As I was trying to determine a topic for today's post I came across some interesting notes I wrote to myself in one of my many "green books" that I have managed to keep from my time in the Army (a green book being a book for notes that everyone in the Army carries that just happen to be green). Based on the date these notes were written in late February 2011 as I was wasting my time at FT Benning, GA as an augmentee for the military's Joint Forced Entry Warfighter Exercise...as opposed to wasting my time at FT Huachuca. Anyway, here are my thoughts/notes at this particular moment in my life. Discuss amongst yourselves:
- Draft deferments given to college students. Many in higher education avoided military service (during the Vietnam War and prior). Has this led to anti-military thought and practices in many universities?
- Maneuver (i.e. infantry, armor, field artillery) platoon leaders and company commanders receive training on how to integrate enablers (engineers, psyops, etc) but are not trained on integrating military intelligence enablers (HUMINT teams, SIGINT teams, etc). This leads to a lack of knowledge on how to utilize these assets and a determination that they are not useful when they end up not being utilized properly.
(I have a slightly interesting story that I may discuss in the next blog about an infantry Ops Sergeant Major who clearly didn't understand how HUMINT teams operate.)
- Why do we train foreign militaries to organize, fight, and train in a Western/American style? Smaller nations (Georgia, Kuwait, etc) should be trained to fight asymetrically in order to defeat a larger military.
(I would argue that in a conflict between Georgia and Russia, a few dozen IEDs could be more effective than a few tanks if placed and detonated properly.)
- A Combined Arms BN is authorized 15 soldiers in the S2 (intelligence) section.
(Too many or too few? At it's highest number my S2 section with 1-14 numbered 9 which includes me, not factoring in the HUMINT soldiers I received from brigade. And I only had 8 in Iraq since one analyst didn't deploy due to legal trouble. Include the 1 soldier I always had tasked out and that left me with 7...split between two different bases 100km apart for much of the deployment. Talk about a challenge. The infantry battalion I was with also only had 9 total soldiers and that included the additional staff sergeant we were given from one of the companies. When I was in the support battalion there were only 3 of us.)
- There is a reason military intelligence officers are not in command of maneuver elements...they over-think and create confusion.
(This note just makes me laugh)
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
PKK Taking Advantage of Syrian Chaos
In case any of you were wondering, I did indeed return from Turkey. The trip was absolutely amazing and I got to see pretty much everything I wanted to see, which was basically just really old shit, because old shit is cool. I have spent the last several days recovering and re-adjusting to Pacific Coast time. This "recovery from vacation" is one of those glorious "first world problems" that most people seem to desire after a long vacation but can never really achieve because of daily responsibilities like jobs. Another perk of being unemployed.
Anyway, the day my friends and I left Turkey a remote-controlled car bomb was detonated in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep which is only a couple of hours drive from the Syrian city of Aleppo...the same Aleppo that is currently under seige by pro-Assad forces. Turkish government officials blamed the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist group that seeks an independent Kurdistan.
Earlier in August an Iraq to Turkey oil pipeline was sabotaged inside Turkey close to the Syrian border. The PKK was also believed responsible for that attack.
The PKK is also suspected in an attack against a Turkish military bus in western Turkey a few days after the oil pipeline attack.
Why do I bring this up? Pretty much just to point out that the Syrian civil war is bleeding over to other countries. The PKK is likely taking advantage of the situation and likely increased freedom of movement due to the breakdown in security in Syria. The PKK may be hoping that with the eventual fall of the Assad regime the Kurds can establish an autonomous Kurdish state in northern Syria. Turkey would never allow this to occur so the increased attacks may be being conducted in order to focus Turkey's attention inwardly and prevent any interference from Turkey in establishing an independent state.
What is more likely to happen, however, is that Turkey uses these attacks, and any future attacks, as a reason to send "peacekeeping" forces into northern Syria in order prevent more terrorist operations as well as discourage any attempt at creating a Kurdistan.
Lebanon is also seeing its share of violence. Clashes have occured in the city of Tripoli between pro and anti-Assad groups. This being Lebanon I'm sure the situation is a lot more complicated than that, but the situation in Syria is likely the fuse on that particular powderkeg.
When does the UN plan on doing anything beside send observers to observe people being slaughtered?
Anyway, the day my friends and I left Turkey a remote-controlled car bomb was detonated in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep which is only a couple of hours drive from the Syrian city of Aleppo...the same Aleppo that is currently under seige by pro-Assad forces. Turkish government officials blamed the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist group that seeks an independent Kurdistan.
Earlier in August an Iraq to Turkey oil pipeline was sabotaged inside Turkey close to the Syrian border. The PKK was also believed responsible for that attack.
The PKK is also suspected in an attack against a Turkish military bus in western Turkey a few days after the oil pipeline attack.
Why do I bring this up? Pretty much just to point out that the Syrian civil war is bleeding over to other countries. The PKK is likely taking advantage of the situation and likely increased freedom of movement due to the breakdown in security in Syria. The PKK may be hoping that with the eventual fall of the Assad regime the Kurds can establish an autonomous Kurdish state in northern Syria. Turkey would never allow this to occur so the increased attacks may be being conducted in order to focus Turkey's attention inwardly and prevent any interference from Turkey in establishing an independent state.
What is more likely to happen, however, is that Turkey uses these attacks, and any future attacks, as a reason to send "peacekeeping" forces into northern Syria in order prevent more terrorist operations as well as discourage any attempt at creating a Kurdistan.
Lebanon is also seeing its share of violence. Clashes have occured in the city of Tripoli between pro and anti-Assad groups. This being Lebanon I'm sure the situation is a lot more complicated than that, but the situation in Syria is likely the fuse on that particular powderkeg.
When does the UN plan on doing anything beside send observers to observe people being slaughtered?
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Quick hiatus
This blog will be on a short 2 week (ish) break while I take a much needed vacation to Turkey. I will do my best to avoid insulting Mustafa Kemal or being kidnapped by the PKK so that I may return home and continue my random blogging. Enjoy the remaining few weeks of summer!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Civilian to veteran interactions: Part III
I really wish I didn't have to continue or update this little mini-series I have on civilian/veteran interactions but it still boggles my mind (even though it shouldn't) that often times people really have no idea how to act or even talk to a veteran.
For me, there have been two recent conversations I've had that afterwards I thought to myself, "what in the world did they mean by that?"
A few weeks ago I decided to volunteer for the Peace Corps since the job hunt wasn't working out so well and I figured what the hell, I've got a lot to offer and I'm always up for another adventure. Long story short, they didn't want me because I'm a former intelligence officer. Sucks when you can't even volunteer for something. Anyway, during my conversation with the nice woman at the front desk I mentioned that I had done 3 deployments to Iraq. Her response: "you're remarkably well adjusted. That's very commendable."
What the hell does that mean? You've spoken to me for about 5 or 10 minutes and you know that I'm well adjusted? Are you assuming that everyone who comes back from a deployment is messed up in the head in some way?
The next conversation actually occured yesterday at a BBQ. The BBQ was a "pre-celebration" for some friends of mine who are getting married today and the bride's mom was going around and meeting everyone. I was sitting with my usual group of teacher friends and when introductions began I had my typical sense of doom knowing I would have to explain my current situation.
The bride's mom asked me if I too was a teacher to which I explained in my standard way that I was not, I had recently left the Army. She then remembered that I played soccer with the bride and that the last she met me I was about to deploy; she concluded with, "I'm glad everything worked out for you."
I think she was trying to find a polite way of saying, "I'm glad you didn't get killed over there."
Perhaps I'm reading too much into conversations but I'm pretty sure normal people don't have to deal with odd statements like those. To say, "I'm glad everything worked out for you" without having any inkling of the past 3+ years feels similar to a brush off. "Everything" didn't work seeing how I am currently out of a job or had to waste over a year of my life in Arizona to figure out the Army wasn't working for me. "Everything" certainly didn't work out for the 4 soldiers in my Squadron or the 8 total from the Brigade who didn't come home.
I'm just going to start telling people I'm a janitor.
For me, there have been two recent conversations I've had that afterwards I thought to myself, "what in the world did they mean by that?"
A few weeks ago I decided to volunteer for the Peace Corps since the job hunt wasn't working out so well and I figured what the hell, I've got a lot to offer and I'm always up for another adventure. Long story short, they didn't want me because I'm a former intelligence officer. Sucks when you can't even volunteer for something. Anyway, during my conversation with the nice woman at the front desk I mentioned that I had done 3 deployments to Iraq. Her response: "you're remarkably well adjusted. That's very commendable."
What the hell does that mean? You've spoken to me for about 5 or 10 minutes and you know that I'm well adjusted? Are you assuming that everyone who comes back from a deployment is messed up in the head in some way?
The next conversation actually occured yesterday at a BBQ. The BBQ was a "pre-celebration" for some friends of mine who are getting married today and the bride's mom was going around and meeting everyone. I was sitting with my usual group of teacher friends and when introductions began I had my typical sense of doom knowing I would have to explain my current situation.
The bride's mom asked me if I too was a teacher to which I explained in my standard way that I was not, I had recently left the Army. She then remembered that I played soccer with the bride and that the last she met me I was about to deploy; she concluded with, "I'm glad everything worked out for you."
I think she was trying to find a polite way of saying, "I'm glad you didn't get killed over there."
Perhaps I'm reading too much into conversations but I'm pretty sure normal people don't have to deal with odd statements like those. To say, "I'm glad everything worked out for you" without having any inkling of the past 3+ years feels similar to a brush off. "Everything" didn't work seeing how I am currently out of a job or had to waste over a year of my life in Arizona to figure out the Army wasn't working for me. "Everything" certainly didn't work out for the 4 soldiers in my Squadron or the 8 total from the Brigade who didn't come home.
I'm just going to start telling people I'm a janitor.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Top 10 "Global Concerns" 2012 edition
Time again for Warhorse Intel's annual Top 10 "Global Concerns", 2012 edition! For any new readers out there my Top 10 "Global Concerns" are those nations and areas of the world where either conflicts were occuring or conflicts could break out and could spread to the rest of the region or involve United States military forces. 2009's list is here and 2011's is here. If you are link averse last year's list looked like this:
10. Iran
9. Nigeria
8. Algeria
7. Syria
6. Mexico
5. North Korea
4. Somalia
3. Yemen
2. Kurd/Arab line in Iraq
1. Afghanistan/Pakistan
This year's list is similar with some very important differences. Algeria is off because most of the violence in that country appears to be limited primarily to the Kabylie region where violence always seem to occur throughout Algeria's history. Nigeria also fell off because while there is a potential civil war brewing it doesn't appear as though it will spread to outside of Nigeria or involve any foreign intervention. Here is my current list:
10. Greece
New to the list this year because the Greek economy has essentially collapsed and no European nation seems to be willing to bail them out since everyone has their own problems to deal with. How long before we see communist guerrillas again?
9. Iran
They have nuclear reactors and may only be couple of years away from building a nuclear weapon. Not even Stuxnet or AC/DC seem able to stop them.
8. Mexico
Dropping down a couple of spots this year because the violence hasn't spread over the border...yet.
7. Kurd/Arab line in Iraq
Also dropping down the list is the "Green Line" in Iraq. When I left Iraq in 2010 i figured the Kurds and Arabs were only a few months from civil war. Glad I was wrong but can a political solution be found? Or is it that Al Qaida in Iraq is distracting the Iraqi government from the Kurds at the moment?
6. Somalia
Another country that dropped down the list. Is the African Union on the verge of defeating Shabaab and enabling the creation of a new government in Somalia? Potential win for "Africa helping Africa".
5. North Korea
New leader and he's firing generals. Out with the old, in with the new, same as the old. Something tells me in 100 years we're still going to be dealing with a divided Korea.
4. Yemen
A civil war under the guise of Yemeni government vs Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The rest of the world doesn't seem to care.
3. Mali
I took Mali off this list last year because it appeared that the government, along with Mauritania was slowly defeating Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. One year and one coup later the Taureg Tribe along with AQIM backed fundamentalist Islamic groups have taken over half the country. The Tauregs are now fighting with their former BFFs. Whoops, there goes that neighborhood.
2. Syria
If you don't know why Syria went from #7 last year to #2 this year then you aren't paying attention. The protests of last year have turned into a full on rebellion. Fighting is ongoing in Damascus, Aleppo, and, well...pretty much everywhere. Rebels are using IEDs (smart), assassinating top officals (possibly smart?), and have seized border posts (brilliant). However, Kurdish rebels have taken control of several cities in northern Syria prompting Turkey to state they will not tolerate a Kurdish-run region in northern Syria. Iraqis who fled Iraq for Syria are now fleeing Syria to go back to Iraq. Talk about a clusterfuck.
1. Afghanistan/Pakistan
I said it last year and I'll say it again this year...fuck this place.
10. Iran
9. Nigeria
8. Algeria
7. Syria
6. Mexico
5. North Korea
4. Somalia
3. Yemen
2. Kurd/Arab line in Iraq
1. Afghanistan/Pakistan
This year's list is similar with some very important differences. Algeria is off because most of the violence in that country appears to be limited primarily to the Kabylie region where violence always seem to occur throughout Algeria's history. Nigeria also fell off because while there is a potential civil war brewing it doesn't appear as though it will spread to outside of Nigeria or involve any foreign intervention. Here is my current list:
10. Greece
New to the list this year because the Greek economy has essentially collapsed and no European nation seems to be willing to bail them out since everyone has their own problems to deal with. How long before we see communist guerrillas again?
9. Iran
They have nuclear reactors and may only be couple of years away from building a nuclear weapon. Not even Stuxnet or AC/DC seem able to stop them.
8. Mexico
Dropping down a couple of spots this year because the violence hasn't spread over the border...yet.
7. Kurd/Arab line in Iraq
Also dropping down the list is the "Green Line" in Iraq. When I left Iraq in 2010 i figured the Kurds and Arabs were only a few months from civil war. Glad I was wrong but can a political solution be found? Or is it that Al Qaida in Iraq is distracting the Iraqi government from the Kurds at the moment?
6. Somalia
Another country that dropped down the list. Is the African Union on the verge of defeating Shabaab and enabling the creation of a new government in Somalia? Potential win for "Africa helping Africa".
5. North Korea
New leader and he's firing generals. Out with the old, in with the new, same as the old. Something tells me in 100 years we're still going to be dealing with a divided Korea.
4. Yemen
A civil war under the guise of Yemeni government vs Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The rest of the world doesn't seem to care.
3. Mali
I took Mali off this list last year because it appeared that the government, along with Mauritania was slowly defeating Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. One year and one coup later the Taureg Tribe along with AQIM backed fundamentalist Islamic groups have taken over half the country. The Tauregs are now fighting with their former BFFs. Whoops, there goes that neighborhood.
2. Syria
If you don't know why Syria went from #7 last year to #2 this year then you aren't paying attention. The protests of last year have turned into a full on rebellion. Fighting is ongoing in Damascus, Aleppo, and, well...pretty much everywhere. Rebels are using IEDs (smart), assassinating top officals (possibly smart?), and have seized border posts (brilliant). However, Kurdish rebels have taken control of several cities in northern Syria prompting Turkey to state they will not tolerate a Kurdish-run region in northern Syria. Iraqis who fled Iraq for Syria are now fleeing Syria to go back to Iraq. Talk about a clusterfuck.
1. Afghanistan/Pakistan
I said it last year and I'll say it again this year...fuck this place.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
An Uneventful Trip Turns Out (Slightly) Eventful
It has occured to me that I have not posted man of my "so there I was..." stories from my Iraq deployments. While I may have been an intelligence officer who rode a desk through most of my 3 trips down range I do have a few stories to tell. This is one of those stories, although I confess the ending is a bit anti-climactic and it's likely most of you will see it as a "guess you had to be there" story.
The event takes place in the fall of '04 during my first deployment. My battalion, the 502nd MI had recently acquired up-armored HMMWVs, several months after the unit had arrived in theater and only a few months before we would deploy back to FT Lewis. Better late than never I suppose. The battalion headquarters company was conducting a convoy down to Camp Babylon which was a small base that surrounded the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon, as the name suggests. It was a Polish base that also headquartered some of the smaller nation contigents in the coalition; the 502nd happened to have a company of human intelligence soldiers there as well that gathered intel in the surrounding cities of Al Hillah, Karbala, Najaf, Diwaniyah, and Kut. Our convoy was going down there to drop off some supplies and swap out one of our signal soldiers. I went along because I was the maintenance platoon leader in the headquarters company and went on convoys as much as I could.
The trip down was uneventful as it almost always was. During our brief stay on Camp Babylon our platoon of MPs (the 502nd had a platoon of MPs assigned to it who guarded one of our facilities at FT Lewis and provided convoy security when we deployed) got into a conversation with another group of MPs who were escorting fuel tankers. These other MPs, along with their convoy of fuel tankers, left before us but as we were leaving Babylon we got a call on our radios from them that they required our assistance.
Only a few minutes outside Babylon one of the fuel trucks had taken a turn too sharply and had rolled over on its side. The convoy needed us to guard the tanker while they took the other trucks back to Babylon and get a crane or tow truck to come to the site. Always willing to help out another unit, and not quite ready to go back to Camp Victory, we obliged.
I have no idea how long we watched that tanker which had overturned outside of a Shia village. It could have been 30 minutes, it could have been 2 hours. On two sides there were large date groves as well as the typical house/compounds that were always tucked away into the groves. In 2004 you never knew how friendly or angry the Shia population was towards Coaltion Forces and as the maintenance platoon leader I didn't have the knowledge or much access to the knowledge to know. In any event, the briefing we got from the S2 (intel) soldier prior to the convoy didn't mention any specific threat.
Still, I imaged the compounds and the date groves to be perfect hiding spots for a sudden attack by Jaysh al Mahdi forces. My mind kept thinking of a sudden RPG firing out of the groves, hitting the fuel tanker, and making for a very bad day.
That bad day didn't happen. After a time the other MPs returned and took over security of the site and we drove the 2 hours back home. The civilians that had gathered around us while we guarded the tanker mostly just pointed and laughed...which is what I would do under similar circumstances.
The event takes place in the fall of '04 during my first deployment. My battalion, the 502nd MI had recently acquired up-armored HMMWVs, several months after the unit had arrived in theater and only a few months before we would deploy back to FT Lewis. Better late than never I suppose. The battalion headquarters company was conducting a convoy down to Camp Babylon which was a small base that surrounded the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon, as the name suggests. It was a Polish base that also headquartered some of the smaller nation contigents in the coalition; the 502nd happened to have a company of human intelligence soldiers there as well that gathered intel in the surrounding cities of Al Hillah, Karbala, Najaf, Diwaniyah, and Kut. Our convoy was going down there to drop off some supplies and swap out one of our signal soldiers. I went along because I was the maintenance platoon leader in the headquarters company and went on convoys as much as I could.
The trip down was uneventful as it almost always was. During our brief stay on Camp Babylon our platoon of MPs (the 502nd had a platoon of MPs assigned to it who guarded one of our facilities at FT Lewis and provided convoy security when we deployed) got into a conversation with another group of MPs who were escorting fuel tankers. These other MPs, along with their convoy of fuel tankers, left before us but as we were leaving Babylon we got a call on our radios from them that they required our assistance.
Only a few minutes outside Babylon one of the fuel trucks had taken a turn too sharply and had rolled over on its side. The convoy needed us to guard the tanker while they took the other trucks back to Babylon and get a crane or tow truck to come to the site. Always willing to help out another unit, and not quite ready to go back to Camp Victory, we obliged.
I have no idea how long we watched that tanker which had overturned outside of a Shia village. It could have been 30 minutes, it could have been 2 hours. On two sides there were large date groves as well as the typical house/compounds that were always tucked away into the groves. In 2004 you never knew how friendly or angry the Shia population was towards Coaltion Forces and as the maintenance platoon leader I didn't have the knowledge or much access to the knowledge to know. In any event, the briefing we got from the S2 (intel) soldier prior to the convoy didn't mention any specific threat.
Still, I imaged the compounds and the date groves to be perfect hiding spots for a sudden attack by Jaysh al Mahdi forces. My mind kept thinking of a sudden RPG firing out of the groves, hitting the fuel tanker, and making for a very bad day.
That bad day didn't happen. After a time the other MPs returned and took over security of the site and we drove the 2 hours back home. The civilians that had gathered around us while we guarded the tanker mostly just pointed and laughed...which is what I would do under similar circumstances.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Sometimes the Joke Does Translate
I can't believe I missed this. Apparently back in June the leader of the Communist Party in As Sadiyah was assassinated by gunmen. As Sadiyah, if you do not recall, was the town to the south of our combat outpost turned forward operating base during my deployment in '09/'10.
The reason I care and bring it up here is because it reminds me of a funny story during that deployment. While this may seem cold...a guy died afterall...sometimes you just need to find the dark humor in a situation such as this. War is hell afterall.
On the the (quick) story.
During the '09/'10 deployment we got a report that someone in As Sadiyah was attacked by an IED. The report was scant on details since it came from the local security forces and the troop that operated in the area hadn't had the time to go check up on the attack and find out all the information. A day or two later we were hosting all the leaders of the Iraqi Army, Iraqi police, and Peshmerga on the COP and we brought up the attack. Naturally we asked if anyone knew who had been the target. One of the Iraqi officers stated that the victim was a leader of the Communist Party (probably the same guy from the link).
Our next question was, "what is the name of the leader of the Communist Party in As Sadiyah?"
The response: "they're communists, they don't have a leader!"
All the Iraqis and Kurds laughed and as soon as the response was translated we all chuckled as well. It's good when a joke translates language and culture like that.
The reason I care and bring it up here is because it reminds me of a funny story during that deployment. While this may seem cold...a guy died afterall...sometimes you just need to find the dark humor in a situation such as this. War is hell afterall.
On the the (quick) story.
During the '09/'10 deployment we got a report that someone in As Sadiyah was attacked by an IED. The report was scant on details since it came from the local security forces and the troop that operated in the area hadn't had the time to go check up on the attack and find out all the information. A day or two later we were hosting all the leaders of the Iraqi Army, Iraqi police, and Peshmerga on the COP and we brought up the attack. Naturally we asked if anyone knew who had been the target. One of the Iraqi officers stated that the victim was a leader of the Communist Party (probably the same guy from the link).
Our next question was, "what is the name of the leader of the Communist Party in As Sadiyah?"
The response: "they're communists, they don't have a leader!"
All the Iraqis and Kurds laughed and as soon as the response was translated we all chuckled as well. It's good when a joke translates language and culture like that.
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