Seems like there are a lot of people who refuse to accept the world as it is. They continue to insist on wishing for a world that doesn't exist, and coming up with solutions to problems that would work in THAT world, instead of the real world.
Two issues that illustrate this are gun control and the Iraq war.
First, gun control. In the imaginary world of the gun control advocates, all we need to do to stop gun violence is to make guns harder to buy and own. In this world it is the gun that is the problem, not the violent person behind the gun. Forget for a moment that there are already millions (hundreds of millions?) of guns out there in circulation. All gun manufacturing and sales could be completely stopped tomorrow and there would still be millions of guns in the United States alone.
Does it really do anyone any good at all to WISH that this wasn't the case? Argue all day long that we shouldn't have guns, that our culture is evil and violent because of our love affair with the gun, but how does that help solve the problem of protecting citizens from the violent nutjobs?
Not to go too deeply into the "gun culture" debate, but how do these people think we achieved the level of freedom we have in this country without a citizenry that the "ruling" class HAD to respect, due to the citizens ability to protect themselves? And if American culture is evil and violent because of our love of the gun, why do other cultures not get the same label when they allow the killing of sometimes thousands of their citizens? I'm thinking of Rawanda, Darfur, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, radical Islam, the Soviets, etc... We don't decry the "machete culture" of Rawanda and call for the ban of large knives, even though a couple of hundred thousand were killed with them there. Rape was also used to terrorize the citizens there, I've never seen a call for "penis control." Is it possible that guns are not the whole reason that men do violence to each other?
So regardless of whether you think our culture is good or bad, or whether we should have as many guns as we have, here we are. There is no going back to change things around to the way we now think they should be. If one good person had been armed in one of those classrooms at Virginia Tech, far fewer people might have died.
I also wish it wasn't this way, but I'm not counting on my good wishes to keep me safe.
On Iraq I think both sides of the political divide are engaged in wishful thinking. The left just wants to quit and refuses to accept that the consequences would be dire for us as well as them. The right doesn't seem to understand that the weak and fearful now outnumber the strong and brave in this country. The majority in America would rather run from the fight than finish it. Our enemies are blatant in their intentions and openly call for war against all of the west, they won't let us run from this. Yet we would rather watch American Idol and forget about all the killing and brutality that exists almost everywhere else in the world.
We should pull out of Iraq. I, as a Soldier, don't want to die for a country that has already decided that we have lost. I feel like a football player being told to go out and play the fourth quarter even though the coaches have declared the game lost. Except that instead of risking a torn ACL, I'm risking my life.
We could continue to make our stand in Iraq, we could win it. We could eventually leave a stable, democratic government in place. We would need help from the international community, instead of open hostility. Bush has made many mistakes, this was one of the biggest, not getting more international help.
But we have decided to quit. The reality of this decision is that we will fight the war somewhere of the enemy's choosing. So all of you who are so vehemently opposed to private citizens owning guns, would you please wear a button or t-shirt declaring this? I don't want to accidently save your ass during the next terrorist attack with my legally carried concealed weapon. I'm sure you would rather die than have to live with the fact that a gun, carried by a fellow citizen, saved you.
You Need Me On That Wall! A blog about military service, gear, leadership, politics, motorcycles, watches and whatever else strikes me.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Good article
This is worth reprinting.
Wall Street Journal
April 18, 2007
Pg. 16
Hollywood Interrogates Al Qaeda
By Kyndra Rotunda
CBS's hit series "Criminal Minds" recently aired an episode entitled "Lessons Learned," where FBI agents traveled to Guantanamo Bay and coaxed a confession from a known terrorist detainee that led to the prevention of an anthrax attack on a Northern Virginia shopping mall. The point of the story was that the regular interrogation tactics (pictured as brutal assaults on the prisoner) were not working, and that the military should adopt the enlightened methods of the crack interrogators from "Criminal Minds."
Having served as an Army Judge Advocate General's Corps officer in Gitmo, a legal adviser to criminal investigators pursuing leads in the war on terror, and a Military Commissions prosecutor, I have first-hand knowledge and experience about what happens there. And here is the ironic truth: The military has outlawed some of the "Criminal Minds" interrogators' tactics -- in response to pressure by the international community.
On TV, an analyst observed the detainee's behavior from an adjoining room behind two-way glass for revealing body movements and language. Subtle movements and body language signaled which statements were true and which were false, leading to a breakthrough that saved lives. In reality, when such a tactic was used at Gitmo the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called it "torture." Gitmo authorities used to employ Behavior Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs, pronounced "biscuits"), trained psychologists/psychiatrists who did exactly what the TV analyst did: used psychology to help interrogators learn the truth. But the ICRC considered their role in planning and assisting with interrogations "a flagrant violation of medical ethics." The military responded by curtailing the role of BSCTs.
On TV, CIA and FBI interrogators used the detainee's religion to gain leverage. The CIA interrogators refused to allow the detainee to pray; then the FBI allowed the prayers but adjusted them to manipulate the detainee's sense of time. Because of the manipulation, the detainee admitted responsibility for an attack that he incorrectly believed had already occurred, allowing the attack to be thwarted. In reality, the U.S. does not manipulate detainee's religious practices. In Gitmo, everything stops, including interrogations, so detainees can pray. The Islamic call to prayer is broadcast, several times a day, over loudspeakers. Everyone in and around the detention camp is forced to listen.
On TV, the interrogators give the detainee a prayer mat and point out the direction to Mecca to win his gratitude. In reality, the U.S. gives religious items such as prayer mats, prayer caps, prayer oil, prayer beads and Qurans to all detainees. They don't need anyone to point out the direction of Mecca because the U.S. paints black arrows on the ground pointing toward Mecca in every cell and around the camp.
In fact, at Camp Bucca, a U.S.-run detention camp in Iraq, the U.S. erected a tent as a makeshift mosque and designated it off-limits to prison guards so that detainees could pray in solitude. The detainees used their privacy to turn the "mosque" into a weapons cache, and then attacked the prison guards. This led to a battle for control of the camp that lasted four days.
Despite the debacle at Camp Bucca, the military still designates some items (such as the Quran) as "off-limits" to prison guards, even though detainees misuse the Quran to conceal illegal contraband, including prescription pills. U.S. forces in Gitmo go to these great lengths despite the fact that the Geneva Conventions provide for POWs to practice their religion only "on condition that they comply with the disciplinary routine prescribed by military authorities."
On "Criminal Minds," the detainee glanced toward bottles of water lining a table, and said, "They line it up to show what I cannot have." In reality, detainees at Gitmo receive ample food and water, including Halal meals and imported seasonal fruits and nuts from their native countries for special occasions.
While the crime show's creators must resort to fiction to depict interrogations, they don't have to fictionalize the contempt that most detainees show for Americans. Hollywood gets that part right. On TV, the fictional detainee said of killing innocent Americans: "There is no such thing, they were infidels . . . they hurt me by existing! The infidels will fall at the hands of the righteous, and that is when the jihad will end."
In reality, according to Gitmo's Web site, one detainee said, "The people who died on 9/11/2001 were not innocent . . . my group will shake up the U.S. and the countries who follow the U.S." Another told military police officers that he would "come to their homes and cut their throats like sheep." Yet another detainee threatened, "I will arrange for the kidnapping and execution of U.S. citizens living in Saudi Arabia. Small groups of four of five U.S. citizens will be kidnapped, held and executed. They will have their heads cut off." These real statements make one thing clear: life in Gitmo has not broken the detainees' spirits.
Hollywood sets unrealistic expectations for many things. The "Criminal Minds" episode represents one instance where truth is tamer, and many would argue stranger, than fiction.
Ms. Rotunda teaches at George Mason School of Law and is director of the law school's clinic that provides pro bono legal assistance to military families. She is currently writing a book about legal issues in the war on terror.
Wall Street Journal
April 18, 2007
Pg. 16
Hollywood Interrogates Al Qaeda
By Kyndra Rotunda
CBS's hit series "Criminal Minds" recently aired an episode entitled "Lessons Learned," where FBI agents traveled to Guantanamo Bay and coaxed a confession from a known terrorist detainee that led to the prevention of an anthrax attack on a Northern Virginia shopping mall. The point of the story was that the regular interrogation tactics (pictured as brutal assaults on the prisoner) were not working, and that the military should adopt the enlightened methods of the crack interrogators from "Criminal Minds."
Having served as an Army Judge Advocate General's Corps officer in Gitmo, a legal adviser to criminal investigators pursuing leads in the war on terror, and a Military Commissions prosecutor, I have first-hand knowledge and experience about what happens there. And here is the ironic truth: The military has outlawed some of the "Criminal Minds" interrogators' tactics -- in response to pressure by the international community.
On TV, an analyst observed the detainee's behavior from an adjoining room behind two-way glass for revealing body movements and language. Subtle movements and body language signaled which statements were true and which were false, leading to a breakthrough that saved lives. In reality, when such a tactic was used at Gitmo the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called it "torture." Gitmo authorities used to employ Behavior Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs, pronounced "biscuits"), trained psychologists/psychiatrists who did exactly what the TV analyst did: used psychology to help interrogators learn the truth. But the ICRC considered their role in planning and assisting with interrogations "a flagrant violation of medical ethics." The military responded by curtailing the role of BSCTs.
On TV, CIA and FBI interrogators used the detainee's religion to gain leverage. The CIA interrogators refused to allow the detainee to pray; then the FBI allowed the prayers but adjusted them to manipulate the detainee's sense of time. Because of the manipulation, the detainee admitted responsibility for an attack that he incorrectly believed had already occurred, allowing the attack to be thwarted. In reality, the U.S. does not manipulate detainee's religious practices. In Gitmo, everything stops, including interrogations, so detainees can pray. The Islamic call to prayer is broadcast, several times a day, over loudspeakers. Everyone in and around the detention camp is forced to listen.
On TV, the interrogators give the detainee a prayer mat and point out the direction to Mecca to win his gratitude. In reality, the U.S. gives religious items such as prayer mats, prayer caps, prayer oil, prayer beads and Qurans to all detainees. They don't need anyone to point out the direction of Mecca because the U.S. paints black arrows on the ground pointing toward Mecca in every cell and around the camp.
In fact, at Camp Bucca, a U.S.-run detention camp in Iraq, the U.S. erected a tent as a makeshift mosque and designated it off-limits to prison guards so that detainees could pray in solitude. The detainees used their privacy to turn the "mosque" into a weapons cache, and then attacked the prison guards. This led to a battle for control of the camp that lasted four days.
Despite the debacle at Camp Bucca, the military still designates some items (such as the Quran) as "off-limits" to prison guards, even though detainees misuse the Quran to conceal illegal contraband, including prescription pills. U.S. forces in Gitmo go to these great lengths despite the fact that the Geneva Conventions provide for POWs to practice their religion only "on condition that they comply with the disciplinary routine prescribed by military authorities."
On "Criminal Minds," the detainee glanced toward bottles of water lining a table, and said, "They line it up to show what I cannot have." In reality, detainees at Gitmo receive ample food and water, including Halal meals and imported seasonal fruits and nuts from their native countries for special occasions.
While the crime show's creators must resort to fiction to depict interrogations, they don't have to fictionalize the contempt that most detainees show for Americans. Hollywood gets that part right. On TV, the fictional detainee said of killing innocent Americans: "There is no such thing, they were infidels . . . they hurt me by existing! The infidels will fall at the hands of the righteous, and that is when the jihad will end."
In reality, according to Gitmo's Web site, one detainee said, "The people who died on 9/11/2001 were not innocent . . . my group will shake up the U.S. and the countries who follow the U.S." Another told military police officers that he would "come to their homes and cut their throats like sheep." Yet another detainee threatened, "I will arrange for the kidnapping and execution of U.S. citizens living in Saudi Arabia. Small groups of four of five U.S. citizens will be kidnapped, held and executed. They will have their heads cut off." These real statements make one thing clear: life in Gitmo has not broken the detainees' spirits.
Hollywood sets unrealistic expectations for many things. The "Criminal Minds" episode represents one instance where truth is tamer, and many would argue stranger, than fiction.
Ms. Rotunda teaches at George Mason School of Law and is director of the law school's clinic that provides pro bono legal assistance to military families. She is currently writing a book about legal issues in the war on terror.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Friday, April 06, 2007
Mission Accomplished
I rode with the Patriot Guard Riders yesterday. The funeral was for a Soldier killed in Iraq, CPL Stephen Kowalczyk, in Boulder, CO. We put up a barrier of American flags between the family of the Soldier and the anti-gay protesters from some lunatic church.
When the protesters started chanting some stupid slogan, we all started repeating the Pledge of Allegiance. We repeated it for a good 45 minutes. The Casualty Assistance Officer is a friend of mine, he was inside the Church. He told me the family never knew the protesters were there. That's the whole idea behind the Patriot Guard. That and showing the family that there are Americans who care and respect the sacrifice of their Soldier.
I can't even begin to imagine a better group of people to be associated with. Some were veterans, some looked like stereotypical bikers and some were people passing by on the street who asked to join in. Anyone can participate, no motorcycle necessary.
They represent the best of America.
When the protesters started chanting some stupid slogan, we all started repeating the Pledge of Allegiance. We repeated it for a good 45 minutes. The Casualty Assistance Officer is a friend of mine, he was inside the Church. He told me the family never knew the protesters were there. That's the whole idea behind the Patriot Guard. That and showing the family that there are Americans who care and respect the sacrifice of their Soldier.
I can't even begin to imagine a better group of people to be associated with. Some were veterans, some looked like stereotypical bikers and some were people passing by on the street who asked to join in. Anyone can participate, no motorcycle necessary.
They represent the best of America.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
New training
Let me go a little deeper into what we did out in the field. We started the first day with a little orientation as to why we were out there training on tasks that normally would be considered outside of our lane as maintenance supervisors or motor sergeants.
All of us in this class are senior NCOs with 11 to 22 years of service. Average is probably about 16. So we have been around a while, almost all of us have been to war. But we were trained differently than Soldiers are trained now. When I started out the cold war was still going on. Reagan was president. A Soldier in a support role was expected to be able to man a fighting position on the perimeter of his base and shoot straight. He was also trained to deal with reacting to indirect fire (artillery), and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) attacks. We spent a lot of time on NBC drills. The assumption at the time was that those were the kinds of things a Soldier in a support role, in the rear area of the battlefield would need to deal with. Made sense at the time.
The first Gulf War reinforced these assumptions. I was support during this time, an Army Photojournalist. I deployed to Israel, spent most of my time in a base camp of a Patriot unit and put my chemical protective mask on in record time whenever the "Scud" missle alarm went off. Then I was sent down to Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq and escorted civilian journalists around to the different refugee camps and checkpoints we had set up. Again, since Iraq was known to have chemical weapons and had used them in this very area (a fact we seem to have forgotten now), we always had our masks near.
I then changed my MOS to 19D, Cavalry Scout, and got to train as a combat arms Soldier, as opposed to the combat service support Soldier I had been. I loved it, it was worlds apart from what I had been doing. We rarely trained NBC, because we assumed we would be so close to the enemy that they would not risk using chemicals. We trained in hand-to-hand and I carried a pistol. Our job was to sneak and peek. Find the enemy, recon his positions and report. Only fight if we fucked up and got caught. Most fun I've ever had and got paid to do it. But I never saw my kids so I had to make a choice and I left. Came into the Reserves as a combat support Soldier again and am back on active duty supporting the Reserves.
So along comes the next war, as is inevitable. The training we had been doing up to the start of the Iraq War wasn't wrong, it was just based on wrong assumptions. The combat arms Soldiers I've talked to haven't really complained about the training they had, they knew they would be mixing it up. It's the support Soldiers who really were not equipped to deal with random IED attacks and ambushes. Our Vietnam era flak vests seemed plenty good to us, based on what we expected to encounter. I really don't see any reason to get all pissed off over not having equipment to deal with a threat that no one saw coming and was dealt with as quickly as possible once it was identified. It's not reasonable to think we could forsee every possible problem before it came up every single time. If you could you would make a fortune in the stock market. Maybe we could get Warren Buffet to work plans and ops in the Pentagon.
Which brings us to SGT Riley. SGT Riley was a member of the 507th Maintence Company, the company that got lost and separated at the beginning of the war and was ambushed in Ramadi. PFC Jessica Lynch is the most famous member of this company. SGT Riley is now an instructor at the Warrior Training Center here at Aberdeen Proving Ground. He spoke on the first day about how things were in his unit prior to their being sent to Iraq, and the events leading up to the day of the ambush, the ambush and his captivity by the Iraqis.
Much of what he said was very familiar to anyone who has served in a support unit. There was no emphasis on combat tasks, weapons maintenance, commo training, etc... The focus was always on mission, in the case of the 507th it was keeping equipment up and running. Don't get me wrong, combat oriented training was conducted at times in all units including mine, but it was really "check the block" type training to get it over with so we could get to the real work of turning wrenches.
Consequently when the 507th found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time, they were not trained or equipped to deal with the situation they were in. Jammed weapons and no communications were a huge part of the problem. They fought hard and have nothing of which to be ashamed. Over the past five years the Army has changed quite a bit. We are now emphasising a Warrior Ethos, which never existed before.
And every Soldier knows that they can find themselves in a firefight at any time in Iraq. My very first convoy in Iraq in 2003 we were engaged by small arms fire that hit around our vehicles and popped the tire of the vehicle in front of mine. We couldn't identify the source and I'm proud of my Soldiers for not randomly spraying fire into civilian homes and risking killing innocent people. The point being that young Soldiers are having to make life or death decisions like that every day in Iraq.
The new training emphasis in the Army is to make every Soldier combat capable. Every Soldier is now trained in Combatives, urban combat, checkpoints including searching people and vehicles and dealing with enemy prisioners and detaining civilians.
So we, old Soldiers that we are, showed up here expecting the same old classroom instruction and multiple-choice tests of the past; and found ourselves facing a whole new ballgame. Anyone who complained was basically told "the Army has changed, change with it or get out." Rightly so, in my opinion.
I've already mentioned some of the training we did, I won't dwell on it. But I have some pictures and I'll post some of them up. And I have more to say about the Combatives training, but I'll save that for next time.
All of us in this class are senior NCOs with 11 to 22 years of service. Average is probably about 16. So we have been around a while, almost all of us have been to war. But we were trained differently than Soldiers are trained now. When I started out the cold war was still going on. Reagan was president. A Soldier in a support role was expected to be able to man a fighting position on the perimeter of his base and shoot straight. He was also trained to deal with reacting to indirect fire (artillery), and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) attacks. We spent a lot of time on NBC drills. The assumption at the time was that those were the kinds of things a Soldier in a support role, in the rear area of the battlefield would need to deal with. Made sense at the time.
The first Gulf War reinforced these assumptions. I was support during this time, an Army Photojournalist. I deployed to Israel, spent most of my time in a base camp of a Patriot unit and put my chemical protective mask on in record time whenever the "Scud" missle alarm went off. Then I was sent down to Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq and escorted civilian journalists around to the different refugee camps and checkpoints we had set up. Again, since Iraq was known to have chemical weapons and had used them in this very area (a fact we seem to have forgotten now), we always had our masks near.
I then changed my MOS to 19D, Cavalry Scout, and got to train as a combat arms Soldier, as opposed to the combat service support Soldier I had been. I loved it, it was worlds apart from what I had been doing. We rarely trained NBC, because we assumed we would be so close to the enemy that they would not risk using chemicals. We trained in hand-to-hand and I carried a pistol. Our job was to sneak and peek. Find the enemy, recon his positions and report. Only fight if we fucked up and got caught. Most fun I've ever had and got paid to do it. But I never saw my kids so I had to make a choice and I left. Came into the Reserves as a combat support Soldier again and am back on active duty supporting the Reserves.
So along comes the next war, as is inevitable. The training we had been doing up to the start of the Iraq War wasn't wrong, it was just based on wrong assumptions. The combat arms Soldiers I've talked to haven't really complained about the training they had, they knew they would be mixing it up. It's the support Soldiers who really were not equipped to deal with random IED attacks and ambushes. Our Vietnam era flak vests seemed plenty good to us, based on what we expected to encounter. I really don't see any reason to get all pissed off over not having equipment to deal with a threat that no one saw coming and was dealt with as quickly as possible once it was identified. It's not reasonable to think we could forsee every possible problem before it came up every single time. If you could you would make a fortune in the stock market. Maybe we could get Warren Buffet to work plans and ops in the Pentagon.
Which brings us to SGT Riley. SGT Riley was a member of the 507th Maintence Company, the company that got lost and separated at the beginning of the war and was ambushed in Ramadi. PFC Jessica Lynch is the most famous member of this company. SGT Riley is now an instructor at the Warrior Training Center here at Aberdeen Proving Ground. He spoke on the first day about how things were in his unit prior to their being sent to Iraq, and the events leading up to the day of the ambush, the ambush and his captivity by the Iraqis.
Much of what he said was very familiar to anyone who has served in a support unit. There was no emphasis on combat tasks, weapons maintenance, commo training, etc... The focus was always on mission, in the case of the 507th it was keeping equipment up and running. Don't get me wrong, combat oriented training was conducted at times in all units including mine, but it was really "check the block" type training to get it over with so we could get to the real work of turning wrenches.
Consequently when the 507th found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time, they were not trained or equipped to deal with the situation they were in. Jammed weapons and no communications were a huge part of the problem. They fought hard and have nothing of which to be ashamed. Over the past five years the Army has changed quite a bit. We are now emphasising a Warrior Ethos, which never existed before.
And every Soldier knows that they can find themselves in a firefight at any time in Iraq. My very first convoy in Iraq in 2003 we were engaged by small arms fire that hit around our vehicles and popped the tire of the vehicle in front of mine. We couldn't identify the source and I'm proud of my Soldiers for not randomly spraying fire into civilian homes and risking killing innocent people. The point being that young Soldiers are having to make life or death decisions like that every day in Iraq.
The new training emphasis in the Army is to make every Soldier combat capable. Every Soldier is now trained in Combatives, urban combat, checkpoints including searching people and vehicles and dealing with enemy prisioners and detaining civilians.
So we, old Soldiers that we are, showed up here expecting the same old classroom instruction and multiple-choice tests of the past; and found ourselves facing a whole new ballgame. Anyone who complained was basically told "the Army has changed, change with it or get out." Rightly so, in my opinion.
I've already mentioned some of the training we did, I won't dwell on it. But I have some pictures and I'll post some of them up. And I have more to say about the Combatives training, but I'll save that for next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)