US soldiers shy from battle in Iraq

[Ilsa]

US soldiers shy from battle in Iraq
By Dahr Jamail

WATERTOWN, New York - Iraq war veterans now stationed at a base here in upstate New York say that morale among US soldiers in the country is so poor, many are simply parking their Humvees and pretending to be on patrol, a practice dubbed "search and avoid" missions.

Phil Aliff is an active duty soldier with the 10th Mountain Division stationed at Fort Drum. He served nearly one year in Iraq from August 2005 to July 2006, in the areas of Abu Ghraib and Fallujah, both west of Baghdad.

"Morale was incredibly low," said Aliff, adding that he joined the military because he was raised in a poor family by a single mother and had few other prospects. "Most men in my platoon in Iraq were just in from combat tours in Afghanistan."

snip

Aliff said he participated in roughly 300 patrols. "We were hit by so many roadside bombs we became incredibly demoralized, so we decided the only way we wouldn't be blown up was to avoid driving around all the time."

"So we would go find an open field and park, and call our base every hour to tell them we were searching for weapons caches in the fields and doing weapons patrols and everything was going fine," he said, adding, "All our enlisted people became very disenchanted with our chain of command."

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IJ26Ak07.html

[BlueManDude]

1. John Kerry's "last man to die" statement comes to mind

If I were there my only mission would be to get home physically and mentally healthy. Can't blame 'em.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Inter Press Service is a dodgy source. Asia Times? What's that? nt

[Ilsa]

3. Oh. Thanks for the heads-up. Glad I didn't post in LBN. nt

[Captain Hilts]

4. I tried to get more information on a story they wrote - can't remember ...

what it was about - but they don't really have the regular contacts lists, etc. that most news services have.

It might be legitimate, but it's not quite a regular news service.

[Ilsa]

9. My husband said he read it on another site, like Yahoo or CNN.

I'm thinking with the guys name out there and his membership in the vets anti-war org, it is likely to be a real story.

[happyslug]

5. Veitnam redux.

http://www.isreview.org/issues/09/soldiers_revolt.shtml

"The form this peace from below took came to be called "search and avoid," or "search and evade." It became so extensive that "search and evade (meaning tacit avoidance of combat by units in the field) is now virtually a principle of war, vividly expressed by the GI phrase, 'CYA' (cover your ass) and get home!" It was not just a replay of early combat avoidance, of individual units hiding from the war--it was more open, more political, and more clearly focused as a strategy to bring peace.76

In search and avoid, patrols sent out into the field deliberately eluded potential clashes with the NLF. Night patrols, the most dangerous, would halt and take up positions a few yards beyond the defense perimeter, where the NLF would never come. By skirting potential conflicts, they hoped to make it clear to the NLF that their unit had established its own peace treaty.

Another frequent search-and-avoid tactic was to leave base camp, secure a safe area in the jungle and set up a perimeter-defense system in which to hole up for the time allotted for the mission. "Some units even took enemy weapons with them when they went out on such search-and-avoid missions so that upon return they could report a firefight and demonstrate evidence of enemy casualties for the body-count figures required by higher headquarters."

[dkofos]

6. So, that is how the surge is working.

[Ilsa]

8. And a good reason for the body count to fall. nt

[Breeze54]

7. Sounds more like "search and survive"!!

Can't say I blame them one bit!!

"The only way we wouldn't be blown up was to avoid driving around all the time."

:cry: