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Subject: Real intel

 
Pretty interesting. This email from a guy (Jordan) who is
there............. No politics here, just a Marine with a bird's eye
view opinion:

1) The M-16 rifle : Thumbs down. Chronic jamming problems with the
talcum powder like sand over there. The sand is everywhere. Jordan
says you feel filthy 2 minutes after coming out of the shower. The M-4
carbine version is more popular because it's lighter and shorter, but
it has jamming problems also. They like the ability to mount the
various optical gunsights and weapons lights on the picattiny rails, but
the weapon itself is not great in a desert environment. They all hate
the 5.56mm (.223) round. Poor penetration on the cinderblock structure
common over there and even torso hits can't be reliably counted on to
put the enemy down. Fun fact: Random autopsies on dead insurgents show
a high level of opiate use.

2) The M243 SAW (squad assault weapon): 223 cal. Drum fed light machine
gun. Big thumbs down. Universally considered a piece of shit. Chronic
jamming problems, most of which require partial disassembly (that's fun
in the middle of a firefight).

3) The M9 Beretta 9mm: Mixed bag. Good gun, performs well in desert
environment; but they all hate the 9mm cartridge. The use of handguns
for self-defense is actually fairly common. Same old story on the 9mm:
Bad guys hit multiple times and still in the fight.

4) Mossberg 12ga. Military shotgun: Works well, used frequently for
clearing houses to good effect.

5) The M240 Machine Gun: 7.62 Nato (.308) cal. belt fed machine gun,
developed to replace the old M-60 (what a beautiful weapon that was!!).
Thumbs up. Accurate, reliable, and the 7.62 round puts 'em down.
Originally developed as a vehicle mounted weapon, more and more are
being dismounted and taken into the field by infantry. The 7.62 round
chews up the structure over there.

6) The M2 .50 cal heavy machine gun: Thumbs way, way up. "Ma deuce" is
still worth her considerable weight in gold. The ultimate fight
stopper, puts their dicks in the dirt every time. The most coveted
weapon in-theater.

7) The .45 pistol: Thumbs up. Still the best pistol round out there.
Everybody authorized to carry a sidearm is trying to get their hands on
one. With few exceptions, can reliably be expected to put 'em down with
a torso hit. The special ops guys (who are doing most of the pistol
work) use the HK military model and supposedly love it. The old
government model .45's are being re-issued en masse.

8) The M-14: Thumbs up. They are being re-issued in bulk, mostly in a
modified version to special ops guys. Modifications include lightweight
Kevlar stocks and low power red dot or ACOG sights. Very reliable in
the sandy environment, and they love the 7.62 round.

9) The Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle: Thumbs way up. Spectacular range
and accuracy and hits like a freight train. Used frequently to take out
vehicle suicide bombers ( we actually stop a lot of them) and barricaded
enemy. Definitely here to stay.

10) The M24 sniper rifle: Thumbs up. Mostly in 308 but some in 300 win
mag. Heavily modified Remington 700's. Great performance. Snipers have
been used heavily to great effect. Rumor has it that a marine sniper on
his third tour in Anbar province has actually exceeded Carlos Hathcock's
record for confirmed kills with OVER 100.

11) The new body armor: Thumbs up. Relatively light at approx. 6 lbs
.and can reliably be expected to soak up small shrapnel and even will
stop an AK-47 round. The bad news: Hot as shit to wear, almost
unbearable in the summer heat (which averages over 120 degrees). Also,
the enemy now goes for head shots whenever possible. All the bullshit
about the "old" body armor making our guys vulnerable to the IED's was a
non-starter. The IED explosions are enormous and body armor doesn't
make any difference at all in most cases.

12) Night Vision and Infrared Equipment: Thumbs way up. Spectacular
performance. Our guys see in the dark and own the night, period. Very
little enemy action after evening prayers. More and more enemy being
whacked at night during movement by our hunter-killer teams. We've all
seen the videos.

13) Lights: Thumbs up. Most of the weapon mounted and personal lights
are Surefire's, and the troops love 'em. Invaluable for night urban
operations. Jordan carried a $34 Surefire G2 on a neck lanyard and loved
it. I can't help but notice that most of the good fighting weapons and
ordnance are 50 or more years old!!!!!!!!! With all our technology,
it's the WWII and Vietnam era weapons that everybody wants!!!! The
infantry fighting is frequent, up close and brutal. No quarter is given
or shown.

Bad guy weapons:

1) Mostly AK47's . The entire country is an arsenal. Works better in
the desert than the M16 and the .308 Russian round kills reliably. PKM
belt fed light machine guns are also common and effective. Luckily, the
enemy mostly shoots like shit. Undisciplined "spray and pray" type
fire. However , they are seeing more and more precision weapons,
especially sniper rifles. (Iran, again) Fun fact: Captured enemy have
apparently marveled at the marksmanship of our guys and how hard they
fight. They are apparently told in Jihad school that the Americans rely
solely on technology, and can be easily beaten in close quarters combat
for their lack of toughness. Let's just say they know better now.

2) The RPG: Probably the infantry weapon most feared by our guys.
Simple, reliable and as common as dogshit. The enemy responded to our
up-armored Humvees by aiming at the windshields, often at point blank
range. Still killing a lot of our guys.

3) The IED: The biggest killer of all. Can be anything from old
Soviet anti-armor mines to jury rigged artillery shells. A lot found in
Jordan's area were in abandoned cars. The enemy would take 2 or 3
155mm artillery shells and wire them together. Most were detonated by
cell phone, and the explosions are enormous. You're not safe in any
vehicle, even an M1 tank. Driving is by far the most dangerous thing our
guys do over there. Lately, they are much more sophisticated "shape
charges" (Iranian) specifically designed to penetrate armor. Fact:
Most of the ready made IED's are supplied by Iran, who is also providing
terrorists (Hezbollah types) to train the insurgents in their use and
tactics. That's why the attacks have been so deadly lately. Their
concealment methods are ingenious, the latest being shape charges in
Styrofoam containers spray painted to look like the cinderblocks that
litter all Iraqi roads. We find about 40% before they detonate, and the
bomb disposal guys are unsung heroes of this war.

4) Mortars and rockets: Very prevalent. The Soviet era 122mm rockets
(with an 18km range) are becoming more prevalent. One of Jordan's NCO's
lost a leg to one. These weapons cause a lot of damage "inside the
wire". Jordan's base was hit almost daily his entire time there by
mortar and rocket fire, often at night to disrupt sleep patterns and
cause fatigue (It did). More of a psychological weapon than anything
else. The enemy mortar teams would jump out of vehicles, fire a few
rounds, and then haul ass in a matter of seconds.

5) Bad guy technology:

Simple yet effective. Most communication is by cell and satellite
phones, and also by email on laptops. They use handheld GPS units for
navigation and "Googleearth" for overhead views of our positions. Their
weapons are good, if not fancy, and prevalent. Their explosives and
bomb technology is TOP OF THE LINE. Night vision is rare. They are very
careless with their equipment and the captured GPS units and laptops are
treasure troves of Intel when captured. Who are the bad guys (remember
that is what the Captain called them!)? Most of the carnage is caused by
the Zarqawi Al Qaeda group. They operate mostly in Anbar province
(Fallujah and Ramadi).

These are mostly "foreigners", non-Iraqi Sunni Arab Jihadists from all
over the Muslim world (and Europe). Most enter Iraq through Syria
(with, of course, the knowledge and complicity of the Syrian govt.), and
then travel down the "rat line" which is the trail of towns along the
Euphrates River that we've been hitting hard for the last few months.
Some are virtually untrained young Jihadists that often end up as
suicide bombers or in "sacrifice squads". Most, however, are hard core
terrorists from all the usual suspects (Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas
etc.). These are the guys running around murdering civilians en masse
and cutting heads off. The Chechens (many of whom are Caucasian), are
supposedly the most ruthless and the best fighters (they have been
fighting the Russians for years). In the Baghdad area and south, most
of the insurgents are Iranian inspired (and led) Iraqi Shiites.

The Iranian Shiia have been very adept at infiltrating the Iraqi local
govt.'s, the police forces and the Army. They have had a massive spy
and agitator network there since the Iran-Iraq war in the early 80's.
Most of the Saddam loyalists were killed, captured or gave up long ago.
Bad Guy Tactics: When they are engaged on an infantry level they get
their asses kicked every time. Brave, but stupid. Suicidal
Banzai-type charges were very common earlier in the war and still occur.
They will literally sacrifice 8-10 man teams in suicide squads by
sending them screaming and firing AK's and RPG's directly at our bases
just to probe the defenses. They get mowed down like grass every time
(see the M2 and M240 above). Jordan's base was hit like this often.
When engaged, they have a tendency to flee to the same building,
probably for what they think will be a glorious last stand. Instead, we
call in air and that's the end of that more often than not. These
hole-ups are referred to as Alpha Whiskey Romeo's (Allah's Waiting
Room). We have the laser guided ground-air thing down to a science.
The fast movers, mostly Marine F-18's, are taking an ever increasing
toll on the enemy. When caught out in the open, the helicopter gunships
and AC-130 Spectre gunships cut them to ribbons with cannon and rocket
fire, especially at night. Interestingly, artillery is hardly used at
all. Fun fact:

The enemy death toll is supposedly between 45-50 thousand. That is why
we're seeing less and less infantry attacks and more IED, suicide bomber
shit. The new strategy is simple: attrition. The insurgent tactic most
frustrating is their use of civilian non-combatants as cover. They know
we do all we can to avoid civilian casualties and therefore schools,
hospitals and (especially) Mosques are locations where they meet, stage
for attacks, cache weapons and ammo and flee to when engaged. They have
absolutely no regard whatsoever for civilian casualties. They will
terrorize locals and murder without hesitation anyone believed to be
sympathetic to the Americans or the new Iraqi govt. Kidnapping of
family members (especially children) is common to influence people they
are trying to influence but can't reach, such as local govt. officials,
clerics, tribal leaders, etc.). The first thing our guys are told is
"don't get captured". They know that if captured they will be tortured
and beheaded on the internet.

Zarqawi openly offers bounties for anyone who brings him a live American
serviceman. This motivates the criminal element who otherwise don't
give a shit about the war. A lot of the beheading victims were actually
kidnapped by common criminals and sold to Zarqawi. As such, for our
guys, every fight is to the death. Surrender is not an option. The
Iraqi's are a mixed bag. Some fight well, others aren't worth a damn.
Most do okay with American support. Finding leaders is hard, but they
are getting better. It is widely viewed that Zarqawi's use of suicide
bombers, en masse, against the civilian population was a serious
tactical mistake. Many Iraqi's were galvanized and the caliber of
recruits in the Army and the police forces went up, along with their
motivation. It also led to an exponential increase in good intel
because the Iraqi's are sick of the insurgent attacks against civilians.


The Kurds are solidly pro-American and fearless fighters. According to
Jordan, morale among our guys is very high. They not only believe they
are winning, but that they are winning decisively. They are stunned and
dismayed by what they see in the American press, whom they almost
universally view as against them. The embedded reporters are despised
and distrusted. Our guys are inflicting casualties at a rate of 20-1
and then see shit like "Are we losing in Iraq?" on TV and the print
media. For the most part, they are satisfied with their equipment, food
and leadership. Bottom line though, and they all say this, there are
not enough guys there to drive the final stake through the heart of the
insurgency, primarily because there aren't enough troops in-theater to
shut down the borders with Iran and Syria. The Iranians and the Syrians
just can't stand the thought of Iraq being an American ally (with, of
course, permanent US bases there). Anyway guys, that's it, hope you
found it interesting. I sure did.

Subject: Synopsis - Camp Falujah (good read)


 From a Marine Col (Ret) buddy of mine

 Thought I'd pass this along to those who may not have seen it. This is
 an
 e-mail from a civilian contractor in Iraq. Seems to me that life in
 the
 boonies hasn't changed much over the years.....

 Hello all! I am now a resident of Fallujah. As I have found, this is a
 very
 different place from Victory, and a very different world.

 The Marines run Fallujah. Marines are different. Their way of life is
 different. More disciplined. More regimented. More austere. Harder.

 I'm surrounded by dozens of them when I go to chow or to the Morale
 Center
 (the MWR). Especially at the MWR, it's mostly the youngest of the
 Marines in
 what must be the closest thing to a purely social gathering they'll
 experience here. Few NCOs and fewer officers, just them and their buds.

 They're young men, mostly Privates, Lance Corporals and Corporals,
 between
 the ages of 18 and 22. They're slim and lean of build, yet muscular.
 Broad
 at the shoulder and narrow at the hip, as Jimmy Dean would say. There
 are no
 chubby Marines here.

 Almost to a man, they wear their hair high and tight: buzzed on the
 sides
 with just a close-cropped shock on top to give their Kevlar helmet a
 lightly
 padded resting place. A few shave their heads altogether but most wear
 the
 sidewalls.

 Many have a white stripe on either side of their face, running between
 the
 eye and the ear, where their skin was shielded from the harsh Arabian
 sun by
 their sunglasses or dust goggles. All are clean shaven, though some
 don't
 look like they need it regularly. Some still haven't outgrown acne.

 They're good, honest faces. When they look at you or speak to you, you
 sense
 that there is no nonsense about them; no guile in their manner. It's as
 if
 their life is too busy and their spare time too precious to fritter it
 away
 on anything but straightforwardness and candor. Their life here
 revolves
 around linear thinking and linear action, going straight from Point A
 to
 Point B. And their demeanor shows it.

 Their behavior is more reserved than I've come to expect from a
 gathering of
the same age group from any other service. No braggadocio and no trash
 talking. It's not that they're deathly grim, they're just not as
 boisterous
 as a typical group of American 20-year-olds. They're aware that their
 next
 appointment with fate is only a few hours and a few hundred yards away.
 And
 the only thing that keeps them alive tomorrow could well be that
 pimple-faced Marine sitting next to them.

In this setting you truly can sense the depth of their camaraderie; the
 respect among those who've shared a common, life-changing experience.
 They
 behave as if they were family, a brotherhood of baby-faced warriors.

 The job of the Marines is different, which makes them different. They
 don't
 rely on all manner of 21st Century techno-wizardry, like the Army or
 Air
 Force. Sure, they have tanks and helicopters and night vision goggles
 and
 the like, but those do not form the core of the Marine's order of
 battle. To
 them, the perfect weapon is a gutsy Marine with a keen eye, a steady
 hand,
 and a rifle that shoots straight. These are serious people doing a
 deadly
 serious job. It's a difference they wear on their faces.

 The Marines make this place different. Frivolous living takes away the
 edge;
 hard living makes hard men. They pay scant attention to creature
 comforts
 and don't "waste" precious assets on it. Why buy a billiard table for
 the
 Unit's rec room when you could spend the same dollars on another 20,000
 rounds of 5.56 ammunition? Besides, anything necessary for living
 already
 was issued to them but the Corps. Officer and enlisted, their entire
 world
 packs away into just two duffle bags and a ruck sack.

 Marines talk differently, too. It's a port, not a door, a deck not the
 floor
 and a head, not a toilet. Equipment or personal items aren't lost,
 they're
 adrift. It takes a bit of getting used to.

 Most everything they do for recreation involves athletic competition
 (it enhances both fitness and Esprit de Corps). And the equipment list
 rarely is longer than a football and an open field or a volleyball and a
 net. It makes no difference that it's only a friendly game; they still
 play
 like their lives depended on it.

 Here they fly the US flag. It always has been understood that Camp
 Victory
 was an Iraqi base, albeit with a large number of Americans residing on
 it.
 It would have been disrespectful to the "landlords" to fly an American
 flag
 there, so none were. The US flag was never flown on the installation
 where I
 lived in Honduras many moons ago, and for the same reason. There is no
 such
 concern for the host's sensibilities here. This was never a palatial
 compound. It was us -- the US -- who dislodged the terrorist vermin
 from
 this place and it is we who man this post. And here they fly Old Glory
 proudly.

 Basically the entire camp is as safe as a typical police station. Camp
 Victory butts up against some outlying Baghdad neighborhoods so certain
 areas of the camp have locals living right outside the wall. And they
 sometimes toss "surprises" over that wall and into the compound.

 Here at Camp Fallujah, on the other hand, the Marines have cleared back
 any
 semblance of vegetation or habitation for what seems like several
 hundred
 yards from the camp's outer wall. That cinderblock wall is pretty tall
 (I'm guessing 11 or 12 feet) and this place is so flat that there are
 very
 few spots where you can stand on the ground and see anything beyond it.
 Where you "can" see past the wall, the most apropos image I can think of
 to
 describe it is Hiroshima after the bomb. The ground is barren and
 strewn
 with destroyed vehicles, both civilian and military. There is nothing
 there
 but desert and rusted hulks, a barren and desolate monochrome brown as
 far
 as you can see.

 Marines man the numerous guard towers and scan the surrounding
 wasteland
 for anything approaching the camp. Anything that appears in that no
 man's
 land and looks to be headed toward the wall automatically is presumed to
 be
 hostile and reduced to just another piece of the lifeless landscape.
 It's a
 very stark image but it also is reassuring to know that none of the bad
 guys
 can get anywhere close to here without incurring the wrath of the
 bulldogs
 of the USMC. They guard their homes fiercely.

 The PX here is the smallest I've seen in Iraq. And come payday, the
 Marines
 descend on it like so many locusts. With that double-whammy, the
 shortages
 I've seen elsewhere are even more widespread here. When we first got
 here,
 they were out of practically all the items I needed to set up
 housekeeping
 in my new swingin' bachelor pad (aka "bunker").

 I wanted a reading lamp to replace the one I'd abandoned when I left
 Camp
 Victory. The PX had the lamps but only 115 VAc light bulbs. The current
 here
 is 220VAc.

They were out of fly swatters. And brooms. And buckets. And mops, er
 swabs.
 And extension cords/power strips. But they did have an impressive
 selection
 of decorative Christmas lights.

 When I moved in, my bunker... I mean my room... was filthy. There was
 dust a
 full quarter inch deep on the window sills. Not house dust but the
 brown
 stuff that passes for desert sand here. The walls and part of the
 ceiling
 were streaked with the same stuff. The room stank with the same earthen
 odor
 as a dust storm. Since this used to be a bath house, the obvious
 solution
 was just hose it down and swab it out. But the PX had no buckets. Or
 mops,
 er swabs. Or detergent (except liquid Dial hand soap).

 It took us three days to find a mop and bucket that we could borrow
 from
 the Marines. Then it took my roommate and me a solid eight sweat-soaked
 hours to scrub the grime out of the room. We worked from top down,
 naturally, and by the time the floor had dried, there was dust settled
 on
 the window sills again.

 Our site lead spends a lot of time trying to convince us it could be
 worse.
 If he's hoping to convince me, he's got quite a lot of ground yet to
 cover.

 P.S., If you think the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with the
 greater
 international war on terror, you need to come here and look around.
 This
 place was West Point for the Islamo-Fascist terrorist crowd. Saddam
 hosted
 training for all the major flavors of Muslim terrorism in this place,
 including Al Qa'aida, the Taliban and the PLO. The dormitories and some
 of
 the military-style training facilities (obstacle courses, etc.) still
 are
 there. Some of the things I have seen here send chills down my spine
 because
 they are undeniable proof of the unholy terror that was grown here to
 be
 exported to the rest of the world. I think I understand the revulsion
 that
 the Allied liberators of the Nazi concentration camps at the end of
 WWII
 must have felt.

 Eventually I will post pictures that I think are conclusive enough to
 sway
 all but the Kool-Aid drinking anti-war crowd that Saddam was growing an
 infectious disease here to be loosed on the Western world in general
 and
 the US in particular. One photo in particular shows a dormitory wall
 painted with an Iraqi flag and a Palestinian flag waving over an
 American
 eagle, beside which is written in Arabic, "Death to America". That one
 shot
 pretty much says it all. If Chuckie Schumer or Cindy Sheehan or Teddy
 (hic!)
 Kennedy or any other of the anti-war moon bats were to come here, open
 their
 eyes and see what I've seen, they'd know better (thought I expect
 they'd
 never admit it).