NUKE_CLEVELAND

Almost 200 posts debating gun control? How many times are we going to rehash this debate? Knee jerk, feel good legislation isin't going to stop the next massacre anymore than previous knee jerk, feel good legislation could stop this one.......or all the other homicides in this country for that matter.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 20, 2007 -> 12:56 PM) Yesterday was a second record close, and today the Dow is up about 100 points, in shouting distance of 13000 for the first time in history, and still no posts? Dang, I guess you have to be down for there be any interest in the blue chips! That's cool as hell for me and my mutual funds but my interest ends there.

It's a pretty sad day for us here. We lost our 1st man killed yesterday and had another badly injured by an IED attack. They were on their way to link up with some bulldozers and then go to flatten some abandoned mud huts that were being used by insurgents to hide and stash weapons and stuff. They never made it. Device went off under the front of their truck, flipped it over like a kids toy and landed it sideways. Gunner was killed instantly and the truck commander had about 8 different fractures to his legs and one of his arms. Driver was able to walk away with some heavy bruising to one leg. Good news is that both the survivors will be fine and make a full recovery. What's worse, these bastards shot at the medevac chopper when it was landed on a soccer field to pick up our casualties. We pinpointed a house where we thought it was coming from and between our machine guns and the Apache's 30mm we pretty much made the place unfit for living anytime soon. During the rest of the day there were another 5 IED's found in this same stretch of field. This is exactly what happens when we get kept out of sector for any length of time as has been the case recently. Haji has all this time to set his s*** up and we get it right in our face next time we show up. Needless to say we're pretty pissed off and henceforth anyone who even looks at us the wrong way out in sector is going to pay a heavy price. All these smiling motherf***ers who wave and say "america good!" are in on it as far as I'm concerned. They dont have jobs and just sit around their front yards all day drinking tea so they see all this going on and they let us walk right into it.

With every day that goes by over here I become more convinced that we're not going to accomplish anything over here. The way this war is being run is just a complete joke. Today I found out that the bomb makers we rolled up the other day were released. Not only were they released but they're probably going to get paid a handsome sum of money for their trouble. Why? Because certain people bought their lame ass story that all the fire extinguishers in their house were there because they were being refilled. Never mind the following facts: A. The EOD crew confirmed to us that at least half of these fire extinguishers were filled with explosive material. B. These 2 upstanding citizens both tested positive for explosive residue on their skin. C. Both of the IED's we've encountered in sector since we've been here were made out of....was it artillery shells?.........was it mortar rounds??.......no no no.....it was fire extinguishers filled with explosives!!! DING! D. The owner of the house and alleged "fire extinguisher refitter guy" when first questioned about all these fire extinguishers claimed they weren't even his and that he didn't even know they were there. E. No sooner did we start searching the target house than snipers opened up on us from like 3 different locations. So now, these 2 bomb makers are back out on the street and flush with cash courtesy of the U.S. Military. All of this because certain people got a bad taste in their mouth because of the collateral damage caused by the blast. Oh, and about the collateral damage. We went in and took pictures and got everybody's name and all that good stuff the following day. Now we're jerking these people off. we're making them jump through all these different hoops and fill out all these different stupid forms ( which change daily ) and all the while they're saying they have only a day or 2 more to get their money before we close the door. So. The innocent people who deserve help are getting the run around while we let the guilty ones go and pay them off. You people wonder why it's taking so long to pacify this country. I could write 4 pages of rant about all the other stuff that's causing us hell here but that would involve operational matters and I cant do that. For now.........rant over.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 13, 2007 -> 11:19 PM) Which part are you disagreeing with? A. That it is going poorly or B. Bush won't admit it? Read the latest entry in my blog.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Apr 13, 2007 -> 09:30 AM) And it's because the "American People", er I mean the American POLITICIANS (yes, both parties) don't have the balls to "get 'er done" and get ya'll back home. Everything has to be all "PC" so that we don't "offend" anyone. IT'S A WAR, start acting like it. I know, I know, it's easy for me to say this behind my keyboard not getting shot at. But, you either have to poop or get off the pot sometime, because the tact taken right now is not working. You are absolutely right and I want to key in on one thing you said in particular which is about not offending anyone. We've got our hands tied in many different respects. 2 weeks ago one of our platoons had a line on where to find a major player in the Shiite militias in this area. Unfortunately, we were told not to pick him up because our higher headquarters was, and I quote, "afraid there would be a negative reaction in the community". Excuse me but aren't these the very people driving the sectarian violence and killing our people? And so it goes. We run into similar problems dealing with the local mosques. If we want to go into one to do a search we basically need permission from Allah himself, the red tape is so bad. If we take fire from one, which we have several times, then we can shoot back but these "sacred places of worship" are where they stash their weapons many times.

This is just further proof of the double standard that exists in America. Blacks and Hispanics can say whatever they want to whenever they want to but if a white person says someting like that he's this evil person that deserves to have his career ruined. Typical political correctness bulls*** is what this is.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 11, 2007 -> 06:04 PM) I thought the priorities were to find the WMD and remove SH from power. Those were the original war aims. Now that this has shifted to a counterinsurgency fight things are different. Unfortunately, we're not doing nearly everything we can and, as I said, our priorities are just totally in the wrong place.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Apr 10, 2007 -> 02:16 PM) WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO! I'm done, DONE DONE DONE, done done done, with my MBA! I figured I'd share with my filibuster friends. Congrats dude!!!!!!

I could go on a 20 minute rant about what I think of the way this war is being run but I would get in SOOOOO much trouble. I guess it took me coming back over here again here and now to see just how......well yeah, you see where Im coming from. Suffice it to say that we could be doing sooooooo much with what we have here but our priorities are laughably out of whack.

Back again. Last few days the internet has been on the fritz around here so I haven't been able to get online. Nothing really special happened since my last entry. Im still doing paperwork even 5 days after our little adventure back on the 6th. In order to get awarded the Combat Action Badge you need 2 sworn statements from people who saw what happened, there has to be a page long summary of events, a powerpoint diagram of the area where things happened has to be done and on and on and on. I have 8 guys in my section that were in contact that day, myself included, so you do the math. I didn't have to go out on mission today so I ended up finishing everything I hadn't had time for and now it's all done. THANK GOD!!! Next couple of days look to be fairly quiet with not a lot on the schedule. We'll see how things go.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 4, 2007 -> 12:41 PM) Hey Nuke, does Iran get mentioned at all over there? Are the playing any kind of a role in the insurgency from what you guys can see? We strongly suspect that they have ties to the Shiite militias around here and also that they are designing and building the EFP's that can penetrate heavy armor. Lately, though, that has kind of dried up around here after the latest confrontation with them. Hopefully it stays that way. Seems like the local insurgents are getting more hard up for material because they have been using empty fire extinguishers filled with homemade explosives rather than actual ordinance. In my diary I detailed how we found a whole lot of them.

Everything is alright here. Our first day back in sector after the end of the Sitzkrieg and guess what, it was a crazy day to say the VERY least. We did a cordon and search of this neighborhood and found an IED factory. There were 82 IED's total in various stages of construction and a bunch of the electronic components to act as triggering devices. While we were waiting for EOD to come destroy the stuff we took a lot of sniper fire. Myself and a team of guys were on a rooftop and we fired back and killed the guy. This after having about a half dozen rounds pass so close we heard them whizz by. Good stuff!!! We ended up blowing up the whole house and that took care of the bomb making stuff. Today we went back to the same area to give out damage claim forms to the neighbors whose houses were damaged in the blast. They were very happy to see us and glad the bomb makers were arrested and on their way to jail. Aside from that, there really isin't much going on.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Apr 2, 2007 -> 01:58 PM) Dude, you really don't pay much attention to sports media, do you? (Actually...the way today is going, you probably should avoid it for a day or so) It's been a really annoying day all the way around for me. The Sox home opening disaster was just the cherry on top of a real s*** sundae.

This is how I see it. CEO's of companies have a difficult job by any measure and are well paid for it. As far as I'm concerned a company can pay whoever it wants whatever it wants. Those who play professional sports get paid at least as much as the top-tier CEO's and instead of being responsible for thousands of employees and the well-being of a company, the only thing they are responsible for is a game. Simplistic view of things? Perhaps. But I don't hear people howl nearly as much about player salaries as I do about CEO salaries.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 1, 2007 -> 06:12 PM) For over two hundred years we have lived without this law, how? What great social problems are we trying to fix? With this law, we are taking away the right of innocent Americans to sue when they are falsely accused, and now protect someone who makes the false accusation. That's progress Get past this example and look at how that can be abused. For 200 years we've also never had a bunch of people filing lawsuits against other people for reporting suspicious activity. Vigilance used to be regarded as a virtue and praised but in 2007 America it's suddenly a violation of people's supposed rights and we file lawsuits against it.

Those of you who know me know I've been a little busy lately and haven't been able to follow spring training at all. So, from those in the know, how bout a no-BS assessment of how we look and what you guys think we're gonna do this season. Who's hot, who's not.....stuff like that. Thanks.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Mar 30, 2007 -> 05:21 PM) haha, well the Imams are suing the other passengers http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8...=1&catnum=0 these imams really are some classic douche bags. i tip my cap to them for their absurdity. I feel this law is totally necessary. If douchebags like this are allowed to bring lawsuits against people for being vigilant against terrorist activity then there needs to be some form of legislation passed to grant people immunity. It's sad, really, that our lawsuit happy society seeks to punish people for doing their part to protect us against terrorists. This whole thing does nothing but reinforce the perception ( one that I find to be true ) that Islamic people are trying to foist their way of life on others. If these Imams had any common sense they would have just got on the damn plane and sat down like everyone else. That was too hard, though, so they go and start their whole routine in front of everybody and get people nervous. In this day and age what the hell did they expect anyway?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 1, 2007 -> 01:09 PM) I'd probably fly southwest all the time, if they'd just get rid of that cattle corral aspect. If they actually gave seat assignments, they'd be pretty much the ideal domestic airline, I think. I LOVE Southwest. But then I get to use my Military ID to pre-board and pick any seat I want.

Now that I've back over here I felt the need to chime in on what Im seeing. Seems to me that the U.S. Military is afraid to let the Iraqi's do much of anything on their own. Much of this is justified because the Iraqi security forces, at least parts of them, are shadier than a palm grove. Seems that all the Iraqi forces do is man checkpoints and drive around the "hood" at high speeds with their lights flashing. If we don't let them act without big brother looking over his shoulder, I dont see how we're EVER going to finish this thing. Yeah they're going to take their lumps and yeah there will be problems but IMHO it's a lot better to let that stuff work itself out as early as possible so we can wash our hands of this thing the right way.

Ahhh, let the wheels of boredom continue turning!!! Seems that the Sitzkrieg I alluded to in my last entry has been extended until the 3rd. So another 3 days of crude humor and debates about where that distant small arms fire is coming from. I'll never complain about driving through relatively quiet neighborhoods or handing out propane ever again ( for a while ). Seems sometimes like we're little more than very heavily armed beat cops with all the requisite bulls***, paperwork and boredom.

Well, snipers and IED's didn't have any effect so it seems that they're trying to bore us to death lately. The last few days and up till the 31st they have us sitting on a 2 KM stretch of road. Our 3 platoons just go out and pull an 8 hour shift each sitting on observation posts in our humvees. Nothing to keep us awake but crude jokes at each others expense and heated debates about what direction that small arms fire off in the distance was coming from. The Iraqi Army dudes at the checkpoint a few kilometers to the north are VERY trigger happy so we have to call in that we heard gunfire WAY more than we'd like. Aside from that, not a lot to talk about really. Time is scarce as usual cause when we finish our 8 hour OP we have to be on call in case someone needs help and we are pretty much guaranteed to get spun up at least once.

Another close shave today. We were driving down a dirt road in our sector and went over a small hump and a small explosion went off in front of my wingman's truck. After that happened we cordoned off the area and had the EOD guys come out and blow the device. What happened was the primer for the device ( 2 fire extinguishers cut open and packed with explosive ) somehow fell off the device and when the bastard that initiated it did so, only the blasting cap went off. Nobody hurt so it's all good. Once the device was destroyed we went out to where the command wire led off to and cleared the house. We ended up finding a couple of spools of wire but nothing else. Tonight's mission was boring as hell. Just drove around in circles through sector the whole time looking for anyone out running around after curfew.

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Mar 23, 2007 -> 01:20 PM) Nuke, The terrorists see themselves as martyrs if they die fighting the infidels or in a sucide bombing. They get their virgins and live forever in paradise or whatever. How do the Iraqi army feel about dying for the country? Is there honor in defending their country? Do most of the Iraqi army believe in what they are fighting for or is it more or less a job for them? These guys have no illusions about how dangerous their job is and if you were to ask them, they'd get VERY passionate about wanting to make a difference. That goes for most of them. Obviously you're going to have a few that are just there for a paycheck and a few that are actually spies for the bad guys but overall they're really great people who want to make Iraq a better place. QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 23, 2007 -> 09:04 PM) WTF are you talking about? He's good. It's a chat crew thing.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 22, 2007 -> 10:55 AM) Nuke...if there's anything that your unit could use, like something random that you'd like to be able to hand out to the locals or some random supply/niceity that you guys don't get, let us know. It's very nice of you guys to be thinking of us like that. At the moment, however, I have more snacks, baby wipes, toiletries, gatorade mix, books and magazines than I know what to do with. Anything edible I want I can just go and raid the dining facility anytime I want and I bought a small fridge that I have fully stocked with drinks ( no alcohol allowed unfortunately ). In fact, aside from paying for internet access I haven't had a need to even spend any money here. This time around is a far cry from the initial push up through here, in fact, I dare say I'm living pretty large for being in a combat zone.