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Thursday, February 10, 2005
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An anonymous source on the convoy life in Iraq. Winning hearts and minds the Delta way (LOL).
A trip with DynCorps is the proverbial "E-ticket" ride. We mount up in 3 heavily armored Suburbans with all the passengers in one SUV, known as the "limo". The other two trucks are filled with PSDs, carrying AK-47s, M-4s, SAWs, grenades, and handguns. On our way out of the IZ, we rendezvous with two armored Humvees equipped with turret mounted 50-cal machine guns. And before we hit the streets of Baghdad, you hear the thump, thump, thump of our helicopter air support. Two small civilian-style black helicopters fly low over head, scouting our route and watching our flanks from above. At times, they'll swoop low enough to kick up rotor wash and you'll hear pebbles pinging off the SUVs.
Even before we leave the Green Zone, we're doing extreme defensive driving. As we approach other cars, the lead vehicles will force the cars to the right while the limo swerves to the left. Rather than stop, or even slow, for intersections, we just hit our sirens and, again, the lead vehicles will set a screen while we charge through. Once we clear the military checkpoints, everything is fair game. Apparently, it's a lot easier to clear a path through traffic when you're facing it head-on. Thus, we seem to prefer the north-bound lanes for trips to southern Baghdad.
Our lead Humvee's job is to clear a path for us which he does by waving an assault rifle at anyone that gets too close. If that doesn't get their attention, his favorite weapon seems to be half-liter water bottles. He tosses these like a Nolan Ryan fastball at the windshield of cars that don't pull to the side of the road quickly enough in his estimation. He actually has a little rack of water bottles mounted inside the turret.
The remaining vehicles in the convoy fly along over 60mph, often swerving to, I assume, prevent someone from accurately targeting us. We're rarely more than a couple meters from the rear bumper of the vehicle in front of us and it always gives you a jolt to look out the rear window at the front grill of the chase car. Occasionally, you'll hear the thump, thump, thump of the helicopters as they skim over the top of you. One of the more exciting things to see is one of these helos swoop in ahead of you and block traffic by settling into a hover 6 feet off the highway. [John Robb's Weblog]
Update: I removed the name of the original poster who John Robb quoted for that person's protection.
12:47:06 PM 
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Sci-Fi Channel Renews Battlestar Galactica. Chairboy writes "The Sci-Fi Channel has just announced the renewal of Battlestar Galactica for a second season. The creator of the show has announced that the second season will delve into the religious issues surrounding the Cylons in addition to opening up their society more. The latest episode had 3.2 million viewers, almost twice as many as watched the latest episode of Star Trek Enterprise." I said it before, and I'll say it again- this is the best Sci Fi program currently airing, so I'm happy to see more. [Slashdot]
Great news! I'm curious what they do with the Cylon religion and society thing. So far the only mention of their religion has been from Cylon Barbie (the only character I don't like), and when she talks about "God," I get the impression she's talking about someone or something that really exists, not just a mythical figure.
12:16:16 PM
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Time. Ad hoc tactics. Taking out guerrilla entrepreneurs. Ryan (Lt. Col) decides to send a message, a "show of force," as he calls it. He instructs his engineers to pile the weapons caches in the front yard of House 71. "We got all this stuff in his house, I don't see any reason why we can't blow it up," Ryan says. His Estonian counterpart chuckles. "I don't mind; it's not my house," he says. By day's end, the message has been delivered repeatedly. Coalition troops destroy two vehicles and another house in acts of retaliation. [John Robb's Weblog]
Yeah, that's worked real well for the Israelis. Is there some regulation I don't know about that forbids Fed officers from learning from the actions of others?
12:01:21 PM
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From The Federalist:
"We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to
Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them
small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they
have Communism." --Nikita Khrushchev
and:
"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under
the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the
Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation,
without knowing how it happened." --Norman Thomas
and:
"Social Security should be phased out and ended altogether. ... Social
Security in any form is morally irredeemable. We should be debating,
not how to save Social Security, but how to end it -- how to phase it
out so as to best protect both the rights of those who have paid into
it, and those who are forced to pay for it today. This will be a
painful task. But it will make possible a world in which Americans
enjoy far greater freedom to secure their own futures." --Alex Epstein
and:
"The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people,
too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the
Constitution." --Ronald Reagan
[End the War on Freedom]
I especially like the first two--although I wish they had been wrong.
11:40:03 AM
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© Copyright
2006
Ken Hagler.
Last update:
2/15/2006; 2:04:32 PM.
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