So my boy (not) Karzai continues to piss me off and not win points with me. Now his government is calling for a review of the rules of engagement followed by US and coalition troops. If you check out http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/26/2346361.htm you will read…

“The Afghan Cabinet wants to review the “limits of authority and responsibilities” of international troops…”

You have got to be kidding me? Hey bozos, we saved your country, we got rid of the rapist and murdering Taliban, we made it possible for you to be put in office and have a job. We are out there, halfway around the world, putting out lives on the line, away from our loved ones, trying to kill an enemy that most of your country harbors and tolerates.

The Afghan govt has little to no influence and authority outside of Kabul. The rest of the country is led by the thugs, governors, or drug-lords that have the most guns. The entire country is corrupt from the 7 year old boy who beats up his sister to take candy away from her up to the highest (and I mean the very highest) levels of government.

The US military and our coalition suffers the amount of casualties that we do becuase we have rules of engagement, becuase we don’t follow the doctrine of Al-Queda, The Taliban, or even the Russians when they were in Afghanistan. We don’t roll into a village and lay waste to everything. We spend millions on research and development of very smart weapons that can snake its way through a chimney or a window to kill the enemy and spare nearby civilians. The limits put on our soldiers by rules of engagement in not only Afghanistan, but all over the world would shock the normal American. Most of the time the hands of a soldier and their immediate leaders are tied by media-scared, politically correct, and very political leadership. Any more tighter rules of engagement would cause soldiers to not even have bullets in their weapons.

I got a good rules of engagement for you Afghan Cabinet and President…how about we all start pulling out today and then you won’t have to worry about us accidentally killing you supposedly “innocent” civilians. They you can maintain your own security and allow your own police and army forces to kill your civilians. See, I saw it first hand, I saw Afghan Army commanders authorize the shooting of weapons into civilians, even mortars into civilian areas that were of no threat (all for a show of force and to make themselves feel good). I saw Afghan soldiers just a few feet away from me shoot into a town of civilians. I have seen Afghan Army soldiers beat innocent civilians without remorse becuase they “thought” the person was bad.

We have a saying in the great USA. “He who lives in a glass house, should not throw stones.” What the means is that before you point fingers at us and accuse us of anything, you better clean up yourselves first. You live in a war zone, this is where people die. It sucks for a true innocent to die, it really does. It also weighs heavily on a soldier that may have caused it…trust me. But that is a fact of war and is what makes war so ugly. If you don’t want your citizens to die as a result of war, then stand up, pull up your bootstraps, eradicate the corruption in your country, hold your own forces accountable and aggressively go after the enemy without coalition forces pushing you to do so.

This mentality is as bad as a welfare mother standing in line to get free money and then complains becuase it is all in one dollar bills instead of two fifty dollar bills.

Bouhammer pissed off for the day and out….

Saw this article today, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7583523.stm and I wanted to post this as it is an update to an earlier post called “Really not liking Karzai” at http://bouhammer.com/wordpress/?p=1045

I am curious how a President of a country gives a pardon and then does not know about it and launches an inqiury. If I was a citizen of that country, I would be a little nervous as to who is really running the country.

Bouhammer Note* What is interesting about this news release is that a while back one of my regular readers who is currently deployed in this Area of Operation wrote me an email and we had several emails go back and forth about what 2/7 Marines was really doing in country. Officially I was being told they were ANP mentors, while this reader was telling me that no, barely any of them are doing ANP mentoring. He told me that most of them were conducting full-spectrum combat operations. Well, hats off to you fine sir becuase it looks like you were 100% correct.*

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 14, 2008
RELEASE #013

Task Force 2/7 raids Taliban headquarters

Article and photos by Cpl. James M. Mercure
Task Force 2d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines conducted their first major assault on a Taliban headquarters in NowZad, Afghanistan.
The Marines’ major accomplishments of the raid were the destruction of several enemy buildings, fighting positions, IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and the capture of a Taliban fighter.
Although the Marines of Company F, Task Force 2d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, part of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix, have operated here in support of Operation Enduring Freedom since early April, this offensive represents TF 2/7’s more prevailing mission of carrying out full spectrum operations with a focus on police training and mentoring the Afghan National Police.
The task force and coalition forces are bringing the fight to the enemy’s doorstep.
“We far exceeded our objectives. Our goal was to just reach the Taliban headquarters, but we actually had the opportunity to exploit it,” Company Gunnery Sgt. Hogan Kindrick said. “We had the opportunity to implode their fighting positions to make them useless to the enemy.”
After various engagements with the enemy, the Marines have learned the Taliban quickly removes its dead and wounded from the scene where the fighting has taken place. But, during this raid, they captured a wounded enemy fighter.
“In my entire time here, I never thought we would capture one of the enemy,” said Capt. Ross Schellhaas, company commander. “After he was detained, we did everything we could to take care of him.”
The enemy prisoner of war had serious head trauma that was treated on site. Once the Marines got the prisoner back to their forward operating base, he was medically evacuated for further treatment.
“You can kill a lot of enemy forces, but when you bring one of theirs back, it hits close to home for them,” said 1st Sgt. Eric W. Rummel, company first sergeant. “Whether they know he’s dead or alive, it doesn’t matter. It’s still a huge blow to their morale.”
To clear the path for the raid, TF 2/7’s combat engineers platoon swept with mine detectors and breached the enemy’s walls with explosives enabling Fox Company to push through and accomplish its mission.
“The enemy knows it can’t match us toe-to-toe in a firefight, so it uses mines and IEDs to try and slow us down and limit our movement,” explained 2nd Lt. Patrick Caffrey, combat engineers platoon commander.
After Fox Company overran the Taliban stronghold, anything useful to the enemy was either destroyed or captured. The Marines then returned to their forward operating base.
“There is a line of enemy troops with bunkers and firing positions. We know where the enemy is and where the supply routes are,” said Capt. Schellhaas, who added that his Marines are very capable of removing the Taliban’s presence in NowZad.
With additional support, the Fox Company commander said his Marines could certainly remove the Taliban’s presence in NowZad.
“Our original mission was to train the ANP, but the mission changed and we’ve adapted to it,” said Lance Cpl. Brandon W. Besendorfer, an infantryman assigned to 1st Platoon. “The Taliban here are trained fighters. That’s why we need reliable close air support and some additional firepower. That would help us get rid of the Taliban here for good.”

20080801- M-9581M-319
Lance Cpl. Michael Molesta, an infantryman assigned to 1st Platoon, Company F, Task Force 2d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, climbs to the top of a destroyed building in a Taliban headquarters to post security for his platoon. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. James M. Mercure)

20080801-M-9581M-269
Combat engineers of Task Force 2d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, run back to a safe position after placing a wall charge to breach a Taliban headquarters.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. James M. Mercure)

20080801-M-9581M-342
A Marine assigned to Company F, Task Force 2d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, posts security after his platoon breached a Taliban headquarters in recent fighting in NowZad. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. James M. Mercure)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402622,00.html

Not that this is new news, or surprising but it does highlight the fact that it is a challenge and I am not sure there is an easy answer. Living a year on natural juice (adrenalin) is an awesome experience. I have talked about it many times in my blog and what a powerful drug adrenaline can be. I have also talked about how “boring” life is after first getting back from combat because of the lack of a thrill in every day, mundane life.
This is the reason soldiers come back and take on high-risk activities like extreme sports, motorcycles, and even drinking and driving. As of Aug 15th 43 soldiers have been killed in the Army on motorcycles alone. This is a huge jump over last year (37 in all of FY2007 and we still have 2 months left in this FY) and is a problem recognized by the Army, including the highest levels. SMA Preston has sent out several All-Army messages talking about motorcycle safety, etc.

As much as there is a rush of adrenaline that must be weaned out of the system, there is also physical and emotional pain, memories, and other thoughts that need to be dealt with or suppressed in some cases. It is these issues that are sometimes dealt with by consuming large amount of alcohol or even legal or illegal drugs.

Now all of this is an issue with any soldier coming back that has experienced ‘real’ combat first hand, but it is even worse among reserve component (Reserves and National Guard) soldiers. This article highlights something I have been saying in military circles since 2004, while most of my company was in Iraq. Having gone to war before while on Active Duty I recognized that there was really no mobilization (pronounces mobe) or de-mob time. No mob time is fine as Active Duty soldiers are training all the time since that is their full time job. No de-mob time outside of a mandatory 14 day block leave was fine too, because as soon as we got back from leave, we were all still around each other. We could talk about our experiences, the things we saw, the smells, the feelings, etc. We de-mobed within the unit and with each other. We recognized issues with certain guys and we either handled it ourselves or referred them to professional help if we thought they needed it.

While my company was in Iraq in 2004, I realized that they would not have that time. Originally the Army was calling for a 1-3 month demob time where the soldiers would stay on active duty, go through extensive medical and mental de-mobing and even do some training to ensure they were still at the level of soldiering needed to perform as a National Guard soldier. However not long after they left, we got word that because of the op-tempo of units the de-mob time would be cut down to one week, if that (another problem of the one year and go deployment doctrine). Of course after being gone for a year away from family and friends, that was fine with the guys. They were ready to get away from war and even the military for a few months. It was while they were gone that I started raising this issue with higher command, with the veteran counselors and even with the families themselves (during FRG meetings). It was clear to me that reserve component soldiers aren’t afforded the same “natural” de-mob time that active duty soldiers are afforded.

As soon as a National Guard soldier is released from Active Duty, they are without income. Because of the laws on the books protecting reserve component soldier’s jobs, they are not required to return to work for 90 days after being mobilized for 180 days or more. However, most cannot afford to take 90 days off without pay. So they usually take 2-3 weeks off and then they are back to the work place. Typically 4 weeks after walking out of a combat zone and being armed to the teeth where people are trying to kill them, they are back working in a cube, driving a UPS truck, selling clothes in the Gap, or whatever they did. They are back among civilians who have no idea what that person gone through and cannot even relate if they tried. They are back among a country that is so great and powerful, it has not really sacrificed at all while that soldier has sacrificed every friggen day for the last year. A county at the mall, while that soldier has been at war.

So the soldier is on his/her own, trying to cope, trying to deal with a severely drastic re-adjustment back into civilian life, trying to live every day like status quo. The soldier wants to get home, and they will take the fastest track to do that. This means saying they have no medical issues and they are fine, that emotionally and mentally they are fine and they can be handed back over to society. While this is great for the soldier and the people close to the soldier in the short term, it is not always good in the long term. The demons will start to come out of the shadows around the 30-45 day mark. The honeymoon will be over, reality will set in that they are not going back, that this is not R&R leave and that they must face life of a-hole drivers, oil changes, paying bills, and nagging significant others (wives, girlfriends or even parents).

This is why I know we have the problems highlighted in this article and other problems that are known in the military community, but not necessarily known by the civilian populous. I am not sure of the correct answer or way to fix this, and I am not sure anyone else is either. I think the right answer would be to get back on the path that the military initially promised of 90 days of continual active duty in order to help soldiers naturally de-compress amongst each other. However almost nobody, including me when I got back, would like that. We want to just go home and spend time at home, not going to formations, or reporting into the armory every day.

The New York National Guard has instituted 30, 60, 90 day reintegration program but from what I have seen of it, it is primarily focused on married soldiers. However I think there is some attempt to aim it towards soldiers with fiancés, girlfriends/boyfriends, and parents. I don’t think it has really been tested yet, and it has just recently been introduced so I think it will be a while before we can see any metrics or results on it. Who knows if it will help, but at least they are trying.

I got this from my buddy CJ over at soldiersperspective.us and I felt it was appropriate for this site. This is written by JD Pendry and I think he has put a lot of facts together to build this. He is not blowing hot air or making stuff up, just simply reciting history.

Calling Jack Murtha

Posted: 24 Aug 2008 01:37 PM CDT

J. D. Pendry

The Russians invaded the sovereign nation of Georgia, a free country with a democratically elected government. Where in the hell are Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, Congress and 99 percent of Hollywood? Code Pink is probably still standing on the streets in front of Walter Reed Army Medical Center harassing wounded American Warriors and their families. The remainder is probably too busy admiring the great show put on by the communist Chinese.

The Russians only shot up a few journalists during Vlad’s great adventure. This female Georgian reporter, these Turkish reporters, and this Jewish one. This fine example of a professional military was also filmed robbing a bank and stealing United States military equipment from the port.

I am curious. Senator Dick Durbin, is this conduct reminiscent of the “Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings?” Congressman Jack Murtha, is there anything here that angers you? Do you reckon “they killed innocent civilians in cold blood?” They certainly tried it appears. Senator John Kerry, it looks to me like Vlad Putin’s fine communist soldiers “randomly shot at civilians, [and] razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan….” What do you think? Do you reckon they are “terrorizing kids and children, you know, women?” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is this Putin’s war? Are you going to demand that “He has to answer for his war?” Declare that “He has dug a hole so deep he can’t even see the light on this?” Will you say, “It’s a tragedy? It’s a stark blunder?” Or are these displays of courage and characterizations that you reserve for America, American Soldiers, and your own President?

Presidential contender, Senator Barack Obama places the US invasion of Iraq on same level as the Russian invasion of Georgia. According to him, we needed to be a better example. In other words, it was America’s fault that Russia invaded Georgia. Why did he not say this about the Russians? “[They] ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged…”, which was his characterization of the Iraq war. I do not recall that Georgia was in violation of a cease fire agreement or in violation of more than a dozen of the United Nations’ feckless resolutions when the Russians invaded them. I also do not recall that the Georgian government was thwarting United Nations inspectors, operating rape and torture rooms, mass murdering their own citizens or paying money to the families of suicide bombers for killing Jews. I do not recall airliners, piloted by Islamic terrorists, crashing into the Kremlin and killing thousands of Russians- airliners piloted by killers that any sensible government similarly attacked would not stand by on the hope that Sadaam Hussein would not come to the aid of their terrorist colleagues.

The Senator would also like us to believe that Communist China has a vastly better infrastructure than does the United States. Do you recall in the lead up to the Olympics how the media was talking about China’s human rights violations, Tibet, Darfur, forced abortions for population control, and how the President should not attend? Then, right after they witnessed a few thousand commie-bots put on a show all we heard was just how grand and magnificent everything is in Communist China. In some minds, everything is a fantasy movie script. Unfortunately, the world is real. A dolled up Peking and a performing robot hoard is not, although it sold well to the world and obviously some influential Americans too.

The media has already trotted out Gorbachev to defend the Russians. Our liberals love him. They give him the credit for ending the cold war. I believe our liberals are partial to communists in general. Gorbachev, like Putin, hopes mother Russia will once again be a major power on this planet. With the wrong people in charge in Washington, they will achieve that goal. Political cranial rectal inversion syndrome could prove fatal.

Copyright © J D Pendry 2008 All Rights Reserved

Well it is now official. Bouhammer (yours truly) and Mrs. Bouhammer (my very better half) will be at this year’s MilBlog Conference. We have been registered, confirmed and have all the logistics booked. It will be a quick trip to Las Vegas, but one that I am sure will be well spent. I am looking forward to finally getting Christine out there (as Nevada is like the last state she has never been to), and I am looking forward to finally meeting many milbloggers that I have met over the last 2 years of milblogging. JP, CJ, and many others will be there and it will be a true honor to meet them, talk about not only the military in general but also this crazy little world of milblogging that has turned from a hobby into what seems like a full time job sometimes.

You can help us out if you would like to donate towards our trip. Anything is appreciated and nothing will be refused. Simply click on the button below.

Bouhammer out..

The article below highlights two things. The continuing battles we are having with an ever-vigilant enemy in Afghanistan and the loss of another soldier. My guest blogger, Mike T knew SFC David Todd as they went through train-up together in Ft. Riley, KS and served in the same area of operations in Afghanistan. Mike asked me to post this article in tribute to SFC Todd, may he rest in peace in God’s Army.

U.S. Losing Edge In Afghanistan, Experts Fear

101st GI death this year points to rising danger

By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban insurgents once derided as a ragtag rabble unable to match U.S. troops have transformed into a fighting force - one advanced enough to mount major conventional attacks and claim American lives at a record pace.

The U.S. military suffered its 101st death of the year in Afghanistan last week when Sgt. 1st Class David J. Todd Jr., a 36-year-old from Marrero, La., died of gunfire wounds while helping train Afghan police in the northwest. The total number of U.S. dead last year, 111, was a record itself and is likely to be surpassed.

Top U.S. generals, European presidents and analysts say the blame lies to the east, in militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan. As long as those areas remain havens where fighters arm, train, recruit and plot increasingly sophisticated ambushes, the Afghan war will continue to sour.

“The U.S. is now losing the war against the Taliban,” Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a report Thursday. A resurgent al-Qaida, which was harbored by the Taliban in the years before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, could soon follow, Cordesman warned.

Cordesman called for the U.S. to treat Pakistani territory as a combat zone if Pakistan does not act. “Pakistan may officially be an ally, but much of its conduct has effectively made it a major threat to U.S. strategic interests.”

An influx of Chechen, Turkish, Uzbek and Arab fighters have helped increase the Taliban’s military precision, including an ambush by 100 fighters last week that killed 10 French soldiers, and a rush on a U.S. outpost last month by 200 militants that killed nine Americans.

Multidirectional attacks, flawlessly executed ambushes and increasingly powerful roadside and suicide bombs mean the U.S. and 40-nation NATO-led force will in all likelihood suffer its deadliest year in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion, experts say.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on a visit to Kabul last week, said he knows that something must “be raised with Pakistan’s government, and I will continue to do so.” French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who rushed to Afghanistan after the French attack, warned Thursday that “terrorism is winning.”

“Military sanctuaries are expanding in the (Pakistani) tribal areas,” Gen. David McKiernan, the American four-star general in charge of the 50,000-strong NATO-led force here, said last week. McKiernan has called for an additional three brigades of U.S. forces, roughly 10,000 troops, to bolster the 33,000-strong U.S. force here.

Complicating relations between the Afghan government and the U.S., a joint Afghan-U.S. military operation in Herat province last week killed about 90 civilians, President Hamid Karzai’s office says. The U.S. said it was investigating.

About 188 international soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, including the 101 Americans, according to an Associated Press count. This year’s toll is easily on track to surpass the record 222 international troop deaths in 2007.

U.S. critics of the Afghan government are becoming more vocal. Rep. Jim Marshall, a Georgia Democrat who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said last week that Karzai’s government “is not nearly where it should be.”

“I’m not willing to have a long-term U.S. commitment, a substantial U.S. commitment to Afghanistan, without seeing substantial reform and improvement in the government,” Marshall said on a visit to Kabul.

Karzai’s influence barely extends outside the capital. The Interior Ministry is seen as uniformly corrupt, and opium-poppy cultivation has soared in recent years. “There is a sense of real frustration with the government of President Karzai,” McKiernan said. “People were expecting gains over time, but they aren’t feeling much.”

Karzai admitted in an interview last week that Afghanistan still lacks a properly functioning government and that corruption is rampant. He said he will run for a second term next year in hopes of addressing those problems.

The president also blamed the rise in Afghan violence directly on Afghanistan’s and NATO’s neglect of the sanctuaries, training grounds and financial center of the Taliban - a clear reference to Pakistan.

The U.S. is believed to have launched several missile strikes into Pakistan’s tribal areas this year in an attempt to take out militant leaders. Missiles destroyed a suspected hideout in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, on Wednesday, killing at least five people.

Seth Jones, a RAND Corp. analyst who has studied Afghanistan for years, said Taliban militants have simply become better at war after seven years of practice against U.S. and NATO forces.

Fighters, particularly militant commanders, are also using their sanctuary in Pakistan to devastating effect, he said.

“I think there’s got to be a strike on the leadership structure, including Mullah Omar, Siraj Haqqani and (Gulbuddin) Hekmatyar,” who live in Pakistan, Jones said. “As the insurgency has become more sophisticated, many of the senior leaders continue to exist, and they are one of the reasons the insurgency is getting better.”

Marshall, the Democratic congressman, said Pakistan itself is feeling threatened by the increase in militancy on its soil and wants to see insurgent leaders taken out.

“You’ve seen the progression here,” Marshall said. “Initially, we wouldn’t even fire back across the (Pakistan) border. We changed that. We’re firing back. We’re pursuing and now acting on intelligence. We are prepared to use discreet weaponry to take out high-value targets (in Pakistan).”

“They want the minimal American presence to help them do that,” he said

I have liked him less and less over the years. I am talking about Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. I don’t like how he treats our soldiers and worse yet, publically claims they are guilty of killing innocents on purpose before due process has had a chance to happen. After reading this story, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghan-president-pardons-men-convicted-of-bayonet-gang-rape-907663.html I am liking him a lot less.

This just rocks. A while back I put up a video from Afghanistan which showed SF teams killing bad guys with one of these. This video is a great one showing the true power of this weapon system put to some appropriate music.

Enjoy..

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-08-22-desertion_N.htm?csp=34

There have been many cases of service-members going AWOL or deserting and the military does nothing more than give them a BCD (Bad Conduct Discharge), so I am glad to finally see someone get jail time. Don’t get me wrong, a BCD is not a good thing and will haunt you for life if you ever try to get a decent job, etc. However 15 months jail time is much more appropriate. The military invests a lot of time and money in each one of its members as part of the contract with that individual, so it is only appropriate that an individual person who does not live up to thier part of the contract be held in contempt and accountable for breaching the contract.

Hoorah…