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11) The new body
armour: Thumbs up. Relatively light at approx. 6 lbs. and
can reliably be expected to soak up small shrapnel and even will stop an
AK-47 round. The bad news: Hot as shit to wear, almost unbearable in the
summer heat (which averages over 120 degrees). Also, the enemy now goes for
head shots whenever possible. All the bullshit about the "old" body armour
making our guys vulnerable to the IED's was a non-starter. The IED
explosions are enormous and body armour doesn't make any difference at all in
most cases.
12) Night Vision and Infrared Equipment: Thumbs way up. Spectacular
performance. Our guys see in the dark and own the night, period. Very little
enemy action after evening prayers. More and more enemy being whacked at
night during movement by our hunter-killer teams. We've all seen the videos.
13) Lights: Thumbs up. Most of the weapon mounted and personal lights are
Surefire's, and the troops love 'em. Invaluable for night urban operations.
Jordan carried a $34 Surefire G2 on a neck lanyard and loved it.
I cant help but notice that most of the good fighting weapons and ordnance
are 50 or more years old!!!!!!!!! With all our technology, it's the WWII and
Vietnam era weapons that everybody wants!!!! The infantry fighting is
frequent, up close and brutal. No quarter is given or shown.
Bad guy weapons:
1) Mostly AK47's . The entire country is an arsenal. Works better in the
desert than the M16 and the .308 Russian round kills reliably. PKM belt fed
light machine guns are also common and effective. Luckily, the enemy mostly
shoots like shit. Undisciplined "spray and pray" type fire. However, they
are seeing more and more precision weapons, especially sniper rifles.
(Iran, again) Fun fact: Captured enemy have apparently marvelled at the
marksmanship of our guys and how hard they fight. They are apparently told
in Jihad school that the Americans rely solely on technology, and can be
easily beaten in close quarters combat for their lack of toughness. Let's
just say they know better now.
2) The RPG: Probably the infantry weapon most feared by our guys. Simple,
reliable and as common as dogshit. The enemy responded to our up-armored humvees by aiming at the windshields, often at point blank range. Still
killing a lot of our guys.
3) The IED: The biggest killer of all. Can be anything from old Soviet anti-armor
mines to jury rigged artillery shells. A lot found in Jordan's area were in
abandoned cars. The enemy would take 2 or 3 155mm artillery shells and wire
them together. Most were detonated by cell phone, and the explosions are
enormous. You're not safe in any vehicle, even an M1 tank. Driving is by far
the most dangerous thing our guys do over there. Lately, they are much more
sophisticated "shape charges" (Iranian) specifically designed to penetrate
armor. Fact: Most of the ready made IED's are supplied by Iran, who is also
providing terrorists (Hezbollah types) to train the insurgents in their use
and tactics. That's why the attacks have been so deadly lately. Their
concealment methods are ingenious, the latest being shape charges in
Styrofoam containers spray painted to look like the cinderblocks that litter
all Iraqi roads. We find about 40% before they detonate, and the bomb
disposal guys are unsung heroes of this war.
4) Mortars and rockets: Very prevalent. The soviet era 122mm rockets
(with an 18km range) are becoming more prevalent. One of Jordan's NCO's lost
a leg to one. These weapons cause a lot of damage "inside the wire".
Jordan's base was hit almost daily his entire time there by mortar and
rocket fire, often at night to disrupt sleep patterns and cause fatigue (It
did). More of a psychological weapon than anything else. The enemy mortar
teams would jump out of vehicles, fire a few rounds, and then haul ass in a
matter of seconds.
5) Bad guy technology: Simple yet effective. Most communication is by cell
and satellite phones, and also by email on laptops. They use handheld GPS
units for navigation and "Google earth" for overhead views of our positions.
Their weapons are good, if not fancy, and prevalent. Their explosives and
bomb technology is TOP OF THE LINE. Night vision is rare. They are very
careless with their equipment and the captured GPS units and laptops are
treasure troves of Intel when captured.
Who are the bad guys?:
Most of the carnage is caused by the Zarqawi Al Qaeda group. They operate
mostly in Anbar province (Fallujah and Ramadi). These are mostly
"foreigners", non-Iraqi Sunni Arab Jihadists from all over the Muslim world
(and Europe). Most enter Iraq through Syria (with, of course, the knowledge
and complicity of the Syrian govt.) , and then travel down the "rat line"
which is the trail of towns along the Euphrates River that we've been
hitting hard for the last few months. Some are virtually untrained young
Jihadists that often end up as suicide bombers or in "sacrifice squads".
Most, however, are hard core terrorists from all the usual suspects (Al
Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas etc.) These are the guys running around murdering
civilians en masse and cutting heads off. The Chechens (many of whom are
Caucasian), are supposedly the most ruthless and the best fighters. (they
have been fighting the Russians for years). In the Baghdad area and south,
most of the insurgents are Iranian inspired
(and led) Iraqi Shiites. The Iranian Shiia have been very adept at
infiltrating the Iraqi local govt.'s, the police forces and the Army. The
have had a massive spy and agitator network there since the Iran-Iraq war in
the early 80's. Most of the Saddam loyalists were killed, captured or gave
up long ago.
Bad Guy Tactics:
When they are engaged on an infantry level they get their asses kicked every
time. Brave, but stupid. Suicidal Banzai-type charges were very common
earlier in the war and still occur. They will literally sacrifice 8-10 man
teams in suicide squads by sending them screaming and firing Ak's and RPG's
directly at our bases just to probe the defenses. They get mowed down like
grass every time. ( see the M2 and M240 above). Jordan's base was hit like
this often. When engaged, they have a tendency to flee to the same building,
probably for what they think will be a glorious last stand. Instead, we call
in air and that's the end of that more often than not. These hole-ups are
referred to as Alpha Whiskey Romeo's (Allah's Waiting Room). We have the
laser guided ground-air thing down to a science. The fast mover's, mostly
Marine F-18's, are taking an ever increasing toll on the enemy. When caught
out in the open, the helicopter gunships and AC-130 Spectre gunships cut
them to ribbons with cannon and rocket fire, especially at night.
Interestingly, artillery is hardly used at all. Fun fact: The enemy death
toll is supposedly between 45-50 thousand. That is why we're seeing less and
less infantry attacks and more IED, suicide bomber shit. The new strategy is
simple: attrition.
The insurgent tactic most frustrating is their use of civilian
non-combatants as cover. They know we do all we can to avoid civilian
casualties and therefore schools, hospitals and (especially) Mosques are
locations where they meet, stage for attacks, cache weapons and ammo and
flee to when engaged. They have absolutely no regard whatsoever for civilian
casualties. They will terrorize locals and murder without hesitation anyone
believed to be sympathetic to the Americans or the new Iraqi govt.
Kidnapping of family members
(especially children) is common to influence people they are trying to
influence but cant reach, such as local govt. officials, clerics, tribal
leaders, etc.).
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