Looking for Battle, Marines Find That Foes Have Fled

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/15/AR2005051500785.html

Hunt for Foreign Insurgents Proves Frustrating but Deadly

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 16, 2005; Page A10

ARABI, Iraq -- Cpl. Alexander Kalouf snapped an ammunition clip into his M-16 assault rifle and strapped grenades to his chest in the crowded hold of an armored vehicle, bursting into excited snatches of songs with other Marines as they headed into hoped-for battle.

Two seats away, Cpl. Jason Dominguez shouted as he led the fighters in prayer.

"This is your chance to rid the world of these evil bastards," he began, struggling to be heard over the rumble of the Amtrac armored vehicle's engine and the roar of the exhaust.

"We ask the Lord God to help us and Jesus to protect us," Dominguez, in black sunglasses, camouflage and body armor, yelled hoarsely as huddled Marines clenched their hands and bowed their heads over the muzzles of their rifles.

[bemildred]

1. I couldn't bring myself to post this tripe. nt

[kliljedahl]

2. "Lord God to help us and Jesus to protect us"

They were too busy determining the winner of the NASCAR race, sorry guys.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[atreides1]

3. Different Century

Same Crusader mentality. The more things change the more they stay the same!!!!

[Massachusetts]

4. Alls Fair in Love and WAR!

"I'd much rather foreign fighters come out and shoot at us. We can respond to that," Kalouf said, as the Americans got ready to head back across the Euphrates. "We can't stand all their IEDs and mines, crap like that. Because we can't do that.''

BRING OUR TROOPS HOME! WTF IS THIS GOVERNMENT DOING WITH OUR TROOPS AND GOOD WILL!

[NNN0LHI]

6. You would think our military...

...would teach our soldiers a little bit about the intricacies of guerrilla warfare. Especially when they are sending them off to fight a guerrilla war.

Don

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

17. Typical conservative whining

They always forget: The enemy gets a vote.

[okieinpain]

21. I've never understood the difference from dropping a 500 pound

bomb from 10000 feet to planting a bomb on the side of the road and detonating it from a distance.

how is one different from the other.

[daleo]

25. Sounds like Viet Nam

I think it was the book "If I die in a Combat Zone" by Tim O'Brien that really drove home the point of how many casualties were due to mines and booby traps, and how demoralizing that was.

[warrens]

5. Fucking assholes

Help me kill better, Jesus.

A couple of years from now, we'll be reading about Dominguez, blinded or missing an arm, saying, I was such an asshole.

[Teaser]

8. C'mon man. Be real.

I'd be praying my ass off too.

[psychopomp]

13. "No athiests in foxholes"

You're totally off-base on this one, warrens...people going into certain life-or-death fights almost always carry charms, call on dieties, get protection from a shaman or invoke whatever their culture dictates has control or influence over the things beyond human control.

I see this as typical mental preparation for battle and also possibly spiritual preparation for death.

[Paulie]

14. There are Atheists EVERYWHERE

even in foxholes.... http://www.ffrf.org/foxholes/

[okieinpain]

23. no shit, because a bullet doesn't care. friend or foe, christian or

muslim, your ass is grass if one finds ya.

[oneighty]

33. I know first hand that is not true

180

[Daphne08]

22. Yep. Those of us who are old enough know

what's going to happen when they return.

---

"War!

What is it good for?

Absolutely Nothing!

War!

What is it good for?

Absolutely Nothing!


War is something that I despise

For it means destruction of innocent lives.

For it means tears in thousands of mother's eyes.

When their sons go out to fight to give their lives.'

-

War!

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing.

Say it again.

War!

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing.

Say it again.


It's nothing but a heartbreaker

Friend only to the undertaker.

War is the enemy of all mankind

The thought of war blows my mind.

Handed down from generation to generation.

Induction destruction

Who wants to die!

-

War!

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing

Say it again.

War!

What is it good for?

-

War has shattered many young man's dreams

Made them disabled, bitter and mean.

Life is too precious to be fighting wars each day

War can't give life, it can only take it away.

-

It's nothing but a heartbreaker.

Friend only to the undertaker.

There must be some place for these things today.

They say we must fight to keep our freedom,

But Lord there's gotta be a better way.

Better than war.

War!

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing!"

"WAR"

(written by Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield)
sung by Edwin Starr

[MisterP]

35. well, at least he's not saying that they're fighting Satan

though he's implying that they're his minions
:crazy:

[catnhatnh]

7. Bowed their heads over the muzzles of the rifles...

...they had just loaded-WHILE riding in a tracked vehicle down a primitive road.Either the writer has seen WAY to many John Wayne movies or these guys are suicidal as well as homicidal...Wanna bet we're seeing a little literary license here???

[Bigmack]

11. Missed that...

... An accidental discharge would never stop bouncing around inside that coffin.

[DS1]

29. Actually, they're supposed to ride with the muzzles facing down

not so much for accidental discharge, it's much softer to get whacked in the jaw by the large rubber end of the buttstock than the pointy muzzle.

And that would be a lot of screaming, the insides of Amtracs don't exactly make for normal conversation.

[Bigmack]

9. Having done some time ....

... in the shit, I have to say the Marines I served with didn't do much praying heading into an op. Maybe privately, but never like the guys in this piece.

I'd be curious if anybody else in DU has personal experience with prayer in actual combat units.

Sounds like it might be some kind of PR piece by the Marines to show the folks back home that their kids are just good boys fighting evil, rather than "underpaid, oversexed, hired teenage killers". (Self description in my outfit.)

Sounds a lot like Vietnam. The other side hits and then boogies out of there.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

18. The culture has changed a lot, hasn't it?

Religion has become much less private. What you weren't in Vietnam was a bunch of HYPOCRITICAL SANCTIMONIOUS underpaid oversexed hired teenage killers.

[Teaser]

10. Wait...don't guerrillas usually "melt away"

in the face of superior firepower.


This couldn't be a guerrilla war, could it?

[Roland99]

12. "Praise Jesus and Pass the Ammo!"

[gratuitous]

15. Gee, they don't want to attack the American wehrmacht head on?

What's the matter with those darned insurgents? Don't they know that we greatly prefer to chop them up in a frontal engagement with superior firepower? Why don't they accommodate our strengths and preferences? They're just a bunch of dirty rats, only fit for extermination at the hands of our Jesus-loving warriors!

[antigone382]

16. More from article--really tragic.

Since May 8, when Operation Matador's scheduled start was accelerated by an unexpected but fierce clash at the riverside town of Ubaydi, the Marines had found no one to fight. But the insurgents left proxies to do the killing for them: meticulously rigged roadside bombs and mines, planted on dirt roads where wheels or tank treads would pass, or along bridges.

(snip)

On Wednesday, two artillery rounds buried in the road detonated under an Amtrac, blowing a two-foot-wide hole in its armor plating. The explosion set off ammunition inside the vehicle, creating an inferno.

As the Amtrac burned, a 24-year-old Marine in a nearby vehicle grabbed his helmet in both fists and wrenched it. "I hate this country!" he screamed.

Helicopters had just flown out more than a dozen victims from the Amtrac, two of whom would die of their wounds. Four others already lay dead inside the burning hulk. The young Marine slammed his gun mount, sending the machine gun spinning, and knocked over piles of rations and ammunition boxes in the back of his truck, striking out at nothing in frustration.

[Boomer]

19. So much for superior American military technology

Reminds me of the tales of American revolutionaries out-smarting the British by refusing to fight in traditional ways.

Too bad we can't remember our own history.

[tabasco]

28. General Washington was a brilliant insurgent commander.

Since Washington's time, military students have studied his insurgency tactics and strategies, including General Giap of the NVA.

[aneerkoinos]

20. Major defeat for US

Achieved nothing, "thousend cuts" gave attrition away 15% (my estimate) of their manpower in just a week plus tanks and APC's, supply lines dangered or cut, bombed some villaged but were unable (affraid to) enter all of them because of resistance, had to run home.

>>>"I hate this country!" he screamed.<<<

Indeed. "Victorious" operation means a bunch of very very very frustrated and demoralized Marines - the ones that survived.

[opihimoimoi]

27. "I Hate this country??" Ed Zachery what the Iraqi fighters want to hear...

Sad that Bush does not engage in CHESS...

He cannot think AHEAD>>>>>>>>>>? Whot a Dufus he is....should make every Merican Proud he does....yeah right.

[Bigmack]

24. Which country? nt

nt

[Media_Lies_Daily]

26. You could transport those troops back to the age of the crusades...

...and they would be right at home. Exchange the modern combat gear for horses, pinions, armor, lances, and swords and the tramsformation would be complete.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

30. This proves the old adage;

'there are no atheists in foxholes (or Amtracs)'

[onager]

31. Old BS adage, actually.

I was an atheist in the Marines for 6 years, and I knew quite a few others.

While I was never in combat, I did do a tour as a Drill Instructor, where all sorts of weird things happened. I had practice hand grenades dropped on my foot (the grenades with a small powder charge inside, not the steel duds). I was hit by stray bullets on the rifle range (everyone was). We had suicide attempts, especially during the first 3 weeks of boot camp. Bizarre emergency medical occurrences were fairly common, and required CPR. At Camp Pendleton, a non-map-reading Captain almost walked us right into the impact zone of an artillery unit while they were firing live 105-mm ammo.

In none of those cases did it occur to me to stop and ask the guidance of any Invisible Sky Being. I was too busy trying to fix the immediate screwup.

[jpak]

32. We have lost the war

n/t

[xchrom]

34. quick, bomb the country to shit!

oh wait....