Ten Grand

Holy sh*t. I just made the 10,000-hit mark. Good on me!

jpp

Iraq: This Guy Gets It

In today's WaPo Opinions section, "Dedication and Danger in Iraq".

Quotes of note:

"First, U.S. forces in Iraq remain focused on their mission. ... These men and women understand their mission and believe they are making a difference." Yes, they do. The soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines there are considerably more educated and sophisticated than they're given credit for being.

"Nothing in history is inevitable; events unfold as they do because leaders and their publics make choices. Neither civil war nor a democratic, pluralist government is predestined for Iraq. But one fact is clear: Premature withdrawal of U.S. forces -- before Iraqi troops are ready, or before the political and economic situation stabilizes -- will condemn Iraq and the region to a future of chaos, destruction and death." This is entirely correct. There is a job to be done, and it must not be cut short.

The author "gets" the War, and the campaign in Iraq. The objective is to give that country a fighting chance to make its own way in the world, without being a menace to its neighbors, a danger to world peace, and a breeding ground for militancy. That is strategic forethought.

jpp

Webb

This morning, while I was perusing the online version of my amusing local paper (the Washington Post, perhaps you've heard of it), I found this article: "Running for Senate, and Against the War". Not knowing who that Democrat Senate candidate from Virginia was-- I don't care about Maryland. Maryland Democrat campaigns against the war? Dog bites man!-- I clicked the link and much to my surprise, I saw JAMES H. WEBB.

I came up in the world respecting Mr Webb for his service in Vietnam and his brief tenure in the Reagan Administration. I was commissioned in 89, so those were the years when the foundations of my military knowledge and opinions were being formed. (No, I haven't read any of Webb's novels. Military fiction generally doesn't much do it for me, the truth is almost always more interesting. I have read “Born Fighting,” and it’s pretty good.) So know you that I am predisposed to respect him and heed his words, doubly so since he's a Marine.

But he's wrong on this issue. And here's why.

Withdrawal is not a plan for victory. The strategic merits or demerits of the 2003 invasion of Iraq are a legitimate source of debate. In my opinion, it is an integral part of the War. (I must tell you that the WMD issue does not trouble me. I think we actually found the real weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: the seething mass of discontented people, yoked to failed social and political experiments, lacking any means to affect their own destiny, with no experience of any sort of non-oppressive government, and therefore only too susceptible to the call of militancy.) There is no "war in Iraq," and "war in Afghanistan." There is the War; campaigns are underway in Iraq, and in Afghanistan, and in several other places. The War predates this administration, the one before it, and the two before that, and goes even farther back in history. The War will continue after this administration, with or without a bellum interruptum in Iraq.

Ok, Mr Webb, we hear your call to withdraw, and we accord it the proper respect. What now is your plan for victory? What is your plan not only to win the campaign in Iraq but to sustain the War? How will you educate the nation that this is a War of many decades, and it is for our national survival? I don't hear those answers, unfortunately.

And you run the risk, in this Marine’s eyes, of being associated with those on the left who, for whatever perverse reason, are wedded to defeat.

And A .30-06

Welcome And a .30-06. The phrase is Jeff Cooper's, expanded and expounded by his daughter. If this gent likes Cooper, I like him.

WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED??

A festival of .308s! Hmmmm, now there's an idea...

jpp

Commercial Message: Regimental Signs

I want to plug my good friend (and fellow Marine Major) Joe Winslow, who runs a business that deals in very high-end custom signs and displays. Go pay him a visit, and if you're in the market for what he offers, and you want to go with with a veteran-owned small business, he's your man.

A few words about Joe. He did a stint in the enlisted ranks, first active then reserve, then decided to get his commission. After a few more years on active duty he got out and pursued a successful career in the financial industry. Like many others, he decided to work for himself, and gave up a lucrative job to found his own business. When 9/11 came along, he packed that business up (literally) and came back on active duty. He later joined our unit and deployed to Iraq in September 2004. He was on hand for the epic second battle of Fallujah, and the events following it. After he demobilized he went back to his dormant business and has been going at it full time since then.

What you get from him is personal service and a keen eye for what you want. He does the work himself, and does the finishing by hand. Go check him out.

jpp

MilBlog Conference: I Was There

I thought this was a great event. I enjoyed meeting all the heavy hitters—BlackFive, Smash, Andi, Gunn Nutt—as well as the more modest sites, such as Swift Kick, who I am pleased to note is a fellow NoVa blogger. A special shout goes out to the boys at Op-For, who I found out are fellow VMI guys.

The one down note, I thought, was how Col Hunt moderated the blogging-from-theater panel. I’m a fan of his, but something about him at that session didn’t ring true for me. I thought this should have been the best panel, but ended up being the third-best (out of three). (As an aside, he’s also much bigger than he looks on TV.) However, I thought the famous WO Mike Fay did very well, I only wish he'd showed some of his work.

Two Years Ago Today, In Fallujah

I am technically a MilBlogger, but those few of you who do visit this site will know that I don’t have much military stuff so far. The reason is that I’m prevented from posting much about the things I’m working on because of FOUO—For Official use Only—policies or security classifications. I made some mention a few weeks ago about Det One, and I will have more to post on them at a later date.

So, I started thinking about how I had such great stuff from my own brief time in Iraq, but at the time I didn’t have a blog. By sheer coincidence I was looking through my official journal for the period, and found this (now slightly edited) post for 24 April 2004. I think it pretty well captures daily life in the so-called “cease-fire” during the first battle of Fallujah. I include it here as a salute to what was a horrific fight that the Marines on the ground were prevented from winning by powers high up in the chain of command, and as a contrast to how Fallujah is doing today...

24 Apr 04: Spent yesterday with 2/2 [2nd Bn 2nd Marines], and then 3/4 [3rd Bn 4th Marines] invited me to go out to Fallujah to overnight with India Company. A great trip, one of the highlights thus far. India’s position is in the northeast quarter of the city, perhaps 700 meters in from the MSR. The line is no more 300 meters long, and is in the shape of an “L,” with the long side running north-to-south. It is the position they occupied when word came down to cease the advance.

I spent the bulk of the time with 1st Platoon, under command of 1stLt Andrew Lee, a dyed-in-the-wool Boston Irishman—he referenced the date of the battalion’s move to Fallujah from the days of Holy Week—who did six years in 1/25 [1st Bn 25th Marines] before going on to join the Merchant Marine as an engineering officer. Sometime after Sept 11 he walked in to the OSO, presented his credentials and went to OCS. He fought in the battalion in OIF1. (By the way, he is also Recruit Lee in Thomas Ricks’ book, Making The Corps.) [And also now in Bing West’s book, No True Glory, that's his photo on the cover.] He is a fine officer in every respect, and a real character.

Lt Lee’s platoon occupies the roofs of about four or five houses right on the street that is the limit of advance. Everything to their front is bad Fallujah. On the avenue of approach that tees into their main position, a wide street running about 400 meters west, is a burned out car (their handiwork); another is in a trash filled lot only 50 meters across the street. These were the vehicles that carried several enemy fighters on their last ride, meeting an untimely end under the massed fire of 1st Platoon’s weapons. Those actions and others are described in the interviews I did, and depicted in the accompanying photos.

(This is the terrain directly in front of 1st Platoon, India 3/4's position. One burned out car is in the lot in the foreground, another is in the middle of the street that runs off on the left. India 3/4 Marines destroyed them and their jihadi occupants. (It was in the lot that feral dogs and cats ate the bodies of the dead jihadis.)

Fallujah stinks, literally. Stinks like Mogadishu stank and probably still does. The streets and empty lots serve as the local garbage dumps, and that was so before the Marines arrived. The Marines burn their trash as best they can. Open garbage pits are just recruit depots for the flies, whole squadrons, groups and wings of them. They infest everything. The Marines occupy the daylight hours by keeping scores of the flies they kill. When the sun goes down the flies conduct a relief-in-place with the mosquitoes. The whole place is unhealthy filthy. As my friend Major Mark Stanovich said, “Cradle of civilization, my ass. 4000 years of civilization and they still shit on the floor.”

That being said, some of the houses are sizable and well appointed, clearly owned by people of relative wealth. Though the workmanship is shoddy, with no staircase having any treads or risers of uniform size, and rebar sticking out of walls to impale the unwary, the stone and block construction provides a good foundation for the defense, and these Marines have built their positions into real strongpoints. They defend from the roofs, though they also occupy the ground floors too, except in one odd case where the owners are still at home. They barricade the gates in the walls that surround each house, and block staircases leading topside. Always a Marine watches the rear for anyone coming up an alley. They go from roof to roof over makeshift bridges and through holes battered in the walls of the rooftop patios.

(One of the NCOs from Lt Lee's platoon stands by the holes they battered in the walls surrounding each house's roof-top patio. That sort of construction makes for natural fortifications, but it impedes movement unless you make your own doors.)

India has been on duty here since they stopped the advance. In 1st Platoon the machine gunners and other weapons crews have been two hours on/two hours off for thirteen days. Their entire life is spent on the roof or down in the interior of the houses. They piss down drainpipes and shit in cans filled with JP-8, which they then drag out and burn. When it’s sunny they get hot, when it rains (and it does) they get wet. And always they keep watch on the avenues of approach, and on the few residents still in town. They note any and all movement. When they see a clear hostile they engage. The snipers have taken a grim toll. The dead are carted off by their brethren or by the Red Crescent. In one case several bodies burned and unburned lay out for days while feral dogs and cats feasted on them and the flies swarmed in shocking numbers.

Several times each day the mosques of the city blare out the call to prayer. In the evenings this is followed by “the Angry Arab,” who blasts propaganda from what the Marines of India Company think is a makeshift pysops vehicle. You can hear the voice move slowly in the darkness, so they must be right. And they try hard to pinpoint the vehicle so they can bring fire on it but so far have not been successful. The Angry Arab shrieks on for hours. You can pick out the words, “Fallujah,” “jihad,” “mujahedin.”

The company position is a strong one, anchored on a solid corner building that looks out on a large empty lot and commands three avenues. No force in Fallujah could move them an inch. As one of their company commanders pointed out, a Marine rifle company in the defense is a tough thing to unhinge. The 60mm mortar attached to 1st Platoon is high atop the roof of that building, well protected from observation and direct fire, mounted on a sandbag and dirt bed constructed by its crew.

(The 60mm mortar attached to Lt Lee's platoon. It sits on a bed of dirt and blocks that was hauled up by these four Marines. Why aren't they wearing flaks and helmets? The walls of the roof-top patio protect them. In fact, on the walls they painted their azimuth markers so they could bring fire on any target, rapidly and accurately.)

For all the strength of the position and the clear tactical advantages we have, the Marines up there on the line can’t move an inch beyond the limit of advance. No patrolling forward, no periodic house clearing actions on the next block to make sure evildoers aren’t doing evil, no ambushes to catch an unwary jihadist. One of the squad leaders wants to start clearing houses quietly each night, and carefully opening holes into the next house in line to create a covered path of advance for the day they’re told to step off again. Tactically bold and aggressive, but his hands are tied. In the words of the company CO, “the only direction these Marines want to go is west.”