A few links of interest today that I feel like sharing:
Excellent use of drone aircraft to prove Americans didn't attack a bunch of civilians, some asshole did. An armored vehicle (I don't know what kind I can't view the video) was stuck in the mud in Afghanistan and a crowd gathered around to watch as locals tend to do. Someone threw a grenade and it was initally blamed on the Americans. Well, the Army turned around and showed the video from the UAV overhead proving that someone else other than the Americans threw the grenade.
Reminds me of an incident in New Baghdad during my last tour. A Bradley was stuck in the mud so the unit brought in another Bradley to get it out. That one got stuck. So they got a third Bradley. That one also got stuck. An M88 tank recovery vehicle was called out...it also got stuck. It finally took a second M88 with a couple of Abram tanks to pull everything out while the locals just sat back and laughed...as they should.
Smart move by the Army. They have ordered Army bases to stop blocking certain social media sites from their networks. The Army is spending a lot of time and money on reaching out to the civilian population and getting soldiers to spread their stories, but then blocking the soldiers from accessing the sites necessary to do the reaching out. FT Lewis already allows soldiers to access Facebook on the network, which is great when I'm bored.
Interesting comments by Abu Muqawama on Al Qaida attacks in Iraq and the strategic significance of those attacks. I'm not sure I agree with the statements made that we won't see a return to 2005/2006 and that counterinsurgency is over. I believe Al Qaida is conducting suicide attacks in order to frighten the population and/or attempt to bring back the violence of 2006. You never know which attack will drive the Shia militia back into the streets slaughtering Sunnis which will bring the Sunni population back into the arms of Al Qaida. A wounded animal doesn't just sit back and die, it strikes back in any way it can. I very much doubt the soldiers/marines currently in Iraq would agree that they are not fighting an insurgency. Attacks are still occuring daily against the Iraqi forces, civilans, and coalition forces. Not to mention I don't agree that what was occuring in 2006 was civil war. What I saw was genocide.
That reminds me of some stories I won't write about because I don't like being reminded of them.
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