  20. Posted

    As I said above, the CAS assets assigned to the operation were not used for fear of collateral damage.

    Fear of collateral damage?  I believe that's the first time we've been accused of that.  My apologies for missing your earlier comment, I skimmed through the "FS vs. the World" tangent a few pages back.

    Besides, if you follow the line of reasoning that the operation wasn't planned as a hit, then you arrive to the conclusion that it turned out a cock-up, since you'd do a lot better with a quiet Delta (or another SOCOM unit) snatch-n-grab as opposed to deploying half of the 101st there.

    Nevertheless, addressing the occupants with a bullhorn, then knocking on the door and attempting to search the house before drawing and returning fire is inconsistent with a raid solely intended to kill the targets.  

    Out of curiosity, if this raid was a straight-up hit, what would have happened if Q & U had surrendered?    

    One other point re. less-than-lethal alternatives:  Based purely  on my previous experiences, CS can't be used as it's considered a "chemical weapon."  

    Semper Fi

    Edited due to genetic predisposition for misspelling "curiosity."

  21. Posted

    I think that the initial idea was not to kill the targets. But when it turned out that the brothers could hide behind fortified glass that could not be penetrated by the Spec Ops then  the american forces took the decision to use missiles

    This is my opinion, too (more or less).  If this raid had been planned as a "hit" from the beginning we'd have sent a flight of F-18's or a wave of Tomahawks.

    Edited for quotational difficulties.

    Semper Fi

  23. Posted

    Most "good" training is received at the soldier's assigned unit based on the knowledge and leadership of their senior NCO's.

    Concur.  Instructors at PI told us "you'll be taught a different method for [insert infantry-related task here] at Marine Combat Training or School of Infantry."  At SOI the instructors told us "This is how we teach [insert infantry-related task here].  You'll be taught a different method when you get to your duty stations."

    As a result I know about 32 different ways to dig a frickin' machine gun emplacement.

    Semper Fi

  24. Posted

    In practice, under ideal conditions I think any combat infantryman could shoot 500m.

    I'd hope so, because our air traffic controllers, box kickers and small network adminstrators can and do.  Every last one of 'em.

    I guess being able to shoot 500m is all well and good because it looks pretty on paper, but it's kind of useless when most combat takes place between 100 and 150 meters.

    The word "most" in your response sums up why we shoot from the 500.  It's not about "looking pretty on paper," it's about building justifiable confidence in a Marine's shooting ability and his rifle.  After all:

    (1)  Colt didn't put that "5" setting on the M16's elevation knob to increase aesthetic appeal.

    (2)  Targets only 150 yards away look huge in comparison.

    smile_o.gif

    Semper Fi

  25. Posted

    Most of the Army's 1st Tier units have fully converted to the M4, while the USMC reluctantly clings to the M-16, as they did in the 60's with the M-14.

    Reluctantly?  The M16A4 had fewer stoppages in the A4-M4 head-to-head evaluation.  (Not that I understand why, as the internals are the same.)  In any case the USMC units that need a compact weapon (e.g. Force, SRT's, Security Force CQB teams) already use the M4.    

    Semper Fi

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