A drastic misallocation of surge troops in Iraq...

Alright, well let me start off by saying that I try my best to stay positive about what I'm doing here in Iraq, and I generally wish to portray a positive attitude about my job. But like anything else in life, sometimes you need to just let a little steam off and get some things off your chest. This is the post that I will do just that. Consider this my rant so I no longer bottle these feelings up inside causing me to turn in to some horrible bitter man. :)

We ended up leaving the outpost the other day and headed out on a day of patroling. Origionally I was to be a part of the crew to go back to the FOB and have the day off, but they did things a little different this time. No worries, because this again allows for me to get 5 days off in a row. Not a bad trade off. Well come to find out, the first thing in the morning we have a company mission. Great... come off an outpost rotation with no shower, limited a/c (when the generator is running, which durring the hottest time of day its usually not) and no satisfying and tasteful meals, and then go in to a mission that usually involves lots of time in the heat, clearing some neighborhood or business sector.

Before we went to do so we, of course, had to ensure the markets were safe that morning so we did our rounds. Yup, nothing happening. We were to stop and get some chow at this nearby base real quick, but we were behind schedule and so we had to scrap that. Damn, I was really looking forward to a complete meal that morning. Well, once back we began our movement with the other platoon and other units for our mission. This time, it was to be a whole NEW type of mission....

We rolled up to some Ministry of something building and our first task was to get inside and to make sure it was clear. Kind of hard to do like how we usually operate considering there are armed guards and tons of people coming in and out. We had some engineers and a military bomb detecting dog and they did their work along with our searching to make sure there were no bombs inside. So your probably wondering why... well, the mission we were here for, get this, was to protect a mass marriage ceremony of 200 couples because there were supposed threats of attacks and car bombs. Yes, the 82nd Airborne, first boots on the ground as a part of President Bush's new Iraq surge plan, was now officially providing security services so people could get married.

This is the part that blows my mind. My company, plus parts of a few other units, were tasked out to provide security, in what some would call one of the most dangerous cities in the world, to a group of people wishing to get married. Now I understand that the point of the surge is to improve the overall security in areas of Baghdad and the rest of Iraq, but I feel this has gone too far. General security situation, ok, but to risk my life and the lives of other soldiers so people can get married; I truely can't believe it. Not only is it shocking to myself, but also to everyone else in my platoon. There is not a single person that feels this was an appropriate mission for us to be doing. See thats the thing around here lately. What we have been doing is having no real purpose and just risking lives, with nothing in my opinion to show for it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a full supporter of the troop surge and I feel we need to stay in Iraq still until the ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) can handle things on their own, but right now we are not doing a job the US Military should be doing.

The Iraqi President claimed his ISF were ready to take control. I can tell you they are not, at least when it comes to total control of Iraq, but in area like the one we're operating in, and the types of missions we are doing, they are more than capable of doing that. We should hand over those types of areas to them, let them gain experience and confidence in those areas while their numbers continue to rise, and put the US Military to more use in areas where they are needed, doing missions with more impact on the greater issues of the security problems.

So with that said, for this protection service for the weddings, we cleared the building and then moved outside to check the surrounding area for bombs and whatnot. Everything was clear and we took up positions in and around the building to "protect" it. I ended up outside, and it was starting to get hot out. Not to mention I didn't have my knee pads and so taking a knee was quite uncomfortable. While we were inside initially, there was word that they were talking to the officials there and no one seemed to know anything of any weddings taking place there. WOW! Are you serious?!? Still, we continued to "protect" the place while higher was contacted. Durring that time, a group of Blackwater guys showed up as a part of some Iraqi officials PSD (Personal Security Detail). Now to work for Blackwater USA, you have to have some Special Forces backround, so there was the equivelant of a Special Forces A-Team there, which I'm pretty sure they could of more than handled the security situation and didn't need a couple platoons of paratroopers there. Once they learned how many of us there were they realized their job became useless and they sat inside their trucks (with a/c) and cracked open cold American Pepsis. Bastards! :)

So after, oh, 2 hours of being outside pulling security, word comes down that the weddings were not going to be taking place at the location we were at and worked so hard to secure. In fact they were at some other highly secured area, outside of our sector. OMG, this was the final straw for many of us. So now, not only did we come out here to accomplish a mission that was way beyond what we should have done, but it apparently was doomed from the get go and we had no clue. WOW! That is all I can think to say. WOW!

The rest of the day was spent doing routine patrol stuff. At night just before we were scheduled to come back in, we had some possible raid to go on, but things fell through and that didn't end up happening. We rolled back in, just a little later than usual, and finally got our much needed meals and showers!

This day has really shown me a problem that exists here right now. I dont know where or how this is happening, but there is a severe disconnect between the generals making decisions on what to do with us and the surge troops, and what is actually happening here on the ground. I wish I knew where it was going sour, but it makes me think of the old telephone game you play as a kid, where one message is started and usually by the end there is a totally differnt message. I think what is happening is somewhere between what I see and experience and what GEN Petreaus (the theater commander) is seeing, someone along the way is filtering the information and presenting a pretty picture of whats going on. Things look good, so lets keep doing them, seems to be the thinking right now, but things aren't good everywhere. Yes in most places they are pretty good, but many places they are not. Lets focus there and clean this place up.

So on a lighter note, today was a really good day for myself. 2 months ago I attended my promotion board to possibly get my Sergeant. This was something I had been waiting on for a while. I was promoted from SPC (pay grade E-4) to CPL (E-4) to attend Jumpmaster school just prior to our deployment. As a Corporal, I am a Non-Commisioned Officer with all the responsibilites and authority inherent to my rank, but I still got paid the same as a Specalist E-4. I was a team leader and so a promotion to Sergeant (E-5) was mearly a matter of more pay, considering there were no more responsibilies and authority I would receive with it. Somehow, I got placed on the back burner for a little longer than I should of. In the end, I still made the jump quicker than the usual 1 year as an E-4 that most people have to do before they make SGT, but I kind of expected it sooner. Well anyways, today the orders came down and I went to the batallion conference room and with the Batallion Commander and Sergeant Major present along with all the staff officers, NCOs and company commands, I was finally pinned my SGT rank. No more CPL Watson. It's now SGT Watson! Oh and I also received my 5th Anthrax shot. The shot is now mandatory and people that had managed to avoid it in the past now have some catching up to do with those of us that didn't care and began the innoculation a while ago. My arm still kind of hurts now, hours later.